Behind the Scenes with Mater Dei’s Supermileage Team [VIDEO]

In the corner of a warehouse off the beaten path of Lynch Road, a group of students from Mater Dei High School are hard at work engineering and building cars that could someday revolutionize fuel efficiency in the vehicles you and I drive around town.

The Mater Dei Supermileage Team began a few years after I graduated from there some...well, it's not important how many years ago. Over that time, the team, comprised entirely of students and a couple adult supervisors/advisers have created cars capable of achieving incredible fuel efficiency. I don't mean 50 or 60 miles to the gallon either. We're talking hundreds, even thousands of miles for every one gallon of gasoline in the tank.

And they're not just doing it, they are some of the best in the WORLD at doing it, having several of their concept cars either outright win, or place in the top five of the annual Eco-Marathon hosted by Shell Oil Company each year.

This year's team was nice enough to let me crash their space to see and learn more about how they're putting together vehicles capable of achieving nearly 2,500 miles per gallon.

Be sure to follow the team's work through their Facebook page as well as their official website.