In September, all they had to work with was a target date on the calendar — April 27.

But in the last eight months, a team of University of Victoria students have managed to conceive, design and build a race car that will hit the track in competition next week.

The group of 40 students made up of mechanical, electrical, computer and software engineers and colleagues from UVic’s business programs have completed a car that will take on teams from 35 schools starting Wednesday at [Dartmouth's] annual Formula Hybrid competition in New Hampshire.

University of Victoria engineering students proudly display the hybrid race car they've designed and built over the last eight months. They are taking the vehicle to New Hampshire Motor Speedway to compete next week. Photo by BRUCE STOTESBURY, Times Colonist.

“The goal is to create a hybrid race car that is as efficient as possible while being as high-performance as possible,” said Ted Alley, a third-year mechanical engineering student and co-lead of the build team.

And doing so in eight months means at this point the car has not been fully tested.

“Building a hybrid race car in eight months is really something that people just don’t do,” said Alley. “In September, we literally had nothing. Now we have a car. It’s really coming down to the last minute.”

While 40 students had hands in the creation of the car — including raising the necessary funds, sponsorships and in-kind help to build it — only nine will travel to the competition, founded by the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. The competition is a design and engineering challenge for undergraduate and graduate university students to build a formula-style electric or plug-in hybrid race car and compete in a series of events. It takes place each spring at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.