Ingenious: A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race to Revive America
Fagone, author and journalist, tells the true story of the race to capture the Automotive X Prize, the $10 million offering by a California foundation to anyone who could make a safe, practical, 100-mile-per-gallon car. The only standard for winning was the quality of the machine, and all contestants were welcome, big companies and entrepreneurs alike. Fagone zeroed in on four teams, ordinary people striving to be extraordinary. We follow the teams with Fagone, including the winning entry, the Very Light Car built by the Virginia-based team Edison2. The author tells the remarkable stories of the contestants as they sought the prize money during the recent economic downturn and in the process transformed their lives with their creativity, courage, and determination. This is an entertaining book that offers insight and inspiration for a wide range of library patrons who could be thinking about inventing something that matters. --Mary Whaley