Thirteen high school students spent months building a solar-powered car in a Palo Alto driveway, often working past midnight. On Monday, July 13, they loaded it onto a trailer and headed for Texas.

The Palo Alto Solar Car and Racing team, known as PASCAR, will compete in the 2026 Solar Car Challenge, a 650-mile cross-Texas race from Fort Worth to Fort Stockton beginning Sunday, July 19. Teams from around the country are expected to compete in the event, which is organized by the Solar Car Challenge Foundation and hosted by Oncor and Lockheed Martin.

The team's car, La Vitesse (French for "speed"), was designed, engineered, and constructed by the students. According to the team's website, it can reach 60 mph with a range of 350 miles.

A second chance after 2024

All three of PASCAR's captains are returning from the team's 2024 attempt, when their car failed safety inspections after a wheel broke during testing. That experience drove the team's preparation this time around.

"We're just a lot more ahead of where we were previously," said captain Diana Senderzon, a Palo Alto High graduate headed to Cornell University to study mechanical engineering.

Senderzon noted this is the first time in PASCAR's history that the car's brakes were tested before being shipped to Texas.

The other two captains are Anish Mathan, a rising senior at Gunn High School, and Divya Murali, a 2026 graduate who will attend UC Merced to study mechanical engineering.

Built in a family garage

The team assembled La Vitesse in the garage and driveway of advisor Mathan Jegatheesan, a Palo Alto parent whose two children are on the team, including captain Anish Mathan. In the days before departure, students drove the car more than 70 miles in testing, including on hills in Los Altos Hills.

"When these kids joined, the car did not move, and now the car moves, so there is a lot of enthusiasm," Jegatheesan told Palo Alto Online. "Now I'm thinking, we're not just going there to participate — we're going to go there to be in a place to complete 600 miles in five days."

Mark Belluscio, a Waymo employee from San Jose who volunteers as an advisor, said the students can now troubleshoot mechanical problems they couldn't handle in March.

What's ahead

PASCAR must first pass scrutineering, the race's safety inspections, held Wednesday, July 16, through Friday, July 18, at Texas Motor Speedway. The rest of the travel team was set to arrive in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Wednesday, July 15.

The race itself runs five days: Fort Worth to Palestine, then on to Round Rock, Fredericksburg, San Angelo, and finally Fort Stockton. The team that accumulates the most miles over those five days wins. An awards banquet is scheduled for Thursday, July 23, at the Fort Stockton Convention Center.

Mathan, the rising senior, has one more year on the team. He said this year's car was built on top of its 2024 predecessor, which limited the parts they could use. Next time, he plans to start fresh with lighter materials.