Credit: Provided

After countless hours designing, machining, refining and testing, the Cornell 100+ MPG team has finally found time for another crucial component of car building: making it look nice.

The car, which is entered in the Progressive Automotive X Prize Competition, spent last weekend at the Morrisville State College Auto Body School, where students and instructors volunteered to help the team get the car primed and painted. The exterior design, which includes bold red and white stripes and dark lining on the seams, is the creation of third-year architecture student Nicolas Martin. It is still awaiting decals and a front grille.

The team is competing for a share of a $10 million prize for cars that get 100 miles to the gallon or equivalent. They will appear with the car at Michigan International Speedway for a "shakedown stage" the first week of May, a dry run after which they will be allowed to make technical adjustments. The first round of judged events will take place June 20-28.

The car has 135 miles on its odometer, according to team co-leader David Zlotnick '11, which are mostly from cruising around downtown and on campus.