Mechanical engineering students at UC Davis want you to take a test drive in the most successful hybrid vehicle ever designed by college students. Some California legislators will also be present for the event, which will take place at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10, on the west steps of the State Capitol. The student design project took top honors recently at an international contest held in Detroit, Mich. Equipped with both an electric motor and gasoline engine, the vehicle outperformed cars from 42 other schools. The UC Davis entry "AfterShock" met and exceeded the emissions standards set by the California Air Resources Board. In fact the vehicle's range and acceleration rates are the best in the country, according to contest co-sponsors -- Saturn, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and Canada's national energy department, National Resources. The vehicle can run nearly 1,000 miles before refueling or recharging and has achieved more than 80 miles per gallon at highway speeds, according to Andy Frank, professor of mechanical engineering and faculty adviser to the student project. Frank is convinced that the hybrid design is the way to proceed for the immediate future because, he says, battery technology does not yet produce enough energy or power to make electric cars practical for most California drivers.