var uslide_show_id = “70b3058f-4bf4-4398-abad-3c5683e2223e”;var slideshowwidth = “468”;var linktext = “”;On first glance, it doesn’t look like anything special.

The building is roughly the size of a shed, tucked inconspicuously behind the Solar House off Gorman Street. It’s not particularly flashy or interesting. Most visitors to the area, in fact, tend to simply pass it by.

But for this tiny one-car garage — the home base of Insight Racing, it’s what’s inside that counts.

Every week, this space is transformed as the team hums around a tiny, bright blue sports car. The vehicle has been transformed with a freakish array of sensors, electronics and other random equipment. The team hovers like a swarm of bees over the car — all collaborating, in this case, over the electrical system of the car to make the car better, and consequently, smarter.

Underneath it all though, is the readily identifiable shape of a Lotus Elise.

It’s called the Lone Wolf, and it’s N.C. State’s bid to win the Urban Challenge.

The team, made up of engineers who are either students in engineering or graduates of the University, is one of 35 semifinalists who will compete nationally in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s autonomous vehicle competition. DARPA is a branch of the Department of Defense.

Grayson Randall founded Insight Racing, which has roughly 50 members, for the sole purpose of organizing students and other team members for competition in the DARPA Challenge.

Insight Racing began work on the first DARPA Challenge with no corporate sponsorship, but through a 12th-place finish in one of the two previous races, they are now supported by corporate sponsors including Lotus, who donated the Elise. Lotus has also taken a hands-on approach to the project and has helped the team with development, fabrication and research.

“Corporate sponsorship has helped, but making the car operate in a city environment has made the project much more involved than previous projects,” Randall said.

The challenge is basically a car race, but not in the stereotypical, 200-mph sense. And although every car is driverless, these vehicles are more than just remote-controlled cars.

Designers tell the cars to go from point A to point B. Then the car decides the quickest and safest path to its destination.

Investment in the Elise is roughly three to four times that of the team’s previous projects, and Randall said it will have the ability to sense road lines, stop signs, traffic lights and even other cars. The car will also have the ability to avoid unforeseen obstacles DARPA officials place on the 60-mile course. In addition, the Elise will be able to backtrack and find another route if the original turns out to be impassable or blocked off.

This year’s challenge will be held at a decommissioned air field in the California desert. DARPA has set up a mock urban environment for this year’s teams to compete on. The race will consist of a series of “missions” that include navigating to check points and even parking.

And that’s where the Lotus could really shine.

The Lotus Elise is 12.4 feet long — that’s 3.35 inches shorter than a Toyota Camry and almost 6 feet shorter than a Chevy Suburban. The Elise also has a wheelbase about a foot-and-a-half shorter than the Camry and 3.28 feet shorter than a Suburban. That smaller wheelbase gives the Lotus a turning radius of 32.8 feet. A Camry, on the other hand, has a turning radius of 36.1 feet, while a Suburban requires most of the parking lot with a turning radius of 43.7 feet.

The course will also include stop signs, traffic lights and everything else found on public city streets in the country. All cars participating in the event must be completely street legal by California standards.

Before each mission, each team is handed what is essentially a flash drive, which contains the mission destination and objectives. Once that is loaded into the car’s computer, it must decide how to get there and back.

Time is of the essence in this race — the team that completes its “missions” first, within the six-hour time limit, will win the race and the $2 million grand prize. To help even out the field, all cars are limited to a maximum speed of 30 mph while competing in the race. This is also enforced for safety issues in case a car gets out of control.

All cars are also equipped with kill switches that can be activated by DARPA staff members, who follow every car on the course.

The team began working on the project last summer with software development and have been testing and researching ever since. The team also does weekly testing at a private facility in Kinston. According to the team, the car is basically ready for the race in November, but they are constantly working to expose new problems before race day.

Randall said cooling has been one of the biggest problems so far.

“It is such a big challenge of the desert conditions of the race location and all of the extra electrical equipment that is in the engine bay of the car,” Randall said.

After a lot of trial and error with equipment location and cooling method, the team fixed this snag by adding a new evaporator.

Randall said space for the equipment, however, wasn’t really an issue for the team.

“Actually, we worked out all of the space issues when we planned the car, and it hasn’t been a problem,” Randall said.

Walt Sliva, who is in charge of organizing the team, brought up another real problem.

“It was a real challenge to create a time frame that worked for everybody since everyone has different schedules and jobs,” Sliva said.

Once the actual race starts however, the team cannot touch or alter the car to any extent. Grayson’s son and fellow team member Mike said all the team can actually do is “sit inside of a tent and wait for the race to end.”

“Occasionally we can catch a glimpse of the car, but the only way that will happen is if we see it on TV from a news station or spectator,” Mike said. “Last year we did get an electronic map, and our car was represented by a little dot that would jump around the map, but that’s all we get.”

The race is scheduled for Nov. 3, but each team that wishes to compete must participate in a national qualifying event. This event ensures that the cars pass all inspections, don’t have an unfair advantage and can operate safely.

The car and the team have also gained worldwide recognition for their efforts.

“We are even getting recognized in places like Korea and Russia, and consequently I receive junk mail in various foreign languages,” said Grayson’s wife Mary Ellen, who is in charge of handling the media and press for the team.

According to Randall, if the team does well in November, the gains for the school will be huge, especially for the College of Engineering. He said if the team wins any money from the race, profits will “go into the team for future projects.”