The Chevy Camaro is far from a paragon of environmentalism and efficiency, especially when it wears that wicked “SS” badge. Yet let’s give credit where credit is due; GM engineers have given the V6 Camaro the ability to go as far as 28 miles on a single gallon of gas. Not bad for a nearly 4,000 pound slab of American muscle car. There’s a lot of room for improvement however, and GM is giving 16 college teams a chance to make these Camaros as efficient as a Prius, without looking like one.

For the next four years, these 16 college teams will compete on a limited budget to design, build, and demonstrate a Camaro that has reduce its environmental impact while remaining appealing to consumers in terms of styling and performance. Talk about a tall order…

The EcoCar2 Challenge that recently wrapped up was won by Penn State, whose team converted a donated Chevy Malibu into an E85-powered plug-in hybrid. A Chevy Volt on a steady diet of corn-based fuel, if you will. The teams of the EcoCar3 Challenge get much-cooler Camaros to work with, though performance expectations mean they’ll have to get creative if they want this car to be green and mean.

A plug-in hybrid design might be the way to go, as a small gasoline engine hooked to some big electric motors could give the Camaro a lot of instant torque to play with. Aerodynamic improvements could also improve the aesthetics, and an air-ride suspension could lower the Camaro at highway speeds to even further reduce drag.

It’ll be interesting to see what these aspiring engineers come up with when given an American legend, instead of a rental car, to work with.