You can accelerate by changing direction, even though you don't speed up/down. Remember that acceleration is a vector so, it has a direction and a magnitude. That's why this works! Hope it helps.
Answer:
The cart mark (a) has the most potential energy and the cart marked (b) has the most kinetic energy
Elastic potential energy = 1/2 k * change of x^2
k- coefficient
x - change in length.
to increase energy 1.5 times you have to change x (compress) into

times (it's abot 1.22 or 22%)