Recently, Automotive Technology students have experienced the excitement of hearing eight cylinders of raw power rumbling through the shop as we resurrected the old Chevrolet engine and implanted it into our BMW project race car.

 

   There is still a lot of work to be done, however.  As we find a way to fine-tune the powertrain to propel our Bavarian rocket for 24 hours, we come upon challenges and questions like "where do we put the accelerator pedal?", and "How do we make it turn?"  Well, I can tell you, it's not easy.  This project has not only taught students some fundamentals of automotive service and repair, but it has also brought them together as a team and forced them to think outside the box from time to time and really hone their problem-solving skills.  We have been working closely with the Modern Machining Technology and Welding Technology classes to put our heads together and work out some engineering details.

 

   The goal for the project is to race the car in July of 2017.  As we look at the calendar, it seems a long way off.  Each time we fit a new piece on the car and make progress on getting it all together, it becomes more and more clear that the date is growing closer and closer.  There is wonderful warm, fuzzy feeling seeing a student's face light up when we make a step closer to our goal.