Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 6, 1993 TAG: 9312060020
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And now that students at Glenvar High School and the Arnold R. Burton Technology Center have found a car, they're ready to jump right in.
Students at both schools are taking part in the first Mid-Atlantic High School Electric Challenge - a contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and regional power companies that involves building and racing an electric car.
They've already cleared their first hurdle - finding a car on which to work.
After searching for several weeks, the students located a 1989 Chevrolet Geo Spectrum in Bluefield, W.Va., which they bought and had delivered to Burton for $500 last week. As soon as they get their hands on a motor - General Electric has offered to sell them one for $800 - they'll begin converting the car into a lean, mean racing machine.
For families.
After all, said Glenvar student Chad Pack, the point of the project is to learn how to conserve energy through new technologies. The race is just to make it fun.
"Everybody's going to focus on the race," he said. "We'll focus on what the real goal is, I guess."
So they'll still race the car, but they'll design it to be an efficient, family vehicle, too.
In April, the students hope to drive the finished product to Richmond, where a professional NASCAR driver will race it against 19 other cars built by students from five other states.
That is if they can find a driver.
Lynn Carroll, a welding teacher at Burton, might be able to help. He also happens to be chief steward at the New River Valley Speedway in Pulaski and a NASCAR technical inspector. The students are counting on him to produce the professional.
"I think I can round somebody up for 'em," he said. "I don't have any idea who just yet."
The winning car will go on to race in the mother of electric car races in Phoenix - the Arizona Public Service Solar and Electric 500.
It was that race that inspired the Mid-Atlantic contest, said Gloria Quinn, a spokeswoman for Edison Electric Institute, which is organizing the event.
"To be honest, we stole this great idea from Arizona Public Service," she said.
The contest's goal is to promote electric cars as a means of conserving energy, Apco spokesman Don Johnson said. In the process, it teaches students practical job skills and helps them to apply things they learn in science, math and technology.
It's a project with which the whole school will get involved, said Mike Beamer, Glenvar's technology education teacher.
Engineering students will design the car. Marketing students will promote the project and help raise money, perhaps by selling ads to be displayed on the sides of the car. The Burton students will do much of the building.
Even the cheerleaders are involved. Beamer said they are learning the "electric slide" to help the team dance its way to victory in April.
All of the students hope to make the trip to the Richmond International Raceway in the spring, Beamer said. That means they've got a lot of money to raise.
Apco donated the $4,000 entry fee for the race and $1,500 to get the project started. Edison Electric, a trade association and lobbying group for electric utilities, kicked in with the Department of Energy for the prize money. Cash prizes to the schools - for the best oral presentation, fastest and most efficient car - range up to $2,000.
Locally, the Roanoke Area Tech Prep Consortium is paying for photocopies and other supplies and helping to train faculty members, Director Ben Helmandollar said.
But the rest is up to the kids.
"Hopefully, this group will raise all the money they need and more," he said.
The students have no idea how much that will be, but preliminary estimates reach $40,000. They're in the process of making a budget and setting up a fund-raising committee, Beamer said.
They've already sold the idea to the School Board, which agreed to excuse them from some of their regular classes to work on the car because of its instructional value.
The project requires a lot of research, said engineering student Doug Hubert. He and some other students researched electric cars in the library, then sent letters to companies that build them - including a few in Germany - to find out how they work.
Electric cars - which are expensive to build - are less expensive to operate than gasoline-powered vehicles, Hubert found.
"It should be cheaper in the long run," he said.
Pack has discovered there's much more to be learned about this emerging technology.
"This will provide more information for further study," he said.
by CNB