THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603240061
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ANNE SAITA
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
More times than I care to remember, I've gotten into my car and waited unsuccessfully for the gas gauge to move off the ``E'' mark.
As anyone who has been in that situation knows, it's not a pleasant feeling.
An exception is if you happen to be driving a special Ford Escort rebuilt by students from Northampton County High School-East. The gas tank is always empty. But that's not a problem.
Here, as student Andy Aston of Milwaukee, N.C., told me, ``The E is for electric.''
This month I had the opportunity to take Shocker out for a drive. Its one of the cars that catapulted the school into the national spotlight a year ago when teammates took home the first-place trophy at the annual Arizona Public Service Electrics competition in Phoenix.
The car has been painted to look like a racing vehicle. Decals add to the effect. It runs on 16 golf-cart batteries stored in the trunk. Rather than pumping polluting fossil fuel into the gas tank, students plug in electricity.
Once we were charged up, I quite ungracefully threw my short-skirted legs over the sealed driver's side door, no doubt revealing more than my novice skills as an electric race car driver.
As teachers Harold Miller and Eric Ryan bid us off, Andy and I headed out of campus - careful not to take the road with the speed bumps because the low-riding car couldn't cross them well.
The Escort had a clutch. But this car ran like an automatic. Still, I continually shifted gears and got an extra boost from a ``turbo switch.''
As I drove onto a country road leading away from the high school, Andy told me a little about the car and his experience driving it earlier this month in Phoenix.
He'd had a tire blow going into a 90-degree turn on the track, and that had cost him a few seconds. Still, with his performance and that of the other Northampton students, the team's two entries finished third and fourth overall among a couple dozen other competitors across the country.
Andy, 17, is one of three students who have been with the NEAT - Northampton Electric Automotive Technology - program since it began a couple of years ago.
``I thought it was just going to be something the school could use, like the secretary could use it to get between the main office and the other buildings,'' Andy told me. ``I didn't know it was going to be racing.''
Despite the different gauges and near-bare interior, the ride didn't feel all that foreign. At 45 mph, it was very smooth and quiet.
Andy also noticed the serene sounds when he first took the steering wheel. ``You could hear the rocks in the tires scraping the rim,'' he recalled.
Instructors Miller and Ryan hope more people will take an interest in these cars and have planned a fall road rally to draw some attention.
I do, too - and hope more people will come to recognize the importance of the work being done in Northampton.
And I'll no doubt wish, the next time my car is on empty, that the E stood for electric. by CNB