ELECTRIC DREAMS

Inspirational tale of how the outlandish idea of building an electrically powered car energized and transformed high-school students in an economically stressed community.

Kettlewell (Skin Game, 1999) sets the stage by following Eric Ryan, a Berkeley honors graduate, into what he supposes will be a brief volunteer stint under the Teach for America program. Arriving as the new science teacher at Northampton East High in North Carolina, Ryan finds a venue about as different as he could imagine from his golden California student days: the region is seemingly frozen in time and locked away from the economic progress enjoyed by other parts of the country. Not only do most kids suffer from chronic low expectations, it’s 30 miles to the nearest mall. In fact, about the only the thing the community gets worked up about are the exploits of local heroes on the NASCAR circuit, their state’s gift to motor racing, dating from a tradition of high-speed, backroad moonshine deliveries. So when a Richmond power company announces a competition for student-built cars running solely on electricity, Northampton’s vocational education teacher picks up on it first, then recruits Ryan and other teachers to sell both students and the administration on making a try. Underdogs from the start compared with much bigger, better endowed urban schools in the area, Northampton East teams with other county schools to rescue a battered Ford Escort from the local compacter and set about adapting it to an electric motor powered by golf cart batteries. The entire community pins its hopes on the project, and tension builds as various misfortunes, including an engine fire, plague the team. But they press on, all the way to the final competition on a real NASCAR track in Richmond and, ultimately, the trophy.

Effectively poses the question: if kids from a hard-scrabble school district can turn out a roadworthy alternate fuel vehicle in a matter of months, what’s wrong with our big car makers?