Amador County – A new auto shop teacher at Amador High School hosted dozens of students during a lunch hour automotive show outside the shop facility Friday, in an effort to raise money for tools and other items for the program.

He said he has brought some changes to the program to try to get in place, after taking over auto shop classes and the Regional Occupation Program in mid-semester.

Shop teacher James Lane said he does not come from a hotrod background, though the car show did feature some big motors. He said his background includes being an automotive and heavy equipment mechanic, a fleet mechanic for the state police, and a fleet manager for Sacramento Regional Transit, which he converted from diesel to compressed natural gas.

Lane said the Auto Tech Function class, with about 50 students, hosted the car show, with student and parent vehicles of all types allowed to enter. He said there are about 110 students in auto shop classes, from introductory to advanced Regional Occupation Program levels. He said classes focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and he is trying to get an engineering pathway into the school.

He has been there four months and tried to help increase alternative fuels awareness, so Lane asked Scott Trevaris of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District to bring a “plug-in” electric reach truck to be part of the auto show. Lane said he wants to emphasize that there are “totally different modes of transportation out there.” It stood quietly below a loud “surprise” brought by Universal Technical Institute – a 454 cubic inch Chevrolet Supercharged motor – owned by Ron Whitman. Whitman fired up the 454, as the crowd swelled, and watched the flames fly. It stood next to a Chevy 350, which the shop students built, which later was fired up for a demonstration.

Lane said he has brought an electronic diagnostics machine to the shop, to help with the classes and training. The classes do all types of automotive work at the shop.

Senior Jacob Kendrick helped organize and publicize the car show. Kendrick said they were selling hotdogs to raise money for tools and chemicals for cleaning, and anything they can purchase to benefit the shop. He said the shop works on jobs for up-front prices and they can do “pretty much anything if we have the time.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.