Fandom High School

The danger shop was a particularly horrid shade of pink. All John could do was vary it between lightish red and Pepto Bismal vomit.

"Okay, kids, here's the deal. You've got about half an hour to finish things up and then take these babies for a test drive. I've made notes on the vehicles where I think they need to have a bit of improvements...mostly just a few gussets here and there, which should take you no time to weld on. Wheels are mostly parallel, for our purposes, and the seats and restraints and steering and all that? Good. Y'all get an A. Or passing. Whatever the hell the grades are."

He clapped his hands. "So. Have fun, wear the welding masks while welding, no shoving anyone into the wall on the turns, and have fun!"

The Danger Shop had a smaller than usual workshoppy area, as the rest was taken up by a go-kart course set up in a figure 8 with a bridge. It may be changed as soon as he figures out how to make things not-pink. Even the Bea Arthur poster was pink.


[i fail at finding flash racing games at 3am that don't involve downloading or signing up for stuff or including free viruses/STDs]

The Danger Shop looks like the back room of Sparky's, what with its antique brass and glass decor for experimentation, cast iron tools, and just gaslamp feel to everything, like it should all run on steam.

"Hey, kids. Um. Not really a lecture for today. Two things: first, build the go kart. You've got one more build class after this, maaaaybe two, and then the race. And second: I need publicity for this race, unless you want it just us, no audience at the finish line. I need to clear it with the higher ups if we're havin' it here or if we can stake out the beach. I'd love to say the beach, because if you drive like an ass, you deserve to get hurt. Don't worry, I'll double-check the welds, and even veto things if I don't think it'll hold up or could be potentially damaging. And again," he said, tapping his own flipped-up welding helmet, "wear the mask when welding. Wear the mask when you're near someone welding. And the ear protection on the table can't hurt either when you're grinding the welds or cuttin' pipe. If you're not safe, you're not in my shop. If you need any help, come get me."

He clapped his hands. "All right, let's get to work!"

John rushed into the Danger Shop with the cart of engines. "Sorry about that," he said. "I got held up at work lunch and didn't get to do what I had planned. So, for today, you should be able to have the engine running without serious problems, and should start thinking about the design. I'd prefer if you went with a four-wheel design with rear engine, but whatever'll cross the finish line. And have a roll cage. And not blow up."

John was not nervously pacing inside the Danger Room Shop, waiting for his students. All classes except the final race would be in here... and if he can get the damn shop to look less mauve, he'd be a happy camper.

"Okay, uh, take your workstations? Hi. I'm John Connor. I went to school here about two years ago, so I'm familiar with some of the craziness."

"This is Practical Applications. It's sort of a cross between a metal shop class and a small engines class. The final goal is to build a go kart for racing... and since there's only three on my roster, it's not going to be a big race. Specifically, you'll learn about engines, then design and welding, and then build the thing so you can race it without injury or explosions."

He started pacing. "So. Please tell me that y'all know what gasoline and engine oil are so I don't have to explain the whole 'take dinosaurs, cook at 350 degrees for a couple million years until crude' thing. I've got some handouts on how the whole thing works, but here's the basics."

"Okay. Basically, a gas engine, diesel engine, it's a series of controlled explosions, right? Introduce fuel and air into the cylinder, compress it with the piston, ignite it, and that explosion pushes the piston down, which spins the crank, which makes something useful. 's all an engine does, turn up and down explosion energy into rotational energy. Okay. I'm getting wordy, so I'm gonna cut this short." Short was relative.

"We're gonna be dealing with two stroke gas engines with side shafts. If you need help, refer to the handout for more info. Two stroke: Gas and oil are mixed together, and there's just two cycles to the thing. The up stroke, where the piston moves up and compresses the fuel and air, and the down stroke, where the explosion forces the thing down. So not dirty. Geez. What am I doing? Anyways. That's it. There's a collection of motors here on the work stations, stuff like weed whackers, chainsaw, old snowblower engine. Get familiar with them, learn where all the parts are. If you want to start getting dirty, go ahead. Next class we'll be going over breakdown and troubleshooting, stuff like how to change the spark plug, rebuild the carb, do a ring job and a valve job, check the electrical. Basically, how to turn a worn motor into something that'll work."

He paused for a moment. "Uh, if you want extra credit, do some research on some of the other engine types, like the Wankel or V-Twin or something and write up a 5 page paper on the history of it. Development. If you'd use it in a go cart, and if not, what vehicle it'd be."

"Not sure about office hours at the moment, so...maybe we'll just steal the shop for an extra hour? This is the last class of the day..."

Class Roster:
A.J.
Dib
Naomi Wildman
[OOC in progress up]