By Dennis Carter
Gazette Staff Writer
Thursday, February 7, 2008

Tyrone Tarlton keeps his electric racecar in peak condition with help from an unlikely pit crew: a dozen Suitland High School students.

Tarlton, who teaches a career class in electrical systems at Suitland, brought in the red-and-black 1997 Dodge Daytona for a hands-on lesson on electric cars. Over the past two months, students gutted the car, extracted and replaced 16 12-volt batteries, and reconnected fuses and wires that send electrical currents to the engine.

The students are studying to become electricians, and some may be professionally certified by the time they graduate. But their interest in the car goes beyond the wiring. There's also an environmental component.

"It's definitely a cleaner ride . . . and I know a lot of people who would save a lot of money with a car like this," Rickey Miner, 17, a senior at Suitland, said as he waved his hand over the mass of batteries and black-and-red wires under the car's hood. "I would love to drive an electric car, that's for sure . . . It's 100 percent efficient."

Tarlton, who built the car and has raced it at regional competitions over the past decade, incorporated the vehicle in his class lesson for the first time last year.

The Daytona's engine is hardly audible, Tarlton said. It takes a minute, sometimes longer, to reach its top speed of 80 mph, he said, and it can run for four hours at 60 mph.

"Right now, you go to [gas stations] to fill up," Tarlton said, pointing out that the car's gas flap hides an electrical outlet. "Here, we plug up."

The car takes about four to six hours to charge, he said.

Senior Derek Alvarenga, 18, said he and his classmates have discussed how the technology might evolve. "But we can see that it takes a lot of [battery] power to move a car," he said.

Organizers of the Washington Auto Show, held last month at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, heard about the car and allowed the students to display it there. Although the show included a few electric-gas hybrids, the students' car, covered by logos of its sponsors, was the only vehicle there powered by electricity alone.

"It's the way of the future, and these kids realize it," Tarlton said.