History & More Beautiful Cars

This month has been great, iv'e learned a lot about my topic from a few research articles and I learned much of the history of drag racing from an NHRA published book. My mentor also gave the schedule of when were going to go to events and when were preparing for them.

Also September 19-21 i attended an amazing car show in my home city Ontario. It is the route 66 California Cruisin Reunion which is one of the biggest and most known car show in southern California.  I got to see lots of great drag cars as well as regular old cars. The show really was eye opening and shows that the type of work going into a lot of these old cars is unheard of but the end result is amazing. It also helped see the amount of people around still with a love for cars that is getting lost in young people these days. Overall this month pushed my love for cars just a little more than before and with NHRA finals coming up i know the up and coming months will only continue to get better.

Second Interview Preperation

1.Who is your mentor where do they work?

My mentor is Greg Peterson and he has his own pipping business. Greg has experience in the drag racing environment as an enthusiast  but occasionally competes for fun. He doesn't live off  drag racing but its a huge part of what he does and loves.

2. What five questions will you ask them about your background?

• How did you originally get into drag racing and how long ago was that?
• What was your biggest accomplishment regarding drag racing? What helped you do it? what held you back?
• What is one of the most valuable lessons you learned from drag racing?
• What area of drag racing do you consider yourself most experienced in? Why?
• How is or has drag racing affected your life over the years? explain why?

Mentorship Reflection

1. Mentorship question: Describe your experience in how you found your mentorship?  If you haven't found one yet, describe your experience so far in the search of a mentor.

It wasn't to difficult to find my mentor Originally I contemplated many other topics and didn't really have any real success finding a mentor. It wasn't till late summer that i realized I really like performance cars and much more driving them and my current boss drag races on the side competitively and for fun and when i asked him to be my mentor he became very exited.

2. Research question: What has been your most important article you have read so far and why?

Out of the many articles I have read their has been one that has been the biggest help to open up opportunities for more research. The article is by website named popular mechanics and it basically briefly explained the different parts in a top fuel racer, for example it went into the science of the fuel used and how it works and although installing the same system in a amateur car may be to expensive it is good to know the different options a driver has. It helped because it really explained in a two page article how science and physics are used and their is much more that meets the eye in the simple 4 wheeled beasts.

Beautiful Cars

Since I just started my senior project I don't have much to say since i still have not spent as much time as I would like working on my mentorship hours; Although I can say I haven't learned every little thing about Drag Racing yet I have experienced a new feeling i cant explain. When arriving to a drag strip the feeling you get inside to see hundreds if people that love to do the same thing you do makes for a special connection. At the track everyone is there to help and theirs always people that walk up and just want to talk about your car with you and other times you walk up to others. The feeling is different than anything else iv'e experienced and the amount of cars that show up is crazy all types of people from the guy that made his car with a 10 thousand dollar budget and the person that spent 1 million dollars and is still planning to spend more. A drag track really turns me into a kid in a candy store (with no money). Below are some drag cars so you can see a little taste of what I see.

Interview Preperation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

I plan to interview my mentor Greg Peterson for my first interview because i know him well and he is the person to introduce me to the Drag racing. It would be a good place to start because of his knowledge and past history and i could really learn lots of tricks and tips from him.

2. You have to ask 5 questions. what additional 5 questions do you plan to ask?

I plan to ask very conversation starting questions like, How did you start drag racing originally? What caused you to like racing so much and invest so much money? If you could change something or an experience you had in the past with drag racing what would it be? What do you love most about drag racing and why? What goes on in your mind during every pass? Why?

Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. Drag Racing

2. How can a drag race driver best improve his chances of winning the race?

Summer Mentorship Hours

1. Mentorship log of hours:

- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZYCvvpnQmdYu3fdvLw1Aj2wRPZV9DS40-u4rmJStngs/edit#gid=0
       
2.What is the contact name and number of where you volunteered?

- Greg Peterson (909) 208-7742

3.What questions were raised because of the 10 hour experience?

 - Do i really think about dedicating my life to working on cars?
 - What probabilities are their that i can end up successful in life with this career?
 - Out of the thousands of different job opportunities what would I like to join the most?

4. What is the most important thing you gained about this experience? Why?

 - The most important thing i gained about this experience was the amount of hours and effort involved in making a car work all together. It also gave me a sense of actual work as i am used to only working on my own cars and not keeping track of hours and money invested as i did during the completion of my 10 hours. It was important because it gave me a feel of the so called adult life and what it has in store for the future.

5.What is your senior topic going to be? How did what you do help you choose a topic? Please explain.

- My senior topic is performance mechanic and i decided i wanted to do performance mechanic a early into summer because growing up i've always had the passion for cars and from the first time I helped my mentor work on his car i knew that what i wanted. It helped me decide because at first i thought about doing normal topics like marketing and business but from early into research i decided I really wanted to be somewhere in the car industry and i really tried my best to have automotive engineering as my topic but when i couldn't find a mentor i knew the closest thing would be what i chose,  Performance Mechanic