The Bench Racers Journal

[Terry Bentley]

Chapter 136

How lucky could we get? Right now we are on the way to the track. Early on a Saturday morning at that. Way too early for me to be doing much more than catching up on my sleep from all of the work we had to do getting the karts finished.

Fortunately we did manage to finish the karts before it got too late yesterday. There was one holdup, that put a full brake slamming halt to any more progress. But something that turned out fantastic. It was Chris who had a notion to paint up our engines all the same color. At first we talked about going back with the original red so the engines would look new again. But that idea got shot down by Chris. I mean absolutely not going to happen. He had a better idea.

Just in case our engines ran really well, we needed something to identify them by. Not just be another nobody out there. If the engines bombed out, it probably would not really matter. But if we were successful, all three of them would be noticed a lot more by everyone.

I am not too hyped on the idea about being the center of attention, but he did make sense. Having a cool looking engine, but not running very fast or any faster than the other racers, wouldnt catch much attention after the fact. But if our engines did perform a lot better as I was hoping and really expecting, then having them up front or at least running with those Westbends would be noticed by most of the other drivers.

Chris wanted some wild color that would really stick out. But that got me thinking again about if we failed miserably it could also stick out too much in a bad way. I can just hear someone at the track. Hey man, great looking paint job on your slow engine. Sure is a shame it runs like such a pig.

Thats when it hit me. I had been working on, at least in my head, about that English assignment in school. The one where I would do a presentation about the elusive Black Panther racing engine.

Now I could not only have the presentation closer to being a reality, but the pseudo proof of it being real. Pictures at the track, and maybe even a trophy, if we got real lucky. All of this would go into the assignment for English class.

My English project would be so much more than some lame hypothetical sales pitch or bogus make believe presentation. But detailing the modifications and power gains in real time could almost guarantee a very good grade. Just making sure all of my I's were crossed and T's dotted is the only major thing teetering that might tip my grade in the wrong direction.

My assignment would be presenting a factory modified engine and the problems that plagued the project, leaving only a few units that actually made it to the track. Even tho that is all made up and bogus anyway. But having a real engine for presentation with the results would appear I put a lot of extra curricular work into my project. Anything to improve my grade without being so boring to do what is normally a very lame project.

I finished most of the assembly of my engine fairly early. Even before Steve showed up. He was more than surprised to find out that "motor mouth" did not keep the work from getting done this time. So far as he knows that is. We went deep into the discussion early on about painting the engines.

If we were going to do this, it needed to be quick. Since the paint had to dry before final assembly of tank, shroud and mount. Actually those are the only three pieces we are going to paint. During a lull from our discussion running out of steam, I broke the silence.

I explained to them about my English assignment and this would work out perfectly. I also asked what the guys thought about using a satin finish black for the color. Before Chris had a chance to jump in with a rebuttal, I head up my hand then further explained the other more important details.

Our engines would be the equivalent to factory modified engines. A very limited production engine built specifically for competition racing. Then I explained what would win them over. The satin black finish on shroud would be illuminated by the outline of a real black Panther.

Chris gave me a puzzled look at first. Then wanted to know why a Panther? Why not a black bear or Grizzly? What was so awesome or catchy about a fancy name for a wild cat anyway?

Me and Steve got quiet and just stared at him. Are you serious Chris? You really dont get it?

No, what am I supposed to get? I dont understand. Dont gang up on me like this either. It creeps me out. But I thought a super catchy color would really stand out and people would remember that color engine. Most people forget names, but they always remember something like a bright color.

Hey Chris, do you know where the shroud to your engine is?

I was really tired last night when it was put together. But fairly certain it was bolted to my engine. I wont guarantee anything since my brain shut down a lot earlier last night than I did.

Go get it. So Chris, acting a little bit snooty just then walked over and pointed to his engine shroud. OK what am I supposed to do with it?

Steve immediately shot off his mouth. LOOK AT IT DUMMY. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH IT?

Its a red shroud. SO WHAT! What is have to do with a black panther?

This is when Steve took a good look for himself. The shroud bolted to the engine Chris is now holding up to Steve had barely any red paint left showing and all scratched up. There was no decal let for him to see.

Sorry there bud, my bad. Go find my shroud, if my engine is still around. Sure hope it didnt get used for spare parts so you guys could put your engines together first.

Chris knew exactly where Steves engine was, now with a little less attitude and a bit more curiosity. After a once over Chris saw what we had been talking about. The shroud has a PANTHER decal. But nothing really fancy.

OK I get it now, I think. So it says Panther. Whats the big deal?

Chris these bushing engines are what Clinton refers to as their Panther Series. So what else would you call a SUPER PANTHER? A real racing version of this engine.

It finally hit Chris. He let out a very loud OOOOOOHHHHHHH and had his mouth open in a very big 'O" shape for a moment. As his face went in to a deep bright shade of red he slapped his forehead with palm of hand.

Wow Terry, now it makes sense. Yes, lets do that. I like your idea a lot better now. What color is the outline of the Panther going to be. Something really bright I would think, right?

Nope, not going to happen. I thought this over a lot when working out details for my project. The outline needs to be either a grey or silver. Almost ghost like. I dont know exactly what shade will highlight better on the satin black.

IF, and that is a capital I and F, we do well enough to catch somebodys attention, like giving those Westbends a hard time, then I want it to be subtle as possible. But still very striking. More or less the same reasons you had for a bright color. But If we bomb out, nobody will bother to look at all, so we are covered there.

Since you want to make a statement assuming the engines run really well, then anybody interested enough will come over to take a curious look and remember the cool outline of a Panther on a satin black shroud. So you dont have to choose a loud or bright color to stand out.

This morning was still in the very early stage, so we decided to make a mad dash to the Ace Hardware to buy a can of spray paint. Then on the way back, stop at the Motts dime store for some Testors model paint and a fine detail paint brush. We picked up a bottle each of grey and metallic silver. Before checking out, I went back and added a bottle of the brightest red they had to our purchase.

After we returned, Steve decided against painting his engine. He was more than content with the original color of red. He had already spent way too much time cleaning and detailing his shroud. It was still in very good shape, and he saw no reason to change it up just yet.

When we first acquired all of these engines, ur engine parts, from Gassett, Steve managed to hand pick the nicest shroud from the bunch to choose from. I didnt have a problem with that. After all, his kart looks like he spent a lot of time to make it look good. Which he actually did.

Even tho he wasnt going to paint his engine, Steve had no problem prepping our parts and laying down a new coat of paint on them. Considering how bad the shroud looked Chris held up, it needed a new paint job anyway. My engine was not so scratched up, but not so nice looking like Steves engine still was.

While Steve was cleaning up the parts to be painted, me and Chris hit the encyclopedias. The Colliers Book Encyclopedias were written on some serious college level reading. I sure hoped that didnt affect the pictures as much. We didnt need a highly educated outline of a feral cat, but needed to find something to trace out.

These encyclopedias were gifts from my grandparents after my brothers made it to high school. I have tried to use them for my homework assignments last year, but that didnt work out so well. To read up on any subject, first I would have to jot down all of those big expensive looking words, then find out what they meant after looking them up using a dictionary.

This took up way too much time when writing any type of report. I dont think that was the intended purpose for these anyway. Having to decipher those words then translate to normal kid speak got old quick.

If I even attempted to read something then write in my own words, still would not make much sense. But to do a complete literary translation before even understanding for myself was just not worth the time doing so.

Fortunately we did not have to do much reading since just looking at the fancy pictures. I was not expecting to find a perfect outline of an expensive name for a wild mutt feral cat, but hoping for something that would be useful.

Chris dove right in while I started writing down different things to look up. Feral cats, panther, tiger, cat, lion, predatory animal, feline, bobcat, wildlife and a few others. I was not planning on coming up empty handed this close to the finish line.

Chris got excited after a few good hits. We finally chose one picture of some wild cat in stealth mode, like ready to attack its prey. Using a piece of wax paper, Chris carefully traced an outline. With only a few additional details to enhance the appearance, made it ready to transfer this over to a freshly painted shroud.

Steve cleaned up the parts and applied the first coat. Then we lit up the Dearborn heater and set the parts on top. The weather was decent today, but not blistering like some days this early in the fall. So we didnt melt from the heat while getting the last of the work done on our karts.

Steve had another hour to wait before the second layer of paint could be applied. Since it was getting close to noon, we let mom know lunch did not need to be put on hold for our work schedule today. A short time later we sat down to tuna fish salad sandwiches, chips and slices of dill pickles.

At first I thought Chris was going to get sick when mom told us what we having for lunch. It looked like his face lost all of its color then turned to a pale green for a moment. He was very slow and reluctant for that first taste, almost like trying to avoid the sandwich all together.

He worked over the potato chips and left no hint of the dill pickle slice. But running out of any more excuses, then taking a bite, his taste buds settled in just fine. Sorry about that, the last time I had tuna fish, well it wasnt a very good experience for me. But this is awesome. Thank you for a great lunch.

After we finished eating, Chris told us what the trouble was about the tuna fish. Once again he was back to talking up a storm giving him his "motor mouth" status. This time he was back in story mode instead of all questions. He had come home while his mom was working late that night. As usual he was starving and looking for something to snack on. In the fridge was an open can of tuna fish.

So he dug in without bothering to grab any bread. Just wanted something that didnt involve any more work than necessary. He was that hungry and this was a quick fix to hold him over until dinner later that evening.

He thought the taste was not so bad, but the texture was off and mentioning having worse. It went down better when eating with crackers. A few more swallows and his stomach was not as interested in being fed. So as he was putting the can back in the fridge, is when the label caught his attention. "Mr Whiskers". He had been eating cat food!

Not having much luck with holding back the urge to barf, he ran outside and relieved himself of the snack. What he tried to figure out is why there is cat food in the refrigerator. Especially an open can. Chris said he really disliked house cats and hoping his mom didnt bring a stray in. When he recovered from the mishap, back inside there was a note on the table.

Sorry hon,
Had to work again tonight. If you get hungry, there is a left over tuna fish sandwich in the fridge. XOXO mom