Let’s say you’re a young adult interested in learning how to restore cars as a career. So you sign up for the two-year automotive restoration technology major at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport.
You walk in for the first class in January, for the Spring 2013 semester, and what ready-to-be-restored automobile do you see in front of you? How about a 1970 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow?
You think to yourself, “This is gonna be good!”
The Rolls-Royce Foundation has agreed to provide one car at a time, as available, for Penn College students to restore in the School of Transportation Technology’s automotive restoration labs. They’ve also started a “building to endowed” scholarship to provide financial support to select students in the associate-degree major.
Faculty will also have the opportunity to attend training seminars offered by the Rolls-Royce Foundation for its members, and faculty members and select students will be able to attend monthly meetings at which members work on museum and member cars.
Charles Jensik, chairman of the Rolls-Royce Foundation Board of Directors, said, “The complexity with elegance that is prevalent in these cars makes them engineering marvels, and hopefully will spark the interest and challenge that will last a lifetime.”
The collaboration’s initial vehicle is a red, four-door Salon, representing the part played by Rolls-Royce in the history of the automobile and the role of the Silver Shadow in overall Rolls-Royce production. The Silver Shadow was produced from 1965-77, with approximately 16,700 standard Salons constructed.
If you’d like to find out more about this program for yourself or someone you know, please click here.