Bermuda College students learning to be car mechanics don't know which direction they are heading in these days.

For they have built a car which literally cannot be rear-ended.

Three students in the first year of the Automotive Mechanics Programme, under the direction of manager of the automative learning lab Garfield Karpiak, have built a two-headed beast of sorts, known as Car2.

Car2 is a back-to-back car project, with the front halves of two identical front wheel drive vehicles joined together.

"It gives a whole new meaning to back seat driving,'' Mr. Karpiak said. The finished car can be independently operated from either end -- at different times of course.

Mr. Karpiak wrote about the car in the technical centre's newsletter, TechTalk, saying it "provides a chance to have a little fun while the serious skills of automotive mechanics and body work are developed by Bermuda College students...'' The students working on the car will next year be reverting to The City & Guilds system of training and examinations -- as will other technical programmes at the College -- in order to meet international standards of technical training.

The first year of the programme consists of lab and classroom teaching, while the second focuses on practical work.

The new Modular Applied Studies Programme -- which will begin with the 1997/1998 semester this September -- is linked not only to City & Guilds of London Institutes, but also I-CAR (Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair), from North America.

The new course, Mr. Karpiak said, will be designed to show that those who successfully complete it have the skills needed to interest potential employers.

First year Bermuda College student Christopher Robinson said that he had been interested in cars ever since he could remember and hoped to be employed in the automotive field once he is finished the course.

"My father is a mechanic so I've always been around cars,'' the 18-year-old said. "I used to take my toys apart.'' Other lab work is done on cars donated to the auto department by generous members of the public. This, Mr. Karpiak added, was the same as having the cars destroyed as far as the Transport Control Department was concerned.

When asked how he felt about the work he has done over the years at the automotive lab, Mr. Karpiak said: "I'd like to think a lot of the students have come through the programme and have been able to get jobs in the trade, and make good money. I hope they keep on learning everything there is to know about the field. I know that we have given them the basics to make a start.''