The Garage
Twizzle runs the 360 Street garage.
The Garage has been in his family for 3 generations his grandfather set up the garage and then Twizzles dad ran it until Twizzle took over a few years ago when he had completed all his training.
His dad and grandad still visit the garage to see what’s happening and meet the customers when they have time.
Twizzles family has always loved cars, his grandad has one of the first cars ever invented, it’s his pride and joy and he looks after it very carefully.
This was one of the first cars available for people to buy and is called the Model T Ford, and was made by an American car manufacturer – The Ford Motor Company. Cars replaced horse-drawn carriages and carts.
Horses and carts were used to transport people and goods all over the country before vehicles were invented. They took a very long time to go from city to city.
The Model T was invented in 1908 in America but soon started to be made all over the world including Manchester in England.
The first driving licence was introduced in 1903 but the driving test wasn’t introduced until 1935.
The garage replaces tyres, exhausts and brakes. It services cars, repairs them and also does MOTs. Every car that is over 3 years old needs to have an MOT. This is a series of checks to make sure the car is safe to be on the road and to drive so is very important.
Twizzle has 2 apprentices who work for him and are learning to become mechanics, they are his sisters twins – his nephews, but he still makes sure they work hard.
When you’re an apprentice you have to learn by starting all the simple jobs first like sweeping the floor, keeping the garage tidy and making lots of tea!
Then you can watch the mechanics and help them by passing them tools, this is how you learn what to do.
Twizzle is going to college one evening a week, he wants to learn about the electric cars which are now getting more popular and how to fix them.
Electric cars were originally invented in the late 1800s but were used in the cities mainly as they were slow (15-25 mph) and couldn’t travel very far (30-40 miles). Some cities used them as Taxis.
Cars powered by electricity and also steam were most popular at this time.
When the roads got better and people wanted to travel further petrol engines became more popular
There are still other vehicles that use batteries and charge by electric such as fork lift trucks, scissor lifts, milk floats and golf carts as these don’t need to travel far and can be recharged when not in use.
One of the other jobs at the garage is to go and collect people’s cars that have broken down. The breakdown truck goes out to collect the car and bring it back to the garage to be fixed.
Sometimes the driver takes the people in the car home as well to make sure they get home safely.
Try and find more out about the different types of electric vehicles and what they are used for.
Does your family have an electric car? How does it charge?
Hybrid cars run on petrol and electric, find out more about them on your computer.
Design your own car, would it be electric or petrol? And what colour?
