Gearhead tunes up variety of skills: Zack Williams

Senior Zack Williams has been fascinated by cars since he was young. He started his first project car when he was in fifth grade. Zack was heavily influenced by his dad, who got him interested in building and working on cars.

“My dad got me into cars, we got our first project car when I was in fifth grade. We tore it apart and started building it together. Since then I've just been watching car videos and stuff,” Williams said.

Williams poses with an engine he worked on. Photo by Zack Williams

Finding time for his hobby is challenging, but Zack uses any time he gets to work on small projects. Being a mechanic also allows him to do what he enjoys and keeps him in line for a career involving cars.

“It’s kinda tough balancing school and work, but on the weekends usually I just do little stuff, just as I go. I’m a mechanic, so I want to take that further, I'm going to study mechanical engineering in college,” Williams explained.

When Williams received his first car, he wanted it to be a project that he could work on. His dad helped him take it apart, but with the car being his, Zack put in most of the work building it back up.

“It was a major project and it needed a lot of work," Williams said. "I did most of the work on that one myself. That’s the car that I learned a lot from, just doing research, asking friends for advice and what I should do and then just learning as I go.”

Through working on cars Zack discovered that he is really drawn to working on a certain engine called a rotary engine. This type of engine really interests him more than any other type because they are a lot easier to work with and rebuild. Williams is in the process of building his own rotary engine from scratch.

“I’m building my engine for my track car, I have an RX-8, which is my daily, that’s a rotary and then my RX-7 is the track car.”

Zack has also grown to love photography from taking pictures of cars that he sees at car shows or when he has finished building a part of his own car.

Along with cars themselves, Williams also has a passion for photography. Photo by Zack Williams.

“I just like capturing all kinds of different builds and cars, you can tell a lot from a car build about who built it, because they can just express themselves if they really want to modify it.”