NORWICH – For those who don’t know any better it may not look like much, but for one group of BOCES students, the Rat Rod – as it’s fondly known – is a thing of automotive beauty.

Built over the course of the last year, the Frankenstein’s monster-like creation was constructed by students from various parts taken from approximately half a dozen different vehicles. According to BOCES Automotive Technology Program instructor James Foster, the car was truly built from the ground up.

“This started out as a project last year for both junior and senior students, from all school districts,” said Foster of the Rat Rod. “We wanted to start a project we could finish in one year so that the students could see the end result ... so we came up with the idea for a Rat Rod.”

Defined by streetrods-online.com as a name for the “original hot rod style of the early 1950s,” a Rat Rod is “usually a vehicle that has had many of its non-critical parts removed,” one that’s typically finished in “primer or paints that are often period correct” and often a “conglomeration of parts and pieces of different makes, models and after market parts.”

Said Foster, “nothing taught these kids the basics better than the Rat Rod.”