Buggy books 1965-2009 now online

Buggy books are one of our best sources for buggy history.  Just like old yearbooks, they’re just fun to browse through to see how much things have changed and how much they’ve stayed the same.  Teams no longer proudly describe their build process in detail as was common into the mid 70’s.  Check out this description offered by ATO in 1968:

The “Golden Goose’s” design is based on the aerodynamic features of a teardrop and is constructed of a plywood and steel frame with a molded fiberglass shell.  In 1959 air scoops were added to improve the aerodynamic qualities of the buggy … Despite good times last year, both buggies were disqualified because of failure to pass a brake test.  This year the ATO’s will add improved brake systems.”

and by Beta in the same year: Continue reading

Rolls Report – March 27 & 28

SDC at the finishWe’ve only got 2 more days of rolls and truck weekend for teams to get their act together before raceday.  If any of that gets rained out, we could be in for some real slapstick come raceday.  Last weekend’s assortment of chute incidents actually looked mild compared to the number of ways teams found to interrupt their freerolls this weekend.  That said, there was plenty of action in the new buggies / wheel testing / going fast domain to keep the high-brow fans entertained.

In attendance (spring 2010 buggies, qualified w/ at least 1 driver)

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Kamikaze, Zephyrus, AEPi2010 Kamikaze, Zephyrus, AEPi2010
Beta Problem Child
CIA Firebird, Renaissance, Freyja Firebird, Renaissance, Freyja, Quasar
DTD Bethany Bethany
Fringe Banyan, Blizzard, Borealis Banyan, Blizzard, Borealis
KKG / ZBT
PhiKap Schandenfreude Schandenfreude, Celerity
Pioneers Chaos Chaos
PiKA Chimera, Nemesis, Knightfall, Zeus Chimera, Nemesis, Knightfall, Zeus
SAE Rubicon
SDC Malice, Envy, Avarice, Psychosis Malice, Envy, Avarice, Rage
SigEp Barracuda, Pandora Barracuda, Pandora, Peregrine
SigNu Skua, Bungarus Krait Skua, Bungarus Krait
Spirit Haraka, Fuko Haraka, Fuko, Kingpin

Observations (Saturday gallery, Sunday gallery) Continue reading

Timing system test at rolls a success

Timing test
We had to wake up way earlier than alumni normally do for rolls, but it was worth it. The timing system (original post, post 2) works like a charm and we’ve got a good handle on the software now. Click on this picture of Fringe’s new (unamed) buggy crossing the line to see a sample of finish line shots. This system is going to be more accurate and reliable than the old one, but the pictures of the finishes are definitely the most entertaining part.

The background is still low-contrast and varied because the finish line currently looks like it was drawn with sidewalk chalk by a drunk toddler. Once we get a nice thick bright white finish line, these images will be really nice. It will also be later in the day and thus lighter than when most of these were taken. The quality was already getting better in the second half of our day today. These are all aesthetic concerns though, even the lowest quality images we’ve gotten so far were sufficient to quickly and precisely determine the finishing time.

Some things you might notice Continue reading

Lead Truck Auction 2010 → 2 Jumbotrons!

Lead Truck

Last year marked the debut of two exciting additions to the raceday experience: the chance to ride in the lead truck and the jumbotron.  This year, we’re taking it up a notch.

The Buggy Alumni Association is pledging the first $1,000 of auction proceeds directly to Sweepstakes to help cover the cost of 2 jumbotrons at raceday this year!

Those of you that are familiar with both the lead truck auction and the jumbotron from last year are probably so excited already you won’t read the rest of this post.  For the rest of you, details are below. Continue reading

Thursday Poll: what to do with Design Comp?

Design Comp OpinionsAh, design comp.  How many competitions can you think of that some people respond to by wearing suits while others … well … do not make the same effort to make a good impression.

The list of buggies entering design comp hasn’t been announced by Sweepstakes yet this year, but I hope that it will be long and that it will include all of the exciting new buggies and those we expect to challenge for the win this year.  I fear, however, that it will be similar to last year — a competition that less than half of the field chose to enter.

Of course, this topic has already been covered at length on this site so I won’t rehash the pro and con arguments, but feel free to review

Both of those discussions were fairly constructive and I think it was useful to have all of those opinions aired publicly, but true to the alumni tradition it was mostly just talk with no steps towards doing anything.  It’s too late to do anything this year either, but for this week’s poll I want to know which design comp fix is the most popular among the cmubuggy.org crowd.

Click through to vote or see the results Continue reading

Rolls Report – March 20 & 21

AEPi 2010Two days of genuine good spring weather (45-50°F and mostly sunny) provided the first real weekend of rolls, and the teams made it an exciting one.  With three new buggies and enough incidents in the chute to make a driver blush, it took extra long to sort out and write about here at headquarters.  Our apologies for the delay, we plan on sticking to Monday mornings in the future.

In attendance (2010 buggies)

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Kamikaze, Camo, AEPi-2010 Zephyrus, Kamikaze, AEPi-2010
Beta Problem Child Problem Child
CIA Firebird, Renaissance, Freyja Freyja, Quasar, Conquest
Fringe Bedlam, Banyan, Bantam, Blizzard Bedlam, Banyan, Bantam, Blizzard
KKG / ZBT Volos Volos
PhiKap Schadenfreude, Celerity
Pioneers Chaos Chaos
PiKA Chimera, Nemesis, Zeus Chimera, Knightfall, Zeus, Nemesis
SAE Rubicon Rubicon
SDC Malice, Psychosis, Envy, Rage, Avarice Malice, Psychosis, Envy, Rage, Avarice
SigEp Barracuda, Peregrine Pandora, Barracuda, Peregrine
SigNu Skua, Bungarus Krait Skua, Bungarus Krait, KoS
Spirit Haraka, Fuko Seraph, Haraka, Fuko

Observations (Saturday gallery, Sunday gallery) Continue reading

Thursday Poll: for love or buggy

We probably should have run this one about a month ago to be timely, but this topic came up in the forums, and I’m in no position to turn down a decent poll idea at this point.

The topic this week is “buggy vs. relationships” or “relationships via buggy” depending on your perspective.  Out in the real world, if you say you’re regularly hanging out with someone before the sun rises, it would be fair to assume you’ve got something cooking.   At CMU, it’s probably safer to assume that your extracurricular activity of choice is buggy.  Whether it’s the hours you spent with people at buggy, or the hours you gave up when other people were making their moves, it seems that buggy and romance do not operate independently.  How did it work out for you? (or how is it working out currently?)

Click through to vote in the poll and see results … Continue reading

Timing system in hand and working

About a month ago, we announced that Sweepstakes and the Buggy Alumni Association had teamed up to select and fund a new and improved timing system for buggy.  We are renting the system for an extended period this year so that we have time to thoroughly test it in the buggy context and make sure that it is better than the old system.

The system arrived over spring break, and yesterday evening, we learned how to assemble the hardware and operate the software.  The results were an excellent start. Both the hardware and software have a definite learning curve, but in a couple of hours we had the whole system unpacked, set up, and recording timed photo-finishes. The picture at right shows my dog Ruby edging BAA president Carsen Kline at the finish by 0.28 seconds after a 43 second race around the back yard. The quality of the images will improve in our real implementation as we learn which lens is most appropriate, and do things when it’s not getting dark out.

We are planning on doing our next test (this time with real buggy finishes) at freerolls on the weekend of March 27th and 28th. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed financially to the Buggy Alumni Association in our first 18 months. Being able to materially improve the buggy experience for both current students and alumni is really exciting.

Rolls Report – First rolls of 2010

I was starting to think it would never happen, and even Sunday morning I don’t think the teams were sure it was really going to happen, but rolls have started for the semester.  It only took 6 weeks from Sweepstakes’ ambitious first shot at rolls, but buggy has overcome one of Pittsburgh’s snowiest winters ever.  Only four orgs made it out due to it being the second weekend of spring break, but it was all of the expected hardcore teams, SDC, PiKA, Fringe, and AEPi.  Wait, AEPi?  Yep, they’re one of the hardcore teams as of now.
In Attendance
Org Buggies
AEPi Zephyrus Kamikaze
Fringe Bedlam, Banyan, Blizzard
PiKA Chimera, Knightfall
SDC Avarice, Envy

Continue reading

Thursday Poll: Buggy names good enough to use twice

DTD and PiKA's Clyclone

The kids are on spring break this week, and it’s been breaking 60 degrees here in Pittsburgh all of a sudden. With warm weather finally on the scene, we’re close to rolls, and with rolls, we’re close to new buggies. Back in my day as a head mechanic, building buggies was challenging, but finding a good name for them was next to impossible. It’s tough to sum up all those efforts and all those ambitions. It’s easy to end up with something that is so random that it doesn’t mean anything to anyone. Maybe even worse though are names that are so obvious that they’ve already been used. Are there some names that are good enough to use more than once?
Click through to vote and see the results
Continue reading