Now that we’ve announced the plans for an entirely upgraded timing system at raceday 2010, it’s time to take bets on how close the race is going to be this year.  Will our high-tech digital photo finish equipment come in handy to measure the fine line between 1st and 2nd, or will it be so much of a blowout that we could time this thing with an hourglass?

For some perspective, the recent margins of victory in the men’s races:

• 3.95 sec SDC over Fringe
• 0.15 sec PiKA over SDC
• 3.21 sec PiKA over Fringe
• 2.49 sec PiKA over PiKA B
• 2.30 sec PiKA over Fringe
• 1.65 sec PiKA B over Spirit
• 1.28 sec PiKA over Fringe
• 0.25 sec PiKA over Fringe
• 0.83 sec Fringe over PiKA
• 4.24 sec PiKA over Fringe

Continue reading →

With the snow we’ve been getting almost every day here in the ‘burgh it seems like we might be getting further from rolls rather than closer, so maybe I’ll stop talking about it.  Hope everyone is enjoying the polls in the mean time.

This week’s topic is a nod to the furious activity presumably going on in a few of the garages around campus over the last couple of months: new buggy builds.  All builds are great for us observers because it us something new to talk about and adds another buggy name to our already strained memories, but some take it to the next level.  I’m not talking fastest-buggy-on-the-course though, I’m talking, “What the #$(*% did they do there?!”  Those buggy designs that turn heads when they hit the course, and then gather a crowd at design comp are the ones we’re honoring here.  I’m sure I’m missing some stellar contenders, but to make this list, the criteria were:

• Built in the last 10 yearsish
• Featuring one specific visible design element worth talking about
• the key feature wasn’t just a badly done implementation of something normal, but a really wacky concept.

And the contenders are: Continue reading →

When I committed to a weekly poll last week, I thought there would be some other news in the course of a week, but with all this snow, CMU can’t even get classes to happen, let alone freerolls.  So, given that Phil saw his shadow and the course is 2 feet deep in the white stuff, we can abandon the short lived dream of early Feb rolls, and focus on the topic of prep work.

Just because there aren’t rolls doesn’t mean that teams are sitting around idly waiting for raceday to get here.  If you knew your favorite team would listen to you (don’t kid yourself alumni), what would you tell them to focus on in the 64 days they’ve got left?

Click through to vote in the poll or see the results

Continue reading →

We’ve had suggestions a couple of times to add a polling feature to the website to see what the buggy fans of the world think about different issues.   Thursdays are pretty slow in the buggy news cycle since any drama from the weekend’s rolls has played out, but the next weekend of rolls is still days away.  So, from now until raceday, we’ll post a poll each Thursday.  Feel free to discuss the poll and suggest interesting future questions in the comments.

Today’s poll:  Temperature.  It’s not the juiciest topic ever, but it is pressing.  Pittsburgh’s January-best is currently threatening to cancel the second weekend of scheduled rolls this year just by being cold.  A few years ago, sweepstakes seemed to be cancelling for anything below freezing and there were cries of “wimps!” from the alumni who remembered toughing it out in all conditions.  We had some of the debate here last year.  So, what do you think, how cold is too cold for rolls?

Click through to vote in the poll or see the results Continue reading →