Buggy Alumni Association

When TX showed up in ~84 with a push-bar that had a short pneumatic tube running into the buggy, I was perplexed. I recall another team reacting to the TX tube as if they had implemented the cheat that Carl proposed (driving the wheels).

For me, clue was delivered after watching TX at drops. It is difficult to mask the sound of a pneumatic drop brake. We copied their concept during Colugo's rebirth in '85 to solve the problem if the original having a large back-end due to the need for space to allow the driver's feet to activate the brakes. While there are pros and cons to a pneumatic drag brake, at the time. it was a good solution. It offered a compact solution that was stable, reliable (vs. our prior systems) and nice to the tires. It was also an enormous pain in the ass to be chasing air leaks at 3 am. (yet still better than rebuilding a set of hydraulic disc brakes, in the truck, on raceday) and added one more step (fill the air can) to the process of loading a driver.

I also recall another team not understanding our pneumatic design and being very concerned that our push-bar/ air-can would rupture explosively and injure a driver. They were under the impression that we were running liquid CO2 at huge pressures. Uwe took great pleasure in extending that argument for many weeks. In reality, we had less pressure in the bar/car than many had in their pneumatic tires.

lemuroid wrote:I also recall another team not understanding our pneumatic design and being very concerned that our push-bar/ air-can would rupture explosively and injure a driver. They were under the impression that we were running liquid CO2 at huge pressures. Uwe took great pleasure in extending that argument for many weeks. In reality, we had less pressure in the bar/car than many had in their pneumatic tires.

I was always amused by the mechanic lugging around a CO2 cylinder (presumably borrowed from the house's Coke machine).

shafeeq wrote:

lemuroid wrote:I also recall another team not understanding our pneumatic design and being very concerned that our push-bar/ air-can would rupture explosively and injure a driver. They were under the impression that we were running liquid CO2 at huge pressures. Uwe took great pleasure in extending that argument for many weeks. In reality, we had less pressure in the bar/car than many had in their pneumatic tires.

I was always amused by the mechanic lugging around a CO2 cylinder (presumably borrowed from the house's Coke machine).

In the pre- "no-bars-in-the-Fraternity Houses" Temperance movement days, it would have been borrowed from the keg and tap system.

Bless Victoria Beverages!

Elmo Zoneball wrote:
In the pre- "no-bars-in-the-Fraternity Houses" Temperance movement days, it would have been borrowed from the keg and tap system.

I think you mean "borrowed from another frat's keg and tap system".

As the Hill 1 of the D team (and also Chair) mentioned in the OP, I can say that was as far as I was willing to go. My decision was based on the move in '95 that wouldn't let us split our A and C teams to race Zoos teams (A and B I think) so neither team was stuck racing our own teams. So I made a decision to do what I could-within the rules-when it was my time. I think only four other people knew it was going to happen (and not our driver).
I know of other teams taking more active measures (stealing parts, unplugging, etc) but I honestly think it just isn't a thing. Given the number of geniuses participating, the fun and challenge is working within the rules as laid out. Anyone could figure out a solid way to cheat (how about the piezoelectric generators that can be laid up in with the composite-completely undetectable visually, and easily explainable if some sort of scan was used) to generate power from the movement and vibration, maybe just enough to pull fly weights on the wheels from the rim to the center in the chute?). But that's actually the easy way out. Along those lines I would highly doubt there is any widespread doping program: again, CMU is smart people who aren't planning on makin money from athletics in the future. There is so little to be gained that the risk just isn't worth it (let's face it, at a school with a 3:1 male/female ratio would you be willing to risk your junk not working should you actually be so fortunate as to need it? Let's get real here-there are priorities and then there are PRIORITIES.

Does showing another team how to build a better buggy count? And by which side?

And I liked to steal drivers.

I seem to recall "Secret Buggy Tool X," an operative whose mission it was to impregnate drivers of rival organizations.
I'm not sure the mission was ever successful.

FSMike wrote:As the Hill 1 of the D team (and also Chair) mentioned in the OP, I can say that was as far as I was willing to go. My decision was based on the move in '95 that wouldn't let us split our A and C teams to race Zoos teams (A and B I think) so neither team was stuck racing our own teams. So I made a decision to do what I could-within the rules-when it was my time. I think only four other people knew it was going to happen (and not our driver). [snip]

If by "OP" you are referring to the "opening post" of this thread, the story about the intentional D team DQ on Hill #1 was not about you. (Your full and open confession is none-the-less greatly appreciated.)

The incident I was referring to was back in the early - mid '70s, when Beta D was in the same Heat as SN A ("Hornet"), and they intentionally false started, causing a 2 minute delay, it was just enough to degrade the Hornet's freeroll to "good" instead of "fastest buggy on campus."

And here I thought I was the originator of that. I don't think PiKA lost first because of it, but it might have dropped them from 2nd to 3rd. but 97 was an odd year anyway-slow all around (I think it is the slowest winning time since the winning times first broke 2:12 in 1981).

FSMike wrote:And here I thought I was the originator of that. I don't think PiKA lost first because of it, but it might have dropped them from 2nd to 3rd. but 97 was an odd year anyway-slow all around (I think it is the slowest winning time since the winning times first broke 2:12 in 1981).

There's actually a postscript to that earlier incident I alluded to -- at the next Sweepstakes Meeting, the Chairmen voted to ban more than three entries per organization -- thus A, B, & C teams were the most depth you'd ever see in the years following the blatant D team false start.

I'm unaware when they changed the rules to reinstate more than three entries per org, but obviously they did at some point.

Not cheating, but perhaps a bit inappropriate. Chalk it up to crazy days compromising moral character. Here is my own little Step 8 chest baring.

Anyway, the frats were the big powers in my buggy days, much to the chagrin of us proud GDI. We looked for anything to give us an advantage, and tossed around a lot of interesting ideas over more than a few mobile units while repairing the latest Sunday free roll damage. Pretty much came down to, “… if we can’t meet ‘em or beat ‘em……………….. we’ll beat the meat ‘em”.

Emerging from a toxic cloud of benzene and bondo into the Monday dawn haze, taking the dare, Guppy made his way to the most convenient, back-door bread and milk delivery on the frat quad. With a vivid mental picture of the taut backed El Salvadorean, he yanked and cranked the old Dick Cyert, delivering a 10 cc shot of pure essence into a gallon of milk, and resealed the container. A modified Pittsburgh milkshake, might not not have been the first protein drink ever. I have no idea what happened after that since we were in seizures laughing.

Probably never made it to the kitchen table, but it was good for a gag. No pun intended. Still got our ass kicked on race day, though.