Buggy Alumni Association

What happens to old buggies?

I've had the opportunity to collect 5 buggies from Pioneers to preserve the history of the organization. I have plenty of room to store the buggies in an old air plane hanger, but how do other organizations "archive" buggies that are taken out of service?

Paul...

Coffee tables, bonfires, and a few in basements. I am constructing a bunker in my basement so they will survive a nuclear holocaust.

The University archivist is interested in starting an official buggy archive if not museum. Could we do like the Dulles Air & Space annex and start a shuttle bus to the Pioneers museum? I'd pay money to go to the Pioneers museum, but nobody ever said I'm right in the head.

Fringe buggies have been scattered to the winds. We have a rough idea where they are, but most are still in the buggy room.

Most of the retired zoo buggys from pre 1993 (i.e. before the rise of KOs and his offspring) were in my basement out in Harrison City, PA until I moved west in 98. Now, I believe brother Phil (the p in esp) has them in a vault within striking distance of the burgh. I have the pope. he was on my wall for a while but now is in boxes at my dad's place in RI.
I believe the zoo has all the King's kids still in the house and JAMA (the king's daddy) resides with Duane 9 (also in RI). I do not think the Pope and Jama ever get to play together (the pope is just not into fat chicks). Colougo's carcas was sold. I have no idea where Jerboa lies.

I know someone who has 2 SAE buggies from the mid '70's. If interested,let me know.

BuggyBob wrote:I know someone who has 2 SAE buggies from the mid '70's. If interested,let me know.

I followed up on this 'buggy meseum' with a guy I know (my ex-SAE rommate) who has the 2 retired SAE bugies. Here's the quick version:

1. They are not in showable condition (some major parts are missing). Major effort would be needed to rebuild.

2. These 2 buggies are not significant in the sense of doing well in the races or being particularly innovative or fast or cool looking.

In discussing this further, we came to the following conclusions:

a. Historically significant buggies should be on display, such as (all from my era):

* Streak (PKT)
* 825 (Beta)
* The SAE bikes (which were a serious competitor in my era, but are now banned).
* Tiger Shark (and similar versions) (PIKA)
* The early 3 wheelers.

b. It would be better to have a "museum" on campus. Perhaps some out-of-the-way small storage room (kept under lock and key most of the time) in the basement of one of the old buildings would suffice to display 6-8 good examples.

c. A 'Plan B' for the museum idea might be to simply store them somewhere near campus and bring them over en masse and display them during Carnival and Homecoming at some type of reception.

Hope this is helpful

I also had a conversation about this with the University Archivist (Jennie Benford) and she is really interested in preserving old buggies, but the issue would be finding and funding a space for secure storage and display. This could be a topic for discussion at Carnival this spring, possibly a project for the Buggy Alums?

CIA buggies have been passed around to various old people. One of them may currently be a beer cooler, one of them was bought by Kappa and left on a porch in the rain for a summer, one of them I think went to Sandhill Challenge. I got the impression that some people were just providing 'temporary storage', but I think some alumni have pretty legitimate emotional attachments to them.

There may be a need for more Pioneers buggies to be collected in the near future; I think some of them are being claimed already, though.

I have Fringe's Benefit, built '84 retired '89, needs some work which I would do if there was a reason. Hangs on the wall of the garage.
Scott Durbin

PKT Racing will mostly likely not donate any buggies to a museum, but an exhibition is a possibility.. we bring Streak out to Design every so often. that could be a good goal for everyone this year.