I'm interested in hearing examples from both victims and perpetrators.
I'm sure some of you are already shocked by this topic -- "why, no one would ever cheat in Buggy" you might being shouting as you read this. To which all I can say is: "Don't be naive" -- we all know people involved in buggy who flunked out of school because they were so obsessed with winning the race that they neglected their academic studies, with scholastically fatal consequences. Similarly, there are numerous instances of "malicious interference" with competing orgs perpetrated throughout the history of buggy, and the line that separates outright cheating (defined for the purpose of this discussion as a rule violation whose purpose is to make your buggy go faster) from the broader realm of things that will screw up your competitors' ability to compete, that it requires enormous credulity to think that people will do the latter but never the former.
Examples of "malicious interference" include things like epoxying the locks on the garage door of a competitor the night before FR, stealing a competitor's entire steering assembly before Race Day, and using your D team to intentionally False Start in the Heat with the fastest rolling buggy on campus, delaying the heat by 2 minutes.
But I'm most interested in examples of overt, outright affirmative cheating -- an induction motor hidden in the wheel, a nose that can be extended 6 inches to beat the competitor at the finish line, using the pneumatic brake air source to produce thrust, secret energy storage devices and mechanisms, that sort of thing -- that are intended to improve the performance of the buggy outside the rules. I have no personal knowledge of actual affirmative cheating (though have been on the receiving end of "malicious interference"), but I am convinced it must have happened, and probably more than once.
This thread is your opportunity to spill some dirty secrets of Sweepstakes. Whether first hand or second, please step up and share what you know, what you heard, or what you suspected was going on.
Ground rules:
- 1. anything 5 years ago or more is hereby declared beyond the statute of limitations, so feel free to share. What is done, is done. Bygones are bygones.
2. names of guilty may be omitted or altered as you see fit. We are more interested in the "what" than the "who" at this point.
3. no taking hostages.
4. Disclaimer: nothing in this thread should be interpreted as advocating cheating.
5. First Rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club....
Let the fun begin...... share your stories of intrigue.