Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race

YetAnotherName writes "Both Wired Magazine and Tom Jones have coverage of the East Coast Championship Kinetic Sculpture Race 2003. Contestants plant tongue firmly into cheek, construct, and race bizarre human-powered vehicles across a variety of terrains. Notable vehicles included a 13-foot high pink poodle and a giant eyeball. Special rules this year required contestants to carry a sock-puppet on board. The winner this year? RTFA."

Comments

go bumpo go

[rahulb]

I had the pleasure of being on the pit crew for team Bumpo - the big Indian elephant. Let me tell you, the Gandhi on top was a huge hit with the folks on the street! The participants all have great attitudes - I recommend everyone to check it out next year (or your own local Kinetic Sculpture Race). Some teams spend months building these things. Of course, others only spend days... relying only on the fact that wheels turn and styrafoam floats. But hey, whatever works!

The Nationals!

[StefanJ]

I went to the National kinetic sculpture race in Eureka, CA a couple of times.

Actually, the first time was an accident. I was driving up 101 for fun, heard the coverage on the radio, and made sure to drive through town. I saw a giant warthog driving across a bridge. Quite neat! But the hotels were all booked and I didn't know where to go to spectate.

I went for "real" a couple of years back. Booked a hotel, got the schedule and map. The race started in Arcata (famed for its on-line police blotter), up the highway a bit. The racers assembled around the town square for inspection and brake trials. I took a lot of pictures. The floats^H^H^H^H^H^H Kinetic Sculptures ranged from barely modified bicycles to WILD, elaborate machines with teams in matching uniforms. Best were a giant dinosaur skeleton (with cavemen drivers armed with clubs) and a pink rabid poodle with a beer stine.

The Burned Out Hippy ethic of the race first became evident here. Very entertaining and charming, if you're into vague non-competitive niceness.

After leaving town, the racers headed for the beach, for a five-mile or so drag over the dunes overlooking the Pacific. I was going to follow on foot, but my ill-footing gumshoes tore up my toes. I ended up taking a lift to the next exciting spot, a hill that the races had to crawl up. There was a CLIFF on the other side. Most of the machines made it, but rarely gracefully. After another few miles through sand and brush the racers crossed a bridge into town for the night.

I decided another full day of this wasn't in the cards, but I stayed long enough in the morning to watch the racers go into water mode at the foot of a bridge. Very neat. Some racers were water-ready as is. Others had to deploy pontoons. Some were paddled, others had pedal-operated paddle wheels or even propellors.

The least well designed craft had to be rescued by the harbor patrol. (According to the Burned Out Hippy Ethic, the foundering craft were "pushing the coast guard cutters with stiff ropes.") The best really tore along. The best, as I recall, was "Rolling Blackout," which was made from black PVC barrels and had rotary paddles.

Anyway, I'd recommend this event, especially for families, but make sure you have other activities lined up.

Stefan

And don't forget the Corvallis da Vinci Days race!

[Pvt_Waldo]

The annual da Vinci Days Festival here in Corvallis, OR holds a Kinetic Sculpture Race.

Racers have to cross a vast gulf of 1 foot deep mud, go miles on the hard pavement, climb sand hills, and go down the Willamette River for the length of town. And keep their sense of humor at all times!

Long Live Hobart Brown!

DaVinci Days

[vanyel]

Corvallis, OR has a KSR as part of their DaVinci Days celebration every year, though it's relatively recent, only about 15 years or so. I'd post links to pics, but right now they're on my home system on the back end of a 128K upload DSL line ;-) The mud bog is particularly fun. One year, the Maltese Fulcrum, basically a human V-8 4WD that can go anywhere, albeit not very fast, ended up pulling out another racer who got stuck. If you get a chance, you should go --- they're a lot of fun. (oh, and the prize for which bribery is allowed is only one of the less valuable prizes ;-) )

The Original Humboldt County KSR

[888 Geek Help]

These things blow the pants off any case mod artists. Arcata's started in '69 and is ass loads of fun. The race lasts 3 days and you have to travel over road, ocean (well a shallow bay), sand dunes, and even past the worlds most ill conceived nuclear power plant*. All sculptures must be human powered, self contained, and the operator cannot touch the ground. Throw in a couple more rules like mandatory teddy bear and cookies (must bribe the judges or your automatically disqualified [RTF rule book]) all in an attempt to win the grand prize (a lemon of a used car rewarded to the contraption coming in dead middle) and you can have a right good time.

*The 63-megawatt power plant was the first commercial operation of its kind in California and the seventh in the nation when it began operating in August 1963. The plant was shutdown in July 1976 for maintenance at the same time three earthquake faults were found nearby, including one directly below. The "Triple Junction" is one of the few places in the world where three tectonic plate boundaries meet on or close to land. The power plant was never reopened.