I can't belive nobody has thought of this yet, but it isn't on the list. I'm no skiing buff, but one cool machine that's relatively simple is all over the slopes. I'm talking those enclosed gondolas(is that the spelling?) that they use to get people up mountains in the Alpes. The bare bones of the idea is to string some heavy duty cable over the junkyard and challenge the teams to get from one side to the other as fast as possible( using only their machines and the cables). It could be run as a race, or single team time trials....a weight limit might be a GOOD idea.

-- Sarah E Jordan (dejordan@snet.net), March 12, 2001

Answers

Sarah:

It has been suggested. I've seen a response on this type of project that it's a safety problem, and needs too much infrastructure (poles, cables)that would have to be setup in in advance. I think it's a cool idea, but you have to admit that it could be a bit scary to have to sit in a gondola you have built with your team 30 feet or so off the ground.

BROADCAST JUNKIES WEBSITE

-- Joey Falgout (Broadcast Junkies) (joeyinalexandria@hotmail.com), March 13, 2001.

Right - one of the the things JYW "wants" is machines that fail in an educational and spectacular way. Inherient in that however is that if a machine fails in a spectacular way, it shouldn't kill anyone...

You want to be as safe as you can given that you're working with junk to begin with. Putting someone 30 feet up is inheriently unsafe.

Brian

-- Brian Flynn (bflynn@nc.rr.com), March 13, 2001.

I,v been wan,ting to see trackter mud boging. I meen some bad trackter bog.

-- Corey LUNSTED (CLunsted@vcs.maisd.com), March 13, 2001.

How about a machine that skis? Kind of like a sled. Fastest to the bottom without wiping out wins. Make it carry a payload (preferably non-living). Run them up in the mountains on a slope with lots of mogels on it. Should be a good example of how suspensions systems work and what effect the center of gravity has on a vehicle.

-- Mark Richter (jyw@troyjaycees.org), March 14, 2001.