Document text
Now that's a race with taste Photo by Bob Pennell Seventh-graders Lauren Tamraz, Amber Ballard and Becky Smith, from left, race to eat their car -- a cucumber with carrot axles and turnip-slice wheels -- during the annual Edible Car Competition at Southern Oregon University Thursday, The trio from South Middle School in Grants Pass didn't win the competition, but their entry was named Most Disgusting. Contestants include long-leap bagel and short-run cake By BILL VARBLE ASHLAND -- The crack racing team is having problems with the race car, a frosted graham cracker beauty with wheels of Tillamook mild cheddar cheese mounted on pepperoni axles. Melting problems. "We're not used to the humidity," says team member Robyn Hendry, a senior physics student at Gilchrist High School. Teammate Dan Teapansese says the flexibility could give the car an inherent stability. Maybe. Welcome to the third annual Edible Car Competition, held Thursday at Southern Oregon University. It's a real contest put on by the Quantum Maniacs, a physics club at SOU. Entries await the race, which requires the cars to carry a Luke Skywalker figure down a ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, the cars are eaten. The rules are, uh, nerdy. Cars must carry a Luke Skywalker figure down a 2.5-meter ramp, take off at the end and be eaten by team members. Maybe 200 people show up this year, from elementary kids to teens to grown-ups. One of the prizes is a Dynamo hand-powered flashlight. "It works by magnetic induction," says race official Jeff Beattie, an SOU physics major wearing a madras burnoose. He launches into an explanation of magnetic induction, but you get the idea. Another prize is a T-shirt that says, "I think, therefore we have nothing in common." Beattie says the weirdest entry last year was a summer sausage with 4-inch wheels that didn't win outright but took the Most Disgusting award. After an exhortation from Peter Wu of SOU's physics department -- "Have a good time and maybe use your head a little!" -- the action is fast and furious. The rules are clear: The part of the car with Luke Skywalker on it is the part that counts. If Luke comes off, the car is disqualified. The first entry, a large Rice Krispies Treat with caramel wheels and candy-cane axles, zooms down the ramp and jumps a startling 133 centimeters -- about four feet -- only to have its wheels fall off. The next car is Carmelot, a pound cake with spaghetti axles and Oreo wheels. With Luke balanced precariously on a gumdrop, it flies 91 centimeters. Team Elmo, a cucumber with carrot axles and turnip-slice wheels, makes 36 centimeters. On it goes. There's Rad Racer, a bread loaf with cookie wheels. The Wright Stuff, a salami. The Speed Demon, a flying red pepper. A chocolate cake has its wheels fall off and becomes a hovercraft, sliding down the ramp and taking off, sort of, in a leap of 1 centimeter. Assorted oranges, granola bars, bread loaves and a watermelon take the plunge. The melonmobile mounts a prodigious leap, but Luke Skywalker falls out. A formula is used to determine the winner: jump distance times percent of mass (weight) of car consumed. Cars are weighed before jumping and after eating, if there are remains to weigh. No alteration (cooking, blending, frosting, etc.) may be made to cars before eating -- although salt, pepper and ketchup are mercifully provided to competitors. In the end, the Most Innovative award goes to the Food Flyers for a bread car. Team Elmo takes the coveted Most Disgusting award for the cuke with turnip wheels. The grand champion is Team Unno, which dominates the field with an unmatched leap of 193 centimeters and 100 percent consumption. That's good for a plaque and 50 bucks. The team consists, in its entirety, of Ashley Jaramillo, 12, of Grants Pass. Jaramillo says her design secret is the natural superiority of the bagel. "It's round and hard," she says. There are lessons here: One, ingenuity springs eternal. Two, nerds are cool. Three, don't build a car of anything you wouldn't want to eat -- like a whole watermelon. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA