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Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race
2008 Race Report: 2008 Champion: Rat Rod



Here's a Sculpture!
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Saturday 3 May 2008

The tenth running of the East Coast Kinetic Sculpture Race Championship in Baltimore was a dramatic spectacle! Forecasts of rainy weather cleared, giving us a delightful day. Only one of the twenty-eight teams even semi-capsized on the Harbor, but the sculptures were fantastic! Some of the water entries were among the best ever! The most dramatic kinetic advance was a live jazz band of Kinetinauts playing as they piloted their sculpture through the course.

Thanks to our team of four photographers and seven cameras, we are proud to present better coverage than ever before.  Some of the photos are awesome, if we do say so ourselves.

This race was the first since the death of the founder of Kinetic Sculpture Racing, Hobart Brown. Much of the race—including part of the opening ceremonies and one entire sculpture—was dedicated to Hobart’s memory. But thanks to his unique indefatigable spirit, Kinetic Sculpture Races all over the world serve as his fantastic legacy.

To see others’ coverage of the race, be sure to check out the Links page.

The Champion: Rat Rod

The tenth winner of the annual Grand Mediocre East Coast Championship was Rat Rod. A mechanical embodiment of the Rat Fink character by the late Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, it sported 3-wheel drive, 4 pilots (two visible and two hidden), and 5 wheels. It’s from the folks who created Goes to Eleven in 2007.

You can see the deployable exhaust pontoons—compare the location of the chrome pipes on the top photo and at the water entry.

The large rear “tires” turned into paddlewheels with supplemental inner tube flotation when the covers were removed.

Pilots are Glenn Lehman, Mike Cullen, Mike Phillips, and Sue Harris Phillips, who received considerable support from Jim McGuire.


All Pages At Once (huge!)

Next Page >
  1. 2008 Champion: Rat Rod
  2. Wilma & the WOMBATS
  3. PLATYPUS
  4. HB1GF
  5. When Pigs Fly
  6. Fiah Twuck
  7. Think Tank
  8. Fifi
  9. 99% Chimp
  1. It’s Ben-Hur, Hon!
  2. Running with Scissors
  3. Three from Jemicy
  4. Garden of Kinetic Delights
  5. Camelot
  6. Nice Tots
  7. Otter Chaos
  8. Fish Out of Water
  9. Pirate Punks
  10. Coca-Cobra
  1. UMBC’s You’ve Got What It Takes
  2. Nautical Nymph
  3. Green Racer X
  4. Kinetic Airways
  5. AVAM’s Bumpo, Frog, and Rat
  6. Popemobile
  7. Festivity Among the Crowd
  8. Thank You, Baltimore Police
  9. The KineticBaltimore.com Team

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The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race is sponsored and run by the American Visionary Art Museum. KineticBaltimore.com is the volunteer work of Tom Jones.
If you have suggestions about making this site better, or questions, e-mail Tom at tjones@spril.com.