Tl;dr- Buggy is a wild racing sport that I did in college.
Yes! There's someone inside that thing!
Here's a video of a really fast race.
My team, Fringe, is an assortment of people from all backgrounds on campus who want to participate in buggy.
If you have no idea what's happening here, this is the page for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw59U-WQezQ&list=PLhqGWdtGPmeQ02rUW3svp4FET0UVBqN4u&ab_channel=CMUBuggy
Buggy, officially known as Carnegie Mellon Sweepstakes, is essentially a relay race in which the baton is a non-motorized vehicle (usually driven by a small person) and people push the vehicle uphill. Check out this video to see how someone actually fits inside!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0u8yxQaTVo&ab_channel=CarnegieMellonUniversity
Around a dozen teams all around CMU's campus compete during the annual Spring Carnival. In the year leading up to each Raceday, teams practice early in the morning during every weekend that's safe enough for drivers to be rolling. Here's a playlist of a bunch of neat buggy videos.
My team, Fringe, is rather secretive so I'm hesitant to put up any pictures of our builds online. One of the independent teams, Apex, is an open-source team and has some neat pictures of their builds on their Instagram, if you're interested in what an example build might entail.
A lot. Each team puts in countless hours of hard work, sweat, tears, sometimes blood, usually carbon fiber, a couple of wheels, and most importantly, their love for the sport and each other.
Most teams have a collaborative environment where everyone, no matter their prior experience, is welcome to contribute, learn, and help out wherever they can.
Teams need drivers, mechanics, pushers, and people who will support their team in every way they can.
Drivers (aptly named) drive the buggies around the course. They're the bravest people on the course as they speed downhill at top speeds nearing 40 mph.
Pushers are also fairly self-explanatory, but pushing each of the five hills has a bit of nuance, as they're all different inclines and lengths.
Mechanics do the rest. They build the buggies, maintain them, and make sure everything during practice rolls goes smoothly.
I started as a mechanic & pusher for my team from 2015 to 2019. I was a Head Mechanic ('18-'19) for my team and helped design & build our new buggy in 2019, named Blind Faith.
Before Raceday each year, teams will showcase all their buggies and submit a few to judges for design reviews which culminate with awards. I helped organize this event as the Design Comp Chair ('17-'18).
Back to 2019, I got to present Blind Faith at Design Comp and we succeeded in winning 1st place! You can see how happy I was at the award ceremony after seeing all our hard work pay off. Luck was on my side as I ended up getting to push Faith in my heat on Raceday.
Feel free to reach out to me if you want more detail on how buggies are built! (Unless you're a spy for another team- I'm watching you, SDC...)
Blind Faith (2019) is the buggy we built in 2019. As it was our team's 50th anniversary, the design had some callback features.
Our Women's team was fantastic in 2019. They dropped nearly 5 seconds between prelims and finals and placed 4th, which is really good!
Luckily, I ended up pushing Men's Hill 2 that year so I got to give it that downhill shove. The prelims race didn't count but I explain that below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArJg4E8PHUQ