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"Batmobile" Named Junkyard Derby Champion

By Ioana Patringenaru  for

May 15, 2006--What does it take to win the Triton Junkyard Derby? Hard work and creativity? Sure. But last Friday, it also took a Batman costume and some black paper.

Team Gotham's Batmobile won the 2006 Triton Junkyard Derby.

These were some of the ingredients that went into this year’s winning boxcar, a Batmobile look-alike built by a team of Jacobs School electrical engineering students who called themselves Team Gotham. Team members used store-bought paper to build a Batmobile shell around their contraption. Andrew Chan, the driver, was clad in a Batman costume, including a mask. Why Batman? “It’s a classic,” said student Daniel Leu.

For a while, it looked like Team Gotham had met its demise after losing to the electrical engineering society’s AC/DC team in time trials. But this year, teams could also earn points for creativity, decorations and crowd support. So in the end, Batman and Team Gotham made up for their loss and prevailed, becoming derby champions.

The Triton Junkyard Derby, presented by the UCSD Alumni Association and the Triton Engineering Student Council, is in its third year. It is inspired by the popular Discovery Channel show “Junkyard Wars.”

Media Contacts

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Denine Hagen
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-2920
dhagen@ucsd.edu