Archive for the ‘Operator Challenge’ tag
Caterpillar Operator Challenge: “Toughest Competition on Earth”
This morning I happened upon the blog of Caterpillar Operator Challenge Finals 2008, a scraping-digging-dumping olympiad held in early November at Cat’s proving grounds in Malaga, Spain. The winner: Sabastian Behr of Germany.
Overall there were eight machine tests: truck loading with a large wheel loader, basement excavation with a track-type loader, finish grading with a small track-type tractor, load and haul production with a front shovel excavator and an off highway truck, site utilities with a multi terrain loader and a compact wheel loader, confined operation with a compact radius mini excavator, road construction with a motor grader and GPS guidance system with a large excavator.
The competition is the finale of a series of smaller challenges at Cat dealers across Europe. Winners of those events went to Malaga.
Cat’s multimedia team produced a host of slick videos about the competition notable for their sexy soundtracks and scant detail on how the competitions actually work (though let’s face it, there’s not much Human Drama of Athletic Competition in seeing who can shovel the most dirt into an off-highway truck; Agony of Defeat is either a callous or a calamity that kills dozens, neither of which burnishes Cat’s brand).
Actually the coolest thing at the competition blog was this video of the Caterpillar Race of 1930.
(Please excuse the silly silent-movie-era sound effects.)
One thing I can’t help wondering: where are the Americans?