Category 5: Vehicles

Eric	Richard	Khurram	Derrick
Deloreon	Tumbler	Air Force One	Ironman Suit
Millennium Falcon	F-22 Raptor	KITT	Batpod
Submarine	Serenity	Death Star	Eleanor

Round 1: Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need any roads! Eric takes the Delorean and its flux capacitor in round 1 of Category 5, and thereby has the best pick of the round, if not the category. My pick of the Tumbler was a very good one but was largely motivated by having seen The Dark Knight two days beforehand. Air Force one is cool and all, but it doesn’t necessarily come with a military escort, nor can it fly at speeds greater than the speed of sound, so wherever Khurram is planning on fly to could take a while. The Ironman suit is a pretty solid pick and allows for a more personalized level of travel. However, one must wonder if long distance travel would be a problem in the suit.

Round 2: Wikipedia says the Batpod is an updated version of Batman’s personal Batcycle which was a modified streetbike with a 786cc liquid cooled v-4 engine! It also contained a computer controlled carburetor and bullet-proof wind-guard. And Holy Ambiguously Gay Duo, Batman! The later model Batpods also came fully equipped with a side car for Robin. Alright, after that little history lesson: The bike has 20" front and rear tires (basically the Tumbler's front wheels), and is powered by a high-performance, water-cooled, single-cylinder engine - geared toward the lower end for faster acceleration and there are no exhaust pipes. The exhaust is routed through the hollow steel/aluminum/magnesium tubing used for the frame of the bike. [6] The Batpod is steered by the shoulders instead of hands, and the rider's arms are protected by shields.

I cannot fully analyze Khurram’s pick of KITT until I figure out if it is the new one or the old one. I should penalize him for not picking KITT to begin with and instead using a mulligan to squeeze this one in. Wikipedia lists about 20 different features for KITT and needless to say, I’m thoroughly impressed. Of note: KITT is loaded with special features such as the commonly-used Turbo Boost, which allows quick bursts of speed or jumping over obstacles. KITT could also drive himself, but perhaps his most distinct and recognizable aspect was his front mounted scan bar which, among other things, allowed KITT to "see". KITT's body panels were coated with an advanced "molecular bonded shell" armor coating which would resist conventional weapon fire as well as most artillery and explosive blasts although a strong direct hit by those attacks could cause severe damage. The creepy thing about KITT though is the artificial intelligence that always knows what you’re doing inside the car. So when Khurram tries to get a little action going with his woman inside the car, KITT will be right there. Watching. Perhaps even commentating.

My pick of The F-22 Raptor was just as generic as Khurram’s pick of Air Force One. At least my plane can go more than Mach 2, has weaponry and is stealth capable. Eric adds space travel to his list with the pick of the Millennium Falcon and continues his well rounded draft. While the Batpod is sweet and KITT is a good pick (though again, for someone who loves Knight Rider as much as Khurram, I have to penalize for not taking KITT in the initial round) I think the round again belongs to Eric for both the obvious reasons and reasons to be described in round 3.

Round 3: Eric’s pick of a submarine covers sea travel and is a solid but uninspired pick. That’s okay though, as his damage was done in the previous round. I chose Serenity for two reasons. First, I love the show/movie. Second, I got the idea for space travel from Eric. To make matters worse, Joss Whedon, creator of Serentiy, said the idea for the ship was largely inspired by the Millennium Falcon itself. When you think about the fact that both of these ships are made for smuggling runs, this makes sense.

Khurram also went the space travel route and didn’t even bother to leave the Star Wars Universe. Though the Death Start with its Blast Protector Door is a fearsome foe (sure it can blow up Earth, but what good would that do since all of Khurram’s other favorite things are still located on Earth?), it is a poor choice for travel and is more like a space station rather than a vehicle. We counted it as a vehicle though, so I can’t take that way from Khurram. Still though, it seems like this pick was inspired by Eric.
Derrick picks the only “normal” vehicle and goes with Eleanor, the Ford Mustang GT-500 from Gone in 60 Seconds. I’m not a car guy (though I almost picked the Nissan GT-R) but I remember the car from the movie and that is enough to convince me that Derrick had the best pick of the round.

Overall Impressions: Its clear that Eric had the best 3 rounds of this category overall. I think the Tumbler and KITT cancel each other out as do the F-22 and Air Force One (Seating capactiy and comfort vs. Speed and armament). The Death Star is cumbersome but deadly, Serenity is nondescript but gets the job done and will actually travel places with some measure of speed. Adding all of that up, Khurram and I had comparable selections this round. On the other hand, Derrick had a unique category and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Though that is not really any different than most of his other categories.