Cars Solution

How It Works

The list of cars given to teams, and the list of blanks/dates corresponded to car make/models on the show floor.

The connection between artificial names and car names was simply anagramming.

The numbers next to arranged car names are applied to the true car names in the list to get letters.

In order - teams got "Toyota Prios", this answer led teams to look in the back of a toyota prius in the parking lot, with the license plate 'PRIOS'. One last sheet of paper gives a new set of anagrams, which led to the final answer.

Data

yearanagram
------
1935Converted Cathedrals
1948Humpbacked Notaries
1952Coherently Evillest
1953Oaring Drakes
1955Monocled Fruits
1957Rhetorical Bevel
1958Clear Speed
1963Merrily Spherical
1963Steroidal forelimbs
1964Conifer Noodle
1966Frogman Dust

Solution

AUTOCRACIES

Design Notes

The Lemay museum had a collection of classic cars from the right era. This puzzle was largely an excuse to let teams walk around some very shiny old cars.

Construction Notes

Cars were manufactured between the years of 1930-1998. Distributed factories and manufacturers.

The puzzle was written by scripting against Tea Crossword Helper, using a text database from the museum.

GC Notes

Some schedule fall throughs got the last six teams to the museum after it closed at 7:00 am. Also, because the museum moved cars around frequently for events, so the final version of the puzzle (selection of cars) had to be constructed four days before the event.