sports-car-corn-maze-MG-TD

MG

Corn Maze

Vintage sports cars drive through the English car maker’s iconic octagon logo.

octagon-corn-maze-MG
octagon-corn-maze-MG

MG

Corn Maze

Vintage sports cars drive through the English car maker’s iconic octagon logo.

sports-car-corn-maze-MG-TD

The challenge: Drive through the 8-foot tall corn labyrinth, one car at a time, as quickly as possible. Upon entering the maze and proceeding to the right, the driver and navigator had to guess how to proceed at each intersection. An incorrect choice caused the team to encounter a dead end consisting of straw bale roadblock.

Dead ends: Unlike a traditional footpath maze, participants could not simply turn around and seek another route. Due to the narrow width of the lanes cut through the 8-foot tall corn field, turning the car around was not an option. Drivers had to back up to the previous intersection and decide how to proceed. Also, simply backtracking to the entrance was not an option because course workers placed a straw bale behind the car upon entering the octagon, thereby forcing the team to negotiate the maze.

The challenge: Drive through the 8-foot tall corn labyrinth, one car at a time, as quickly as possible. Upon entering the maze and proceeding to the right, the driver and navigator had to guess how to proceed at each intersection. An incorrect choice caused the team to encounter a dead end consisting of straw bale roadblock.

Dead ends: Unlike a traditional footpath maze, participants could not simply turn around and seek another route. Due to the narrow width of the lanes cut through the 8-foot tall corn field, turning the car around was not an option. Drivers had to back up to the previous intersection and decide how to proceed. Also, simply backtracking to the entrance was not an option because course workers placed a straw bale behind the car upon entering the octagon, thereby forcing the team to negotiate the maze.

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The solution: The shortest and quickest route through the octagonal maze was to make seven successive turns. The winning team did just that in just 1 minute and 18 seconds. Only one team failed to exit within the 8-minute bogey time and had to be rescued by a 9-year-old on a bicycle!

The solution: The shortest and quickest route through the octagonal maze was to make seven successive turns. The winning team did just that in just 1 minute and 18 seconds. Only one team failed to exit within the 8-minute bogey time and had to be rescued by a 9-year-old on a bicycle!

The MG Octagon Corn Maze was the featured event at the Glasgow Green Trials, a good natured driving skills competition conducted in 1997 for the Ohio Chapter of the New England MG ‘T’ Register. It was created by John Olman at the Glasgow Green Farm in Pleasant Plain, OH (near Cincinnati).

From Moss Motoring Magazine (Winter 1997)

If You Build It, They Will Come...

From Moss Motoring Magazine (Winter 1997)
We are all familiar with the Field of Dreams quotation, but what if someone cut an octagon-shaped maze in an Ohio cornfield and asked MG drivers to take their cars through it? Well, they built it and they came! Nearly 50 MG cars, mostly T-types attempted to solve the puzzle as part of the Glasgow Green Trials, a daylong driving skills event sponsored by the Ohio Chapter of the NEMGTR (New England MG T Register). John Olman, an MG enthusiast and owner of the farm began planning the maze over a year ago. He enlisted the help of Adrian Fisher a noted English maze designer and when completed the maze measured 315 feet across, in corn eight feet high! Covering over two acres there were over 2300 feet of nine-foot wide trails. Only a single car was allowed in the maze at any time and it required seven turns to exit the puzzle correctly, for which a bogey time of eight minutes was allowed. The winners were Doug and Spencer White in a ’59 MGA, and we’re delighted to report that only one entrant got lost and needed assistance! Certainly a challenge, as our photos by John Olman show. Congratulations to all involved for something just a little different!

WANTED: 4-acre sections of corn field in US and Canada to recreate the Octagon Corn Maze for MGs sports cars to drive in. Great opportunity for charitable fundraiser.  All it takes is a willing land owner and an adventurous MG club. June-July are ideal times for shaping the maze. Assistance with logistics will be cheerfully shared.