在參訪MIT時，得知一件MIT人引以為傲的搞怪事，就是一群不知名的學生，把一輛汽車不知不覺得弄上MIT的碗公屋頂上。隔天校方出動吊車及直昇機才弄下這台車。
(MIT的碗公屋頂)
沒想到，這樣的創意，是其來有自的啊～
50年前，一群英國劍橋大學工程系的學生就做過類似的事了。
不知道MIT汽車事件解密了沒？
屋頂上的汽車…50年後解謎
【聯合報╱編譯林沿瑜／報導】 2008.06.29 05:25 am
惡作劇可以高超到什麼程度？一群英國劍橋大學工程系的學生50年前把一輛汽車弄上21公尺高的校舍屋頂，隔天不僅引來大批民眾圍觀，還上了報紙的頭條。一直到50年後這群「元凶」開同學會，「懸案」謎底才揭曉。
英國「每日郵報」報導，1958年6月，20出頭的戴維在劍橋大學「岡維爾與凱爾斯學院」俯瞰行政大樓，突然覺得寬大的屋頂應該有饒富趣味的裝點，於是呼朋引伴找來了11人，決定把一輛破舊的「奧斯汀七型」（Austin Seven）汽車放大樓屋頂上。
要把汽車弄上屋頂，先得把汽車拖到校園另一側的行政大樓停車場上，他們刻意把吊車的日子選在五月分學校舉辦划船賽的那周，還在汽車上放了「歡迎參加舞會」的廣告標語。
惡作劇集團分為三組。地面組負責穩住車身，讓吊車順利展開，並派了幾個露大腿的女同學，分散行人注意力；天橋組在「岡維爾與凱爾斯學院」和行政大樓間架天橋，讓人和起重機順利到達行政大樓屋頂；吊拉組則利用起重機拉抬汽車。
翌日，校方試圖把汽車放回地面，不過任務失敗，車在屋頂待了七天。
這群具有「創意」的大學生後來飛黃騰達。以現年72歲的「首謀」戴維為例，他畢業後曾獲頒皇室的「司令勳章」，也創立「自動化及機器人工程公司」獲頒榮譽博士學位；當然，50年後的今天，這群人已年逾七旬，曾經參與行動的部分同學已辭世。
【2008/06/29 聯合報】
Revealed after 50 years: The secret of the greatest-ever student prank
By Laura Clark
Last updated at 11:37 PM on 27th June 2008
It was probably the most ingenious student prank of all time.
In June 1958, Cambridge awoke to see a car perched at the apex of an inaccessible rooftop, looking as if it were driving across the skyline.
The spectacle made headlines around the world and left police, firefighters and civil defence units battling for nearly a week to hoist the vehicle back down before giving in and taking it to pieces with blowtorches.
Anywhere for a parking space: The students perched the Austin Seven on the top of the Senate House roof
The shadowy group of engineering students who executed the stunt were never identified and the mystery of how they did it has baffled successive undergraduates and provided fodder for countless tourist guides.
Now, 50 years on, the group have reunited to disclose their identities and reveal how they winched an Austin Seven to the top of the university's 70ft-high Senate House.
At an anniversary dinner this month, ringleader Peter Davey revealed he had hatched the plan while staying in rooms at Gonville and Caius College overlooking the Senate House roof.
He felt the expanse of roof 'cried out' to be made more interesting and decided a car would do the trick, recruiting 11 others to help realise his plan.
The group chose the May Bumps week, when any passers-by were likely to be drunken rowers celebrating after their races.
After finding a clapped-out Austin Seven, the group had to tow it through Cambridge to a parking space near Senate House but hit on the idea of sticking signs on it advertising a May ball to explain its presence.
Mr Davey, now 72, said a ground party manoeuvred the car into position while a lifting party on the Senate House roof hoisted it up using an A-shaped crane constructed from scaffolding poles and steel rope.
A third group, the bridge party, passed a plank across the notorious Senate House Leap - an 8ft gap between the roof and a turret window at Caius - and helped the lifters ferry across lifting gear comprising three types of rope, hooks and pulleys.
Policemen who heard a commotion as the equipment passed above them questioned some of the ground party but were distracted by careless drivers nearby and left them alone.
Enlarge Vertical lift: The mechanics of the prank baffled onlookers
Three carousing rowers spotted the car swinging about 40ft up, despite the efforts of two girls on the ground team who had been recruited to hitch up their skirts a couple of inches to distract passers-by - a ploy more likely to work in 1958 than now. The rowers were fobbed off with the explanation that it was a tethered balloon.
The stunt almost went awry when the team tried to swing the car through the apex of the A-frame, over the Senate House balustrade and on to the roof.
They had failed to erect a rope check line running from the Caius side which would have steadied the vehicle. It crashed on to the roof from 5ft above it and, fearing they would be discovered, the lifting team hastily pushed it to the apex before grabbing their equipment and fleeing over the plank bridge.
The next day the bizarre sight enthralled crowds of onlookers as attempts by the authorities to construct a crane to hoist it back down failed.
The then Dean of Caius, the late Rev Hugh Montefiore, had an inkling who was responsible and sent a congratulatory case of champagne to their staircase, while maintaining in public he knew nothing of the culprits. Unsurprisingly given their inventiveness, many of the group went on to enjoy illustrious careers - and Caius officials said the ' renegades' had turned into generous benefactors of the college.
Enlarge The morning after: Peter Davey celebrates the prank, and later received a case of champagne from then-Dean, Rev Hugh Montefiore
Mr Davey, from Mousehole, Cornwall, was awarded a CBE and an honorary doctorate after setting up automation and robotics companies while another, Cyril Pritchett, was a lieutenant colonel in the Army.
Two of the team of 12 live abroad and could not make the reunion dinner at Caius.
One, David Fowler, had died and was represented by his widow Denise.
The reunited pranksters said their only regret was that the car was not left in place for ever.
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