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Dick Dale's "Nitro" propelled laserd8's playlist to the top of the pack in SW's Tune-Up contest.

Everyone knows you can't quantify music, let alone musical taste. So when I summoned SW editors Dave Reed and Stuart Streuli to the conference room to help judge the Tune-Up contest, which asked readers to submit their favorite pre-race playlists for a chance to win Oakley Thump Pro sunglasses, I knew we were in for a challenge.

I mean, how do you compare Whitesnake to James Blunt? (Steel cage match, perhaps?) Who's to say that listening to a Schubert piano composition is a better way to prepare for a race than by pumping a heretical anthem by Tool? There is no empirical method for evaluating people's musical preferences, which is why the three of us just sat down in front of an iTunes-equipped computer, listened to all the playlists, then argued for our personal favorites.

I vetoed any playlist containing Jimmy Buffett (not a fan), Dave trumpeted the cause of the SoCal punks, and Stu threw his rhetorical skills behind his boyhood idols, Kiss. Among the 50-odd playlists submitted, the most frequent songs were "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins, "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, and "Click Click Boom" by Saliva. Listening to all the songs, we discovered a number of new favorites, like "Death Machine" by Fiction Plane, "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson, and "Princess of the Night" by Saxon, a glorious heavy metal quintet that somehow manages to out Spinal-Tap Spinal Tap.

On the next page you'll see our top-five playlists, determined through careful examination, thorough discussion, and good old fashioned editorial bias.