RAY: Here's the answer. The part that traveled the farthest is the part without which none of the trip could have been possible. The key.

TOM: Yeah. The only question would be because it went from your house, to the car, and back in your pocket.

RAY: Right, so unless you slept in the car and didn't get out of the car, but I made it pretty clear that they stopped in Connecticut, and they obviously didn't leave the key in the car when they did that. Anyway, do we have a winner?

TOM: We certainly have a winner. It's Zack Westcott from Oxford, Pennsylvania. And for having his answer selected at random from among all the our dumpster full of correct answers, Zack gets a 26-dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at Car Talk.com, with which he can put a hefty down payment on our new four CD set called Car Talk Classics: Four Perfectly Good Hours.

RAY: Hefty down payment. Now these are four complete shows as they originally aired with every call, every wrong answer, every snort, everything. Nothing taken out.

TOM: Four shows unedited. Is that what people really want these days?

RAY: Well you know, we tried selling them in edited version, with just the good stuff.

TOM: And --

RAY: Well you know, most people were a little disappointed when the CD ended after only 37 seconds.

TOM: OK. Well check out these four wonderful shows, Zack, and congratulations!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]