‘Coolest Thing Made in South Carolina’ narrowed to 4

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Voters have chosen the Final Four.

An alcoholic beverage, an all-terrain vehicle, an MRI and fire prevention sprinklers are the last four items left in the third annual Manufacturing Madness contest, held by the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance to choose the “Coolest Thing Made in South Carolina.”

This year’s contest is presented by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.

The public voted March 11-14 for their favorites during the Top 8 round, and more than 41,000 votes were cast to determine which products would advance to the Top 4 bracket, according to a news release from the SCMA

The finalists are:

Honda Talon 1000R-4 Fox Live Valve, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. South Carolina Manufacturing, Florence County

High Noon Sun Sips, E. & J. Gallo Winery, Chester County

Fire Sprinklers, Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co. Inc., Pickens County

Signa Hero MRI Scanner, GE HealthCare, Florence

The last vote left out the 9-Speed Automatic Transmission, made by ZF Transmissions, Laurens County; M240 Series Machine Guns, made by FN Manufacturing LLC in Richland County; the model 670LXS yacht made by Scout Boats, Dorchester County; and Reishi, a kind of “mushroom leather” produced by MycoWorks in Union County.

Voters can visit scmanufacturingmadness.com to select a winner, which will be announced in a ceremony at the Statehouse on March 28. Voting for the winner ends at the end of day on March 21.

Created by the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, the Manufacturing Madness: The Coolest Thing Made in SC contest debuted in 2022. The F-16 Fighting Falcon made by Lockheed Martin in Greenville won the contest in 2023, and Steel made by Nucor Steel Berkeley in Huger won the inaugural contest in 2022.