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Sport: Motorsport
Car range   (+2)  [vote for, against]
Shoot cars at targets

Car range is set up on a disused airfield or similar.

Targets are created out of stiff but brittle substance so that car driving through target creates car-shaped hole in target.

Car is modified with override so driver has no control over brakes or throttle. Low-tech version is a mechanical override, actuated by a cable that unreels behind the car, but electrical ones are possible too.

Car sits at starting line. Driver sits in seat and grasps steering wheel. On the signal, throttle is opened to full power and override engaged to prevent driver from slowing.

Driver's task is to point the car at the centre of the target sheet. Points are scored for accurate piercing of target.

Once car has passed or pierced target, override is disabled allowing driver to safely slow car and return to the starting line.

Target is renewed and next driver presents self on starting line.
-- pocmloc, Oct 27 2020

Carnage https://www.sky.com...b-aa67-e85bae448b42
Amusing [8th of 7, Oct 28 2020]

add more air bags and a vertical dimension? https://en.wikipedi...Scrapheap_Challenge
Series 05 Episode 12 - Car flinger [wjt, Oct 31 2020]

An "override" is asking for trouble (if it jams/fails etc).
Rather, use an electric drive that either shuts off just after the target (distance measure or trigger in the ground behind the target) or only has enough battery power to get to the target at full acceleration, so CAN'T continue at top speed. (I chose electric because it's more precise than a tank of petrol...)
Basically, instead of disallowing deceleration for the run, disallow power AFTER the run.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Oct 27 2020


// safely //

Putative croissant witheld pending revision of a disappointing adjective to something less wimpy.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 27 2020


Just vague curiosity here, but what would be the point of this exercise? Simply to see if the target can be run into?
-- whatrock, Oct 27 2020


It's just smashing up stuff, why, does there have to be any other reason ?
-- 8th of 7, Oct 27 2020


//what would be the point of this exercise?//
1: This is the halfbakery. Your question is irrelevant.
2: The same point as driving round & round a track, or shooting a bullet at a target - it's a sport/contest.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Oct 27 2020


I prefer my cars broiled.
-- Voice, Oct 28 2020


More like carnage than car range.
-- xenzag, Oct 28 2020


Baked. <link>
-- 8th of 7, Oct 28 2020


OK a more safer and more simpler to installer option would be a pair of switches, one on the throttle pedal and one on the brake pedal, so that if the throttle was not on the floor or if the brake pedal was touched, a big light would light up to show that the run should be disqualified.

It is not meant to be dangerous so carnage should be a minimum.

It is a test of steering accuracy and holding ones nerve.

If steering a straight line down the runway was too easy then a couple of obstacles could be placed so as to force the driver to follow a curving path to the target.

Instead of paper target could have a nested series of rings suspended on light thread for the target, and a prong on the front of the car. The score would be based on the total number of rings caught on the prong. Bullseye ring could be 10cm diameter - could be a challenge to skewer that at full power.
-- pocmloc, Oct 28 2020


Might be a money maker. Those folks down in the Deep South have built an entire industry out of driving their vehicles in a circle; this exercise would require a bit more thought as well as a setup that allows the driver to turn right as well as left. Might catch on.
-- whatrock, Oct 28 2020


// It is not meant to be dangerous so carnage should be a minimum. //

<Places croissant back in cupboard/>

// It is a test of steering accuracy and holding ones nerve. //

Anyone who's ever driven in Paris in the rush hour will ace this, then.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 28 2020


Will anyone be harmed? Gosh I hope not...heeheehee or do I?
-- blissmiss, Oct 28 2020


Perhaps blindfolds would help the idea?
-- UnaBubba, Oct 29 2020



random, halfbakery