The wife and I went to one at the county fair last night, I had never seen one. It was surprisingly entertaining. Started with some compact cars, then some midsized cars, some compact pickups and minivans, and some full-sized cars. Had a big muddy pit they competed in, and fleet of tractors and a front end loader to haul out the dead ones. I couldn't identify some vehicles as they had already had their exteriors pretty well stripped, but in the pickup/minivan heat I made out an 80s Chrysler minivan, a 90s Chrysler minivan, and a 90s Chevy Blazer. The 90s Chrysler minivan won; he had a good strategy of backing into others with his massive rear and disabling them. The Blazer fared pretty well, and we thought it was done when the minivan broke off one of his rear wheels. I guess he must have had limited slip or locked diff because he kept moving with his rear hub hanging out in air until his radiator got punctured and it overheated.
So a couple things I noticed that had me scratching my head. It looked like many of these vehicles had tiny rear tires, either donut spares or what appeared to be lawn tractor tires. I suppose since many were front wheel drive and they are in mud they aren't useful for much, but is that to make a smaller target or just a cheap way of avoiding a full tire? Also, they seemed to have no suspension, they didn't "bounce" or compress. Almost like they either had really stiff springs or they were fixed in position. Any idea why?
It was interesting seeing all the possible failure modes though; broken struts, broken tie rods, punctured radiators, a couple actually caught fire, broken or missing wheels, tires that finally popped and eventually got torn off the rims. After one had his radiator hemorrhaging coolant, his engine soon died with a shower of sparks out the exhaust. One heat had to be called off when the couple remaining were doing a good job of evading each other or just barely tapping each other (much booing from the crowd), but when they finally collided, their bumpers got stuck together.
So a couple things I noticed that had me scratching my head. It looked like many of these vehicles had tiny rear tires, either donut spares or what appeared to be lawn tractor tires. I suppose since many were front wheel drive and they are in mud they aren't useful for much, but is that to make a smaller target or just a cheap way of avoiding a full tire? Also, they seemed to have no suspension, they didn't "bounce" or compress. Almost like they either had really stiff springs or they were fixed in position. Any idea why?
It was interesting seeing all the possible failure modes though; broken struts, broken tie rods, punctured radiators, a couple actually caught fire, broken or missing wheels, tires that finally popped and eventually got torn off the rims. After one had his radiator hemorrhaging coolant, his engine soon died with a shower of sparks out the exhaust. One heat had to be called off when the couple remaining were doing a good job of evading each other or just barely tapping each other (much booing from the crowd), but when they finally collided, their bumpers got stuck together.
