![]() As the creators of the ride anticipated, people loved the wild rides and did not mind being thrown about the arena with little sense of where they would end up. Imprecise steering did not deter early riders of bumper cars, however. In part, it was also due to the construction of the cars, which left the motor underneath the car and made steering less precise. This lack of maneuverability was due in part to the design of the founders, who wanted the unpredictability of the ride to be part of its fun. While they came with steering wheels, one review of the cars described the steering as “relative,” meaning that the car only went in vaguely the direction it was steered. However, the first bumper cars were, in fact, not very driveable at all. And part of the fun is directing them at the other participants in order to create the collisions that send the car spinning dizzyingly across the room. Part of the appeal of bumper cars, for adults and kids, is the ability to drive them around the arena. The first bumper cars for adults and children were not actually driveable. The cars’ flimsiness was due primarily to their construction out of tin, a material that provided very little protection or durability. And, after the very first season, all of the Dodgem cars were so far past repair that they were summarily burned. At other times, pieces (and sometimes occupants) would go flying after a collision. Hammering dents out of the body of each car was also a nightly routine for those who ran the rides. The cars were also known to dent from a single kick. Often, the cars needed to be nailed back together at the end of every day after the ride had closed. For example, cars that rammed into the sides of the ride would often have difficulty starting again. There was a good reason behind Dodgem’s marketing of bumper cars for adults and children as a game of collision avoidance: The cars would usually fall apart upon impact. The reason the first bumper cars were not supposed to bump? Because they would fall apart. While collisions often did occur, these were the products of chance and steering failures, and were not the main point of the ride. ![]() The thrill came instead, from trying one’s hardest to avoid colliding with other bumper cars, even as your car careened around in crazy and unpredictable patterns (Thanks to intentionally unreliable steering). In one Russian version of bumper cars for adults, collisions were penalized by an immediate cessation of the ride. ![]() In the early 1920s, however, the whole point of bumper cars was to avoid collisions (Thus the name, “Dodgem” that was given to the first bumper cars and the company that made them). It is the unpredictable movements of the cars both before and after collisions that provide the hilarity and fun during the ride. The whole point of bumper cars for adults and kids nowadays is to ram into other participants as often and as hard as possible. The first bumper cars were not supposed to collide with each other. Here are 5 facts about early bumper cars that will leave you thankful for the modern day rides you can enjoy today. While you may be familiar with the bumper cars for adults and kids at bumper car places like amusement parks and indoor fun venues like PINSTACK, you might not know the sometimes alarming, sometimes amusing, and always surprising facts behind the earliest versions of these rides. First introduced in the early 1920s by a company called Dodgem, bumper car rides have been a hilarious and unpredictable way to unleash pent up energy for almost a century. Bumper cars for adults and kids alike are one of the most iconic, popular, and long-lasting amusement park rides out there.
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