New sport: Carbowling
 

Hi,

My group has come up with yet another new sport for micro rc cars: Carbowling!

Check out our setup here:

CarBowling!

Our main site is here:

Pittsburgh Micro Racers

-Rex Racer

sound like full metal challange on the TLC but they use real cars lol i guess this would be the poor mans version

Cool.
I am thinking about developing Bit Soccer. You would only need a square field with a goal of any size at each end. I originally thought about attaching a device on the front of the cars to help keep the ball in line. It might be more of a challange to just push a ball with nothing aftermarket attached to the frontend.

What are you using as pins? I couldn't tell from the picture.

They look like NERF foam darts.

pins and soccer
 

The pins are actually nerf foam darts. We are also experimenting with several other pin types, including food coloring bottles.

Since someone mentioned soccer, please take a look at our soccer (Carball) field and rules, as well

Carball

-Rex Racer

I have to say, neat idea, but one statement from tha page hits me as very arrogant:

no ZipZaps are allowed.

From someone that has Zips and MicroSizers and have just order a 350Z, I find it, as I said above, very arrogant.

Just my opinion.

I don't think he meant it arrogantly. ZipZaps are easier to control and slightly bigger. So it would kinda be cheating. :p

zipzaps
 

The only reason zipzaps are restricted in both carbowling and carball for our group is that they are bigger and heavier than bit cars. All of the members of our group have at least one bit car, but only some of the members have zipzaps. As such, allowing zipzaps in these two events would, in our view, give the zipzap owners an advantage. It seems to us that a heavier, larger zipzap would likely be able to knock more pins down, and we know from experience that in carball (soccer) the zips can pretty much knock the bits aside at will, giving zips a distinct advantage.

We like bits, several of us have them, but we are just trying to be fair to everyone.

-Rex Racer

Nice Micro site Rex. :)

I have been deciding on what to use as lane dividers. I might give that foam pipe insulation a try. I also like your layouts. It looks like you have maximixed the track space well. Good Job.

Hey, I might have to try the CarBall game! Looks like fun!

Rex Racer - instructions for carbowling only state "You start your "Ball" forward by pressing the accelerator button, and you are not permitted to release the accelerator or stop your car until it has cleared the pin area. " Does this mean you do not use left and right steering while headed towards the pins? If I can finish my track and ever setup for carball, maybe I'll get to try "carbowling". Keep up the great ideas.

carbowling
 

In reply to the question above, you CAN steer your car on the way down the bowling lane, but you CANNOT stop your car. Once you "hit the gas" and start down the lane, you have to keep going full throttle. Steering in a lane that narrow is quite tricky. Gutterballs are common. But steering right or left at the last moment when you hit the pins is a good strategy.

-Rex Racer

I know that you used foam darts for your pins, but could you shape some small pieces of wood into bowling pins and use them instead? Do you think that pine wood pins would damage the cars at all? Pine is light and the pins aren't stuck to the lane with magnets like they are on a real bowling alley when your going for that 300 game and your in your last frame. Anyway, let me know your thoughts. I think I am going to try it out.

Pins
 

Since we posted the pix on the site, we actually found some small (about 1.5 inches tall) plastic bowling pins from a toy game set. We are now using these (ill try to post a pic soon), and they work much better than the nerf darts. You get more "pin action" and can more easily get spares and strikes. Our record score on a five frame game is 73. With the nerf darts it was in the 40's.

-Rex Racer