the.com/bumper car
The one vehicle where crashing is the whole point of driving well.
means A small electric-powered car driven in an enclosed rink, designed to bump into other cars for fun rather than avoid them.
from From 'bumper,' the padded rubber rim encircling the car that absorbs collisions — the same word used for the protective bar on a regular automobile, borrowed because that's exactly what it does here, just on purpose. The rides themselves trace to early-20th-century amusement park attractions, originally running on electrified floors and ceiling grids that powered the cars through a pole, letting riders collide safely and legally — a rare case of a vehicle named for the one thing you're actually trying to do with it.
- origin
- Invented in 1920s, originally called Dodgem
- physics lesson
- Rubber bumpers teach kids Newton's third law
- irony
- Steering wheel barely affects where you actually go
- safety twist
- Collisions are the feature, not the flaw