Breathing new life into a fair favourite

Bumper cars, those little rubber padded vehicles that run on electricity via a pole on their backs reaching up to an electrically charged overhead plate, have crept into the heart of fairgoers across the globe. But what happens to these bumping vehicles once they’ve reached the end of their bumpy roads? In California, America, they are zooming round in the streets … .

Tom Wright, a builder in the outskirts of San Diego – who figured the leftovers of the Long Beach Pike amusement park needed a more dignified end than a landfill – converted some of the bumper cars into fully street-legal, fair-retro mini-vehicles.

He created seven of these vintage bumper cars, which were originally powered by two-cylinder Harley Davidson motorcycle engines, but later (due to the bad two-cylinder vibrations) Wright opted for smoother four-cylinder Honda and Kawasaki 750 motorcycle engines.

This sorted out the bumpy ride, and also delivered astounding power, with some the beasties reaching recorded speeds of up to 250 km/h. Wow! However, this is sure to be terrifying due to the bumper cars short wheelbase. (Luckily you know you’ll be safe if you bump into anything … .)