There’s a brand new, frozen activity in NYC that will leave you spinning—literally.
Bumper cars on ice have slid into the rink at Aviator Sports in Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field just in time for the winter holiday season.
Officially making a public debut Friday, these flying saucer-like bumper cars will be the first of its kind in the city, according to Aviator.
So here’s how it works: the bumper cars are four-wheel drive and feature a dual steering system that goes in any direction. Straightforward enough, the gear shift is comprised of one lever on each side of the bumper cabin — push the two forward to go forward, push both back to reverse, etc.
The real fun comes with maneuvering, though. That’s when every wannabe Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell can attempt a “Top Gun” style, hard brake on ice by shifting one throttle forward and the other in reverse … just don’t hold it for too long, otherwise you risk spinning out, which is less than pleasant while on ice.
Since the bumper cars are set on an Aviator hockey rink from its blue line down, keep your head on a swivel because the boards are certainly in play.
Being the competitive news group that we are at Schneps Media, these two reporters challenged each other to see who would wear the honorary ice bumper car champion crown.
Alex’s tips
“When you get those bad boys out in the open a whole lot of damage could sure be caused. Since staying straight can be a bit tricky at times given the slippery terrain, I found moving in reverse to be quite effective at taking your opponent off guard. Not to mention, if you’ve played enough Need For Speed then drifting from reverse to forward will be a no brainer. I will admit that Jessica did land more incidental impact on my frozen bumper, though when I retaliated it was fierce and she went flying into the boards a few times as well.”
Jessica’s tips:
“Who knew that ice could bring bumper cars to a whole new level? The ice rink’s low friction sent the saucer-shaped cars flying at the slightest collision. But aside from relentlessly ramming into your fellow co-worker, spinning in place also proved to be quite amusing. It wasn’t too hard to get a grasp of steering, though it was sometimes challenging to keep a straight line. Luckily, it didn’t take me too long to discover that driving in reverse was the solution. And while I maneuvered my ice car swiftly, and attacked my opponent with a flurry of tactical blows, the raw power of several of my opponent’s strikes sent me reeling across the rink.”
Given that Jessica landed more contact but Alex’s strikes prove to have greater efficiency, determining a winner here is quite ambiguous. Though we hope that our readership takes kindly to the soccer style approach of calling the bout a draw between amNewYork and Brooklyn Paper.
If not, give us a ring and we’ll be happy to rematch during one of the weekends that Aviator’s ice bumper cars will be open on.
— ALEX MITCHELL and JESSICA PARKS
See a brief video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZH7YtTbR4k&feature=youtu.be
