There are many individual competitive events for powered vehicles; Grand Prix, Dragsters, Bike Racing, Rallying, Speedboating, Enduro racing, Monster Trucks, Tractor Pulling.

These are analogous in many ways to the events in the Olympic Games. Sprinting, Cross Country, Rowing, Long Jump, Weightlifting, Shooting.

We propose, once every four years, an Internal Combustion Olympics; all the different disciplines in the one place - air racing, boats, submarines, tanks, mopeds, dirt bikes, Le Mans cars, Formula One ..... if it has an internal combustion engine and a human can drive it, there should be an event for it - even precision hole digging against the clock with a backhoe loader. Nations could enter diesel electric submarines to race round a course, trying to evade the "hunting" warships above; commuters could be amused by the sight of roadsweepers racing down streets lined with parked cars, trying to collect the most debris in the shortest time. Thrill as the dragsters rev their engines; gasp at the balletic precision of the synchronised ploughing teams; cheer as the stacker trucks round the final bend to drop their pallet of eggs onto the back of the flatbed truck, which then races away on the next leg of the All Comers Freight Relay. Don't forget your earplugs and tin hat if you go to the Tank Biathlon, or your antihisthamines if you're lucky enough to get a trackside seat at the lawnmower race heats.

Events could be combined with major construction or demolition projects to get extra value for the host city.

Let's do it now, before the oil runs out .....

Ideas for other events are solicited.
-- 8th of 7, May 20 2008

The Internal Combustion olympics could be an event to build the stadium for the real olympics.
-- Sparkyplugclean, Nov 07 2009


//earplugs and tin hat // ...and gum-guard, if what I hear about toothless tankies is true.
-- pertinax, Nov 09 2009


... thought it was going to be something to do with Scotch bell peppers...
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 09 2009


This is an offense to all proponents of external combustion engines -- why should Otto cycle and Diesel cycle and Brayton cycle engines be allowed, whilst Rankine cycle engines are excluded?
-- goldbb, Nov 10 2009



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