Introduction

The sun shines warm on the pavement as the competitors line up to the starting grid. Everyone is ready, cars all set to go. The flag comes down and they’re off, screaming down the straightaway into the first turn, bouncing off the guardrails and each other, flying over gaps in the pavement, and careening off the track into the television set.



While it may not be a very realistic racing game, PitchCar by Ferti Games, designed by Jean Du Poel is a fantastic dexterity game. PitchCar combines simple rules with skillful play and zero luck to make a crowd favorite.

The Bits

PitchCar is a simple affair, really; 16 pieces of interlocking, laminated wooden track (6 straights, 10 curves), 16 pieces of guardrail that slots into the track, 8 wooden cars, and a box.



The track itself isn’t just wood, it’s MDF (Fiberboard…think of it as cardboard’s industrial strength cousin). It’s very precisely made and laminated top and bottom (top only in some editions) with a black countertop-style surface, to reduce friction. Puzzle-piece tabs interlock different sections of track together, enabling the modular system to create possibly hundreds of unique track configurations (11 are supplied with the game.) Overall, very well made track pieces, and they have to be, as in a dexterity game the components define gameplay. It should be noted, though, that because of the puzzle-piece nature of the track, the track surface is only as smooth as the table it’s on, as topographical inconsistencies (bumps) can cause the joints to have dips, bumps, and ramps, which sends cars flying everywhere if drivers are not too careful. Uneven surfaces can be shimmed with playing cards or other thin materials for a smoother track.



The plastic guardrails fit into the slots in the track so that your cars can actually make turns and not fly off the dining room table. The guardrails are high-quality and flexible, durable, bouncy plastic, making for some Pinball-style moments. However, I have noticed a very slight tendancy for them to pop out of the slots at inopportune moments. Some say it’s just part of the game; I say it’s terribly annoying when it happens. Tapping them in lightly with a hammer doesn’t seem to help, and I refuse to glue them.



The 8 wooden cars are just discs in 8 colors, with a car printed on top. The colors (In Car/Disc notation) are Gold/Orange, White/Black, White/Green, Pink/Blue, Pink/Wood, Black/Yellow, Black/Red, and Gold/Pink. They have rounded edges so that when they do hit gaps in the track, they have a chance to skip over them rather than just bounce or pole-vault off of them.



Flick…Whee!

Gameplay in PitchCar is fairly simple. The basics are simply to flick your car (using any finger you choose) to get it around the track. If your car knocks another car off the track, both cars reset. If your car flies off the track, it goes back where it started.

After selecting and building a race circuit, each player does a solo lap of the circuit selected, counting how many flicks it took to get around the track. Lowest number of flicks is the #1 qualifier, then #2 and so on. Ties are broken by the longest single flick (how many track sections it covered.)
After qualifying, all the cars are placed on the track on the starting grid. Player in first goes first, followed by second, and so on. Players always stay in track order. Again, if your car goes off the track or lands upside-down, it goes back where it started. If you knock and opponent off, you both go back where you started. If you knock and opponent and they stay on the track, no worries.

The first person to complete 3 laps wins.







My Thoughts

This simple rule-set combines with the skill of flicking your car around the track to make for an epically fun little game. The game does extremely well with just about anyone introduced to it; I’ve found it to have near-universal appeal. It’s a game that rewards skill, has no luck, and doesn’t require heavy thinking. That last bit especially make this a wonderful gateway game, filler game, game to play with non-gamers, or an evening opener-closer. PitchCar also draws a crowd like no game I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. It also plays very fast; typically a race lasts 20-30 minutes (including track setup). You could make PitchCar a main event without serious worries. The only major worry is that if you contact the track while flicking, or flick the car without your finger contacting it first, your fingers may get sore after extended play.

PitchCar may not have auctions, player interaction, negotiation, or some of the other things I love in board games. But because it’s so accessible, requires skill but not heavy thinking, and has no luck to screw you, it’s fun factor is absolutely off the scale. In fact, PitchCar is as much fun to watch as it is to play!

The only problem nowadays with PitchCar is perhaps that because it wasn’t exactly cheap when new, and it’s out of print, PitchCar and its expansions are relatively expensive. Most copies on BGG at the time of this writing are going for $35-40 Euros, which puts it between $55 and $65 in US Dollars. The copy I bought cost me about $75, but I bought it from a US seller because, frankly, it’s heavy and would have cost a lot to ship overseas. Although $75 isn’t stratospheric for a board game, It is up there. And there’s no guarantee you can even find it. That being said, though, PitchCar is easily worth every penny I paid for it, and I expect to buy the expansions soon.

What are the Pros and Cons of PitchCar?

Pros:

Epic amounts of fun!
Skillful players will do well
Requires no number crunching or deep, brain-burning thinking
No random elements (Entropic elements yes, random, no)
As much fun to watch as play
Highly accessible to non-gamers

Cons:

Out of print, therefore pricey and hard to find
Strategic, number-crunching gamers may find it all a bit silly
You need a perfectly flat table to get the most out of it, unless you consider bumps and dips to be part of the game.
Barrier fitment is problematic
My finger hurts.

Conclusion

All in all, PitchCar is a home run. Everyone I game with loves it, and even non-gamers I know at least approach it and want to watch. Given the amounts of fun and quick playtime, combined with the unique nature of the game itself, I will give PitchCar a 9 out of 10…but this may climb to a 10/10.