Auto Polo

(en.wikipedia.org)

41 points | by canjobear 2 days ago

6 comments

  • msuniverse2026 10 minutes ago
    Australian Motorcycle Chariot Race

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1avID4bJ3pw

  • esperent 9 minutes ago
    [delayed]
  • arlobish 26 minutes ago
    "The official inventor of auto polo...devised the sport as a publicity stunt in 1911 to sell Model T cars."

    Amazing to see how little has changed in 100 years when it comes to competing for attention

  • TomMasz 32 minutes ago
    Unsurprisingly, it died out "mostly due to the high cost of replacing vehicles". Was it the inspiration for demolition derbies?
  • merelysounds 1 hour ago
    I guess the modern day equivalent (technology that’s relatively new, unsafe and unregulated) would be electric scooter polo? I found no sign of a sport like this though.

    I think kick scooter polo exists. And bike polo[1] is well known.

    [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcourt_Bike_Polo

    • consumer451 58 minutes ago
      My first thought was that Segways would be ideal for the nerdiest fun modern-ish recreation of polo. It turns out that it was a thing.

      > The Segway polo world championship is the Woz Challenge Cup. It is named after Steve "Woz" Wozniak, cofounder of Apple Inc., and a player of Segway polo

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segway_polo

    • swiftcoder 43 minutes ago
      WhirlyBall[1], which is kind of like pelota + basketball in bumper cars, seems like a pretty good bet. There are only a handful of courts left, but I've done a few offsites at the Seattle one, and it's good fun.

      The bumper cars are truly weird - they draw power from the conductive floor of the court, and have a one-handed control system that makes you trigger forward/reverse by turning the steering wheel a full rotation...

      [1]: https://www.whirlyball.com

    • dgellow 44 minutes ago
      There is also unicycle hockey! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicycle_hockey

      Makes me want to dust off mine

    • vhcr 26 minutes ago
      There's also e-wheel polo
    • lstodd 52 minutes ago
    • sandworm101 31 minutes ago
      Nope. The modern version uses motorcycles.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoball

      >>Motoball is played in a 5v5 format. There are four players on motorcycles, and one on their feet as the goalkeeper.