Pitstop (2001)

Overview

PITSTOP is a motor racing board game. 65 special tiles let the player build virtually any circuit they like. The game comes with multilingual rules (english, spanish, italian, german and french) and instructions to build 10 different F1 circuits. Each player must set the gear and roll an appropriate number of special dice, that determine the speed of the car and the fuel consuption. The game is turn based and the phasing player, after moving his car, must set the gear for next turn. The box strategy is the most important decision to take. You can decide to complete all the 3 laps without stopping or making one or two pitstops. The game is not a "simulation", but to win you need a good amount of skill. Even if the speed of your car is determined by dice, you have to choose carefully the "braking point" in order to enter the curves at the best speed. If you exceed the curve's speed limit, you lose "tyres points". Of course, you can simulate a championship playing different circuits. What's interesting is that the game strategy changes from circuit to circuit and if you design your own circuit you need all your "driving skill" to be competitive. Rookies can win, but they will find very hard to beat a skilled player. Game components: 65 tiles to build the circuits (an avarege of 25 tiles are needed for each circuit), 6 plastic sport cars, 12 special dice, 6 "dashboards", 40 speed limit tokens, 24 plastic pawns, one rules booklet.