Switch Card Variants for Mayfair's Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix

These variants were posted online by Steffan O'Sullivan.  They can add some 
new spice to a very good game.

Steffan wrote:

Some folk consider Switch Cards in Mayfair's Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix to be
lame. Here are some possible uses for Switch cards.  One of these may
totally replace the existing rules, or perhaps the player can take his
choice of whether to use any one of these or the existing rules.
Decide which before the game begins!

1. A switch card represents a spin out.  In this case, one of the two
   cars is chosen to spin out - turn its counter backwards, off the
   track, adjacent to the space it was on when it spun out.  Other cars
   may move through the space it was on when it spun out.  When five
   points worth of movement have been burned off, turn the car around
   again and place it on the track, on the space it occupied before
   spinning out.  (Keep track of how many spaces have been burned off
   by stacking cards with its numbers next to the car.)  If the
   original space is occupied when the car is to return to movement,
   place it in the nearest open space behind that space.  On its next
   card, it moves normally.  If a card is played which brings it to
   more than five spaces worth of movement while it is spun out, it
   moves the difference immediately.

2. A switch card represents a minor mechanical failure, which can
   cancel up to five points worth of movement of one of the cars whose
   color is pictured on the switch card.  This is played out of turn,
   when another player plays a card.  So if another player plays a Move
   6 card, playing the appropriate switch card will cause that car to
   move only 1 space, though it is still the first car moved on the
   movement card.  It may be used to cancel a move of less than 5, but
   the excess is lost.  That is, if a switch card is used to cancel a
   Move 3, for example, there is no carrying forward of an extra loss
   of two spaces to a future turn.

3. A switch card may be used to move both cars pictured on the switch
   card two spaces forward.  The car in the lead moves first, then the
   other car.  Both cars must be able to move two spaces or the card
   cannot be played for this purpose.

4. A switch card may be played *with* a movement card.  In this case,
   the two cars' turn orders are swapped, but not the movement values.
   It must be played with a card with both colors on it.  Thus if you
   play the Red-Green switch card with a movement card which has Red
   moving 4 spaces and, later, Green moving 2 spaces, the Green car
   will move its 2 spaces at the time the Red car was supposed to move,
   and the Red car won't move until the Green car was due to move, but
   will attempt to move its full 4 spaces when it does move.

5. A switch card may be played as a defensive driving maneuver to
   prevent passing.  It may only be played just after a car has passed
   one of the cars pictured on the card and finished its move one space
   ahead of the pictured car.  Note that this may be played out of
   turn.  It cannot be played this way if a car ends up two or more
   spaces ahead of the car in question.  In this use of a switch card,
   the car which just passed the pictured car is moved back one space,
   to be as close to even with the pictured car as possible.

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Page Last Updated: 12/22/98