It doesn't even take weapons.

I was doing the final race challenge and finished in position 1 of 13. Two contenders had given up the ghost. I saw one explode in front of me after the first corner on the fifth lap, the other went near the end of lap five. Nothing special so far, right?

Except this particular challenge has no weapons.

How did they manage to blow themselves up without weapons?? I don't think AI ships ever collide with walls (when you try to push them into a wall, they go right through and you hit it), and collisions between ships don't happen that often, do they?

It sounds very weird, never happened to me. Probably they crashed with you 1 time, got totally confused and drove into death because they were scared of you.

American scientists found that out :P

It is possible they flew into each other enough to kill them, while playing 2097 I have heard the ship to ship collosion sound going mad in the background so enough of that and :bomb