Soap Box Derby

[Popeye]

Is anyone involved with soap box derby racing? This weekend my daughter and I had our first taste.

She, an adrenaline junkie, absolutely loved driving. I enjoyed “working the pits”. (The younger daughter came by and immediately wanted to build a car - she loves the design aspect but want nothing to do with the “terrifying” driving!)

The shop teacher at her school organized an after school club for middle schoolers. The school had eight cars/drivers at the rally. Happy to see the turnout!

I came away from the event impressed. The kids got lots of “track time” - 15+ runs each throughout the day. At the same time, my hands are sore and my back is stiff from swapping wheels and lifting cars!

Fun times! Anyone else?

 

[Gliderman8]

Is anyone involved with soap box derby racing? This weekend my daughter and I had our first taste.

She, an adrenaline junkie, absolutely loved driving. I enjoyed “working the pits”. (The younger daughter came by and immediately wanted to build a car - she loves the design aspect but want nothing to do with the “terrifying” driving!)

The shop teacher at her school organized an after school club for middle schoolers. The school had eight cars/drivers at the rally. Happy to see the turnout!

I came away from the event impressed. The kids got lots of “track time” - 15+ runs each throughout the day. At the same time, my hands are sore and my back is stiff from swapping wheels and lifting cars!

Fun times! Anyone else?


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Very, VERY cool! I bet not only was a good time had, but I’m sure it was a learning event.
Did the kids build the car bodies or were they kits? I ask since all the cars look identical.

 

[JHaydon]

A good friend and racing mentor was heavily involved in Wisconsin. Both of his daughters competed at the national level, and I believe they both went to the championship round in Ohio. Their living room was half-full of their trophies. He also helped to build cars for other kids in the club.

IIRC, there are kits available but this is one of those areas where successful vehicles all follow a similar pattern because it has been refined over many decades. The few remaining tweaks are in the chassis stiffness and meticulous preparation.

Once I visited his garage while he was fiberglassing a new body, and he showed me a plank of ebony he had bought for the new chassis. Ebony is tremendously stiff, and the idea was that the energy from going over small bumps on the track should be reflected back to the track rather than absorbed by the car.

 

[jfarris]

Very cool and always good to find something to do together.
I always wanted to do SBD as a kid. We had a really nice hill in a public park in Birmingham.
When my son was 13, he got interested in go kart racing - 1/3 mile dirt and paved ovals plus a couple of road races. He's just waiting for his children to get old enough.
Last year, I worked as a corner worker for the Green Power Gran Prix at the Talladega Motor Speedway. I had a ball - middle and high school kids building and driving electric cars similar to SBD. They ran on the old infield road course. It was a lot quieter than I am accustomed!

 

[Hamish Racing]

I visited Akron Ohio couple years ago. They are very proud of their soap box derby heritage

love that kids can still do this and they are the future of motorsport at every level.

 

[Popeye]

Neat stuff! I like the kids building go-karts; electric or gas, just go build, go fast, and have fun doing it! I’ve been dreaming of building a “cyclecart” with my kids…

to answer the question on kit vs self-design. I’m very new to the sport, however it seems the basic soap box car is built from a kit to keep the playing field level. One of the dads at the rally explained that there used to be a “no-rules” class. But the cars were designed by NASA engineers and the like - with according costs - and normal folks could not keep up. Thus the basic car is pretty well defined (I think three variants), with mods like ebony boards being differentiators.

 

[Basil]

Very cool! Looks like loads of fun!

 

[DrEntropy]

Neat stuff! I like the kids building go-karts; electric or gas, just go build, go fast, and have fun doing it! I’ve been dreaming of building a “cyclecart” with my kids…

Yep! Warps 'em for life and keeps 'em working to pay for their racing habit!

 

[jfarris]

Or their equestrian habit - started innocently with a pink “my little pony!!!”

 

[Silverghost]

Neat stuff! I like the kids building go-karts; electric or gas, just go build, go fast, and have fun doing it! I’ve been dreaming of building a “cyclecart” with my kids…

to answer the question on kit vs self-design. I’m very new to the sport, however it seems the basic soap box car is built from a kit to keep the playing field level. One of the dads at the rally explained that there used to be a “no-rules” class. But the cars were designed by NASA engineers and the like - with according costs - and normal folks could not keep up. Thus the basic car is pretty well defined (I think three variants), with mods like ebony boards being differentiators.

I too came across cyclecarts and looked at them with a gleam in my eye and a dream in my heart. Then I looked around and said to myself "you've got too many projects as it is!" Looked in the rabbit hole but didn't go very far in! LoL