Boyracer Generations

[Kirbstone]

Some 33 years ago in Hampshire, England our local village copper got permission two years in a row to close off a side road on a not-too-steep hill and lots of locals constructed one-off unpowered wheeled creations to 'race' down this slope. The event was well supported and attended.
My eldest was then 8 yrs. old, his younger brother being just 3. I built them this 'hammerhead shark' design, which will be around well after I'm gone. It's still original except for the wheels which are new, spoked onto the old hubs.

Rs Ciaran, Leo & soapbox car.jpg

When my youngest, now aged 36 visits and brings his son, now 3, he insists on extracting the old soabbox car out of its cold storage and pushing Boyracer Junior round the grounds. It does however seem unlikely that this little mite will inherit it, as his cousin, son of my eldest is 6 & probably has first refusal.

Tom K.

[sapphire]

Great looking car! I'm envious. I always wanted one when I was a kid, but didn't have the skill to construct one and my parents thought I was nuts.

But great idea. Now I'll have to find somewhere in town where we can hold a like event. The rail trail is too flat as is River Road on the opposite side of the river. But Pleasant Street, now closed to traffic and destined to become part of the rail trail complex might be a good spot.

Thanks for the idea!

[Kirbstone]

The idea is actually of American origin. Way back in the mists of time while I was at boarding school in the '50s McCairns Motors, who sold General Motors vehicles in Ireland announced a standardised all equal soapbox car derby to be held on a straight hill north of Dublin, quoting a similar event which (then) was regularly held in Akron Ohio. Contestants bought standard wheels and conformed to specific dimensions, but there was freedom of actual design, so we were bombarded with pictures of highly polished and streamlined efforts, which obviously had cost a lot of money, each one.

I didn't enter the Irish event as I had insufficient funds, but fired with the idea I built a streamliner of sorts at home, as did some of my contemporaries and we had a lot of fun in the school holidays with them.

Tom

[sapphire]

I am aware of the origins in Ohio in the 1950s and so wanted to build one. Not fancy, but workable. Alas, I was in grammar school and could not go out and do it on my own and parents weren't supportive. Ya know, back when girls wore dresses and not pants. I do remember that there were a couple of plans for very basic vehicles published in Popular Mechanics. Oh yeah, I read that. I did end up building a very tiny van de Graff generator from plans from PM. Parents seemed to be OK with me shocking myself, but the notion of rolling down a hill in the soapbox bothered them. Like there are any real hills on Long Island.

[Milfmog]

The next village down river from me has had a Gravity Grand-prix for the last couple of years. Great fun, a wonderful family event and an excuse to drink far more beer than is really wise (I was not involved in the racing).

Google will turn up loads of stuff about it.

Search and have fun,

Ian.

[r.m.anderson]

Kirbstone noted a similiar event in Akron Ohio USA.
On this side of the pond we call them Soap Boxes - so the name "Soap Box Derby".
Back in the 40's & 50's we would take scrap wood and peach crates; slap some sort
of lawn mower or baby buggy wheels on the frame and fabricate a boxy shape vehicle.
Then it was off to find a road or street with sufficient slope to have gravity do its work.
Cuts and bruises damaged ego for faulty design were par for the course but did we
have fun ? "Hell Yes"! None of our crowd was hired to be Detroit car design engineers.
But it was fun to tinker around.

"Way-To-Early-In-Life-To-Be-Skirted/Kilted---Damn"
rma

[Kirbstone]

Cheaper than buying standard 12" solid wheels as dictated by the Akron Ohio people, old pram wheels did great service after their axles were widened and reinforced by the very obliging local blacksmith. Beam axles on plywood leaf springs were the thing. Pic. 1 shows a 15 year-old Kirbstone with his younger brother, then aged 2 yrs. in his streamliner 'Shanty'. Pic 2 was a rival, somehat less streamlined!

Rs Soapbox car 'Shanty' 1957.jpg

Rival Boxcar Ca 1957.jpg

Fast forward to 1982, and this local newspaper pic had a quality we couldn't match. It shows the variety of interpretations built, and not a safety helmet in sight. The 'Stick insect' had a full sized bicycle rear end with two invalid chair wheels steerable by the big toggle lever. For the 'Gravity Grand Prix' they disconnected the chain, obviously, but with wheels that size it ran away with all the races.

Rs Trio of soabbox cars 1982.jpg

The Six-year-old seated in our shark-design in this pic. is the Dad standing behind in the top pic in the first post. (We revised the colour scheme on the car years later).
As to nomenclature: an old retainer we had in the '50s was hard of hearing, he picked up 'Salt box car' and our then maid immitated him, so to them they were always saltbox cars!
My wife is English and like others of her tribe always refers to them as 'go-karts'.

Tom K.

[crfriend]

Tom, thanks so much for sharing those photographs. It really drives home the point that time marches ever-onward and that some things can remain constant as humans come and go. The way you present the story, like the way you did with your little now-departed donkey, is just magical! Bravissimo!

I had access to a good hill when I was growing up, but the demands of it outstripped the materials available and the engineering talent I had on-board at the time. I'd go like a bat-out-of-Hades down the first stretch, and almost invariably there's be a catastrophic failure on the turn. Sometimes I think it's a miracle I survived into adulthood! (I think my guardians were relieved when the major threat to my existence became one of electrocution rather than blunt-force trauma.)