Engineers Bringing Soap Box Racing Back Again

kpw10 writes "It appears that soap box racing has made a recent comeback as traditional races are getting big attention again. But at the same it is also adapting itself into a more modern engineering challenge: pro car designers from companies like Audi and BMW just last week raced in California's Extreme Gravity Series, with super aerodynamic racers reaching speeds of 44mph. Meanwhile on the east coast, industrial designers and artists competed in the Durham "Fall Classic Soap Box Invitational" with converted lazy boy recliners and enormous eight foot wheeled vehicles. I hope this is just a sign of what's to come!" We have come a long way since the 1930's.

Comments

It can be a very dangerous sport.

[CyricZ]

Indeed, this sort of racing can be very dangerous. Perhaps that's why it is such a thrill for participants and the racers.

I recall watching one of these races sometime in the 1940s. Even using relatively primitive technology, some the participants were able to build cars that were quite fast. Unfortunately, I also witnessed a rather gruesome accident.

As anyone who has seen one of the races knows, the participants start at the top of a hill and race downwards. Now, along the track hill there were a number of trees. This poor fellow got going very fast, but somehow lost control about 3/4 of the way down the hill. His car veered towards a tree, and he wasn't able to get out in time.

Indeed, he hit the tree, and his car was demolished. Unfortunately for him, the tree went right between his legs, and violently damaged his genitals. The races were quickly cancelled, and the paramedics arrived.

While I didn't actually see him after his accident, I talked to some of the men who had helped him out. They were completely thrown aback by the injuries he had sustained to his manhood. One of them even threw up he was so disgusted by what he had seen.

I hope that these days they're taking more care to make the vehicles safe, or at least race them in safer areas.

Re:It can be a very dangerous sport.

[NanoGator]

"I recall watching one of these races sometime in the 1940s. Even using relatively primitive technology, some the participants were able to build cars that were quite fast. Unfortunately, I also witnessed a rather gruesome accident."

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I promise, I'm not setting up a joke or anything like that. But if you're 70/80 years old, I'm really curious what you think of how times have changed in the last few decades.

Re:It can be a very dangerous sport.

[Usquebaugh]

What I tried to point out was my hatred of people who wish to impose 'safe' things on me. If things are dangerous there's a group of people who wish to make it safe and if they can't make it safe they wish to ban it! At no point in my post did I say I would force anyone else to do something dangerous, in fact towards the end I went out my way to point this out.

My points to evolution were not meant as a mandatory test, which it already is, but rather an aside as to how we are ignoring evolution, personally I do not feel this is a wise choice given how dependent we are on nature. Natural events prove just how thin a vener civilisation is.

Of course direct contamination is not a good idea, interestingly enough there's now a conjecture that people immune to the plague are also immune to HIV?

F1 in 67-68 was I believe it's most lethal age and yet most people point to this as an era in which F1 was at it's best. They stayed alive in general because they were very good and nothing broke. Jack Brabham commented that if they got a hot head in F1 more than likely nature would take it's course. Personally, my hero was Jim Clark. Dies in '68 at Hockenheim in an F2 race. Tyre failure is generally seen as the cause.

Please stop capitlising stuff I don't like being shouted at! Typing big letters doesn't make your point any better in fact rather the oppisite.

If you weant to see trees at the edge of the road take a look at rallying or indeed Nascar where they place a solid concrete wall at the edge of the road. If 67-68 was the killing years for F1 look up the GroupB cars of the early 80s in rallying.

I hadn't heard that story about Nuvolari. The question I think your asking is should we deliberately allow danger in motor racing that we couild remove? My answer is an un-qualified yes. Nobody in racing is forced to race, everybody chooses it. Why is Eau Rouge and 130R praised by drivers? Because it still a test of skill with consequences. After Ratzenburg and Senna died there was a huge number of changes made to circuits in the name of safety, Coulthard and Villneuve have come out and publicly stated that safety has gone to far. Think about Villneuve with his loss coming out and saything this.

If you like racing and you don't want to die that's fine. I have the same criteria. The simple solution is to slow down, not destroy the challenge for others.

After I wrecked at Paddock Hill Bend and modified my leg I found the corner more of a challenge than before. Did I ask they change the curcuit because I'd hurt myself? No, why should another driver be denied the challenge because I'd failed? Eventually, I was able to take the corner at the same speed as before but it took about 9 months and many laps to achieve it.

I've driven the Norshclife and it was like going to mecca, a circuit that still maims and kills, unchanged since Lauda in '76. Do you wish to close it down or ban me from using it? How about 'Andrea Doria' a wreck that routinelly kills divers, want to put it off limits? Racing yachts around the world? The high himalaya? Running with scissors?

It's not a problem to me if you want a nice safe life. Fate may have something else planned for you, but you want to minimise risk as far a possible for yourself. That's fine, but what gives you the right to decide for me what is acceptable risk?

Am I insane, no. Do I have a love of life, yes. Death is part of life to run from death at every oppurtunity is to deny living.

Re:Cyclists do this regularly

[Tomfrh]

How did you do 75mph on a bike?