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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.
The whole idea of racing is there's meant to be a penalty for getting it wrong. I hate it when people talk of making racing safe or for that matter anything safe. How are young people meant to find an outlet for their natural agression when we board up all the windows? How is natural selection meant to take care of the un-lucky or un-skilled? Why is death/injury seen as a tragedy rather than a natural progession?
In my youth, I'm now confirmed tog, I raced cars, rode fast, 160mph, bikes on public roads, scuba dived well below the safe limits 60m+++, rock climed, whitewater kayaked, played rugby, Ju Jitsu etc etc etc I was lucky not to end up in a coffin like a number of my friends, I came damn close more than once. But I was over 14 and had a clear understanding of the risks and consequences.
The question to answer is what would I have done to feed my adrenaline habit if I had not had those outlets?
An extreme example of this is Formula1. The safer they made it the worse the drivers beghaviour became. Senna and Schumacher both forced other drivers off the track at 150mph+. If they still raced at the Norschcliffe you wouldn't see them survive long if they played those games.
I'm still liable to exceed the speed limit, I still climb and sail. But now I no longer need the rush to feel alive, although I'm not completely cured.
My neck, shoulders, lower back and knees are pretty all in poor shape and hurt when the weather turns cold thanks mostly to rugby and scuba. My left leg has been shortened by about an inch due to thinking paddock hill bend was flat, it mostly surely is not.
An extreme example of this is Formula1. The safer they made it the worse the drivers behaviour became. Senna and Schumacher both forced other drivers off the track at 150mph+. If they still raced at the Norschcliffe you wouldn't see them survive long if they played those games.
I have a body not so much lived in as vandalised. But my body was given to me by my parents and when I turned 14 they told me it was mine to do with as I saw fit. I don't tell you how to treat your body, I don't impose on others and I'll be damned if I 'm going to let you impose on me!