Gravity / Soapbox racing in England

[Darkcat]

I've entered a soapbox race, and while designing the chassis etc, i discovered that there is no real competitive racing scene or championship in the UK - Am i right or have i missed something?
(I'm not talking about racing shoe-shaped atrocities down a town centre for charity, i mean competitive)

I'm surprised if this is the case as the Americans have been well into it for decades, and have all sorts of championships and most cities seem to have a strip.

[Drumroll]

Several charity ones and the Red Bull series but can't think of any others.

I can see there being a few less events after this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-276058...

You have to love the way it is reported though.

[Darkcat]

Damn that's not nice - bad reporting all round though.
Evidently there were insufficient safety barriers / hay bales...

EDIT: just seen some photos. there were NO safety barriers.

The red bull soapbox isnt annual, not in the uk at all this year.

Edited by Darkcat on Wednesday 28th May 17:31

[Justaredbadge]

I have often thought the Same.

Shame really as it could be a cheap form of Motorsport.

[MyVTECGoesBwaaah]

If you are close to Scotland then they have a bit more of a scene up there, see: http://scottishcarties.org.uk/

Did my first event last year and was a good laugh, hoping to do 2 this year.

[anonymous-user]

not quite the same but there is a reasonably healthy pedal car race series in the UK including 24 hour races and a human powered vehicle race series (which is mostly populated by heavily modified recumbent cycles), the pedal car series have rules and regs governing chassis/wheel dimensions etc which might be worth a look as teams are in theory, more equally matched.
www.pedalcars.info
www.bhpc.org.uk

from what I have seen, gravity/soapbox events seem to encourage novelty designs like the red bull events in london and are far less serious about the comeptitive elements.

[RobinSherwood]

There is a competitive albeit charity event in Warwickshire

http://www.avondassettsoapbox.org/

[Darkcat]

I'm tempted to set up a UK championships now...

[Shaw Tarse]

Darkcat said:

I'm tempted to set up a UK championships now...

Meh, it'll only go downhill!

[Darkcat]

Shaw Tarse said:

Darkcat said:

I'm tempted to set up a UK championships now...

Meh, it'll only go downhill!

"Two drums and a cymbal fall out of a window"

[Darkcat]

well ive started my build anyway....

[Bobrick]

I've been looking at this and found this calender of UK events:

http://scottishcarties.org.uk/forum/soapboxRacesIn...

More than I thought.

[Darkcat]

Yes I've seen that - still no official UK series / champs though.

[strudel]

It's a good plan. Build it on the back of a hill climb series.

[Darkcat]

strudel said:

It's a good plan. Build it on the back of a hill climb series.

after all is is basically backwards hillclimb!

[JB!]

Love the idea of this!

[nickboazracing]

I had the best of intentions to put an entry in for the red bull race last year. Like most things, work just got in the way and it never happened. I would love to have a go though. Dead cheap racing! What can be bad about that?!

I loved the soapbox racing they had for a few years at Goodwood FOS until it was canned after a few massive offs...

[jimi]

nickboazracing said:

I loved the soapbox racing they had for a few years at Goodwood FOS until it was canned after a few massive offs...

I was on one of the teams for this back in the day. It was great fun. Would be good to revive it, use some proper hillclimb courses backwards Prescott, Shelsley Walsh etc.

Great Idea.

[nickboazracing]

jimi said:

I was on one of the teams for this back in the day. It was great fun. Would be good to revive it, use some proper hillclimb courses backwards Prescott, Shelsley Walsh etc.

Great Idea.

Nice! You survived then!

Did you go light weight or heavy? Gueesing lightweight for braking for the bend and cornering agility?

[jimi]

I was with the VSCC team. Did it for two years. 1st year was a lightweight replica of a vintage car - second year a heavyweight model with about 5mm ground clearance. The competition was very good - there were some highly technical options on show and a lot of carbon bits.

Great fun.