Soap box derby car

[matteh99]

A friend of mine runs a adult soap box derby and this was my creation.

I had a slight problem with the front end steering geometry so I almost crashed and took out a few spectators with me. All was going well until I got over 15mph or so and it developed a slight shimmy and by the time I hit 30mph it was pretty much uncontrollable. I am going to do some slight modifications and race it again next year.

The main beam is a piece of rail road track with some 2 inch solid round and 1 inch plate welded to it for front end weight.


Before the race

Almost crashing

[Gadget]

Looks cool but I'll let you drive it.

[INSANITY]

That thing looks a bit sketchy but the event looks super fun.

[gilly]

That thing needs some training wheels on it to keep it from twisting side to side.Pretty neat though.Also i would paint it,unless you are going for the Rat Rod look.

[matteh99]

Gilly,
The race course is pretty straight so I didn't really need to turn very sharply. I did have a crash bar sticking out so it would hit the pavement if I tipped. That part bent but worked.

I am up on my side because after the shimmy turned into me zig zaging all over road I decided I needed to use the brake which took one hand off the wheel and made me swerve even worse.

The whole problem was caused by a poorly installed go cart steering system. I cut it off a go cart chassis which I used in a past year and when I installed it It ended up with a slight tip forward. I wasn't worried about it at the time but after some figuring I discovered that I had messed up the geometry of it by tipping it. The front wheels ended up wanting to flip around and go the other direction like casters when you switch direction.

I didn't have time for paint so I intentionally made it a bit more rat rod looking.

Eric

[gilly]

sounds like you have all the bugs figured out now,so your next run should be much better.A video of your next run would be cool to watch to.Looks like a lot of fun.

[KHK]

That is killer cool!! A piece of rail road track, WOW

[arandall]

Matteh99:
That looks like a blast. If I was there, I'd either volunteer for your pit crew, or build one myself.
Good luck at the next event - - and make us a video if you can.

[matteh99]

This is the only video I have of the car.
It was a quick test on the road by my parents place.
It is put away for the winter so I won't have any more videos till the spring.

[INSANITY]

Looks much better in motion Eric, the pictures had me thinking that was like a 21'' bicycle wheel. Is the tall lever in front just for manually maneuvering the cart around?

-Aaron