Every September, Mt Tabor Park in SE Portland is the site of the Portland Adult Soap Box Derby. It brings together a combination of art cars and hard-core racers. The field is limited to 42 cars of every description. There are rules governing car size, weight, and cost, but they are enforced via the honor system, so pretty much anything goes. The only unbreakable rules are that the car must be powered by gravity only, have working brakes (no Fred Flintstones allowed), and have a tow eye so it can be towed back to the top of the course after each run.
Our office decided to accept the challenge this year. We designed and built El Raton, a three-wheeled speeder. The $300 maximum mandated by the rules was passed about week 2 of the
build. The 500 pound weight limit went by the by when we discovered that more weight meant
faster speeds. We were, however, inside the allowable car size, so we figured 1 out of 3 - and it
was an honor system.
Race day was Sept 9th. We arrived at the course at 7AM to set up our pit and go thru tech inspection. The inspection team rated us "cool" so I guess we passed. It was our first look at the competition. We were racing against an office cubicle, a dinosaur, a bath tub (which rolled on it's first run leaving the Bathing Betty's with a bad case of road rash), a Bentley with working wet bar in the back seat, and a host of other creations. My favorite was a wire form racer (see photo on home page) in which the driver was suspended horizontally by cables attached to his driving suit and the frame. The 8:30 practice session was canceled because the track was still wet from rain the night before so no chance to test and tune. Race heats started at 10. Each team gets to run 3 heats. The total of the team's time in these preliminary heats determines who runs in the finals after lunch. The course is .75 miles long and times ranged from 1:17 to 3:00. Our fastest time was 1:24 and we were fast enough to make the finals. But our run to glory was short lived and we were eliminated in the 1st round of the finals. We figure we finished about 9th over all on our 1st try, so we were happy with that result. We will spend the winter trying to figure out how to get 10 seconds off our time and be back for next year's derby. Anybody know where we can get some wind tunnel time?
I've attached a link to a web site that has pictures of the event
