All American Soap Box Derby

My guess is 1970 or 71. How close am I?

I'm the dude on the right. Final heat for all the marbles.

 

Yes around 72 maybe 73, I would have to ask becauce I can't remember,lol. I had a layback car the next year. When I finally got all the way in the car it looked like somebody left a helmet on my car.

 

I got hooked on cars with my Soap Box Derby cars way back in 1948 to 1950 & have not looked a cure since!

 

I can't believe it, but someone put video of a old race we had in Hickory on Youtube! You can see my dad , he had a pipe in his mouth, he was the director. There is even some of me and my brother when we were kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FrbwEU-FEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzDFAeeqrvM&feature=relmfu



From 1969 so I would have been about ten years old then, all I could do was hang around!

 

Yep! I built one of those as a kid... Had to use a rope to steer it with..
Barbara Ave. in Warrawong N.S.W. is "S" shaped.. We would start at the top of the hill and race all the way down the street... With no brakes!..
Still had a blast though..

 

HRP. they use to have one here in walterboro during the rice festival in the spring . we had one and my son drove it. but they no longer have it to my knowledge.

 

great video's! this subject never loses it's cool factor to me.

 

Happening this weekend in Winston-Salem, NC at the Monster Hill. Atleast that's what the website said. Man I might check it out. Too cool. Glad that got posted!

 

I used to live across the road from Derby Downs, the Rubber Bowl, Airport and 2 ponds by both. Used to sled down the derby track, skate on the ponds and rented out the yard to park cars for the football games. Saw the 3 sons from Bonanza driving a 60 Ford. Went to the Derby most years, but was never in to it much. They raced sports cars on the access road between the airport and Derby Downs. Saw so many blimps and was allowed in the blimp hanger once. Used to ride bicycles up and down the ski jump behind the track. Lived there from 1958 to 1970.

 

My father-in-law winning the 1935 SBD

 

there were over 50 cars registered for the race friday and saturday

I have friends that drove down from cleveland

I am seeking help to bring the race back to Detroit

 

I hate I missed the race. My stepson would have totally dug it. I wish I had known about this years ago instead of right now. I grew up just over the hill from the Monster Hill but never knew they even held organized races. When I was a teenager we used to dare each other to take our bikes down it. Once my cousin found a set of wheels at Hobby Park and we built a make shift jalopy. Really fun stuff.

 

I missed this cuz im not usually up early on sunday mornings


thank you CBS news
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7415768n&tag=api

 

I built my soap box in 1952, but the baby carrige wire wheels would not get the job done, so got my introduction to Hot Rodding in August 1953 when I picked up this magazine that had a article on Soad Box Derby wheels.
I've been hooked ever since on Hot Rods, but the Soap Box Derby build and race were a great start.

 

This is one I have hanging in my garage. We THINK it's between '47 and '53. It's made of paper machete.

Can you imagine that in almost 60 years this car has never gotten wet? I think it's a true museum piece. Everything down to every nut and bolt the way it was built with love and cars all of those years ago.

If anyone has any more info,I'd love to hear it.

 

Here's the bottom just to show age and the cool 'braking system' which was just a rubber pad and Flintstone power.

If anyone has any info, I'd LOVE to hear about it....

 

Nice thread. Got to run one with my daughter in 92' Had a ball!

 

that was the standard brake up to the intro of kit cars in the late 80's
the blue prints i have show how to make it

 

95% of the cars pre-1980 used the scissor brake pictured. Somewhere in the 70s the lay down cars started to move to a plunger/pulley setup that took up less space.

 

Any idea how old this car is?

 

my guess would be late 50's / early 60's
judging by the axels that look like the wheels are castle nuted on

 

look at the helmet on craigs list, omaha,ne.

 

Thanks.... As I was saying earlier. It's hard to believe this has gone all of these years without any water getting to it.

Being paper machete it would just turn to mush if it got wet. That's why it's hanging in my garage now so no accidents can come near it.

I have no idea who it belonged to or who drove it, but boy it would be fun to find out.

buds
chuck

 

My wife just picked this up at my mother-in-laws. It is a patch from the 1935 SBD

 

You sir have a piece of derby GOLD!!!!
this was your grand fathers right?

 

My wifes father. He won the 1935 SBD. We have lots of stuff. Trophys, buttons, pins, even the menu from the hotel he stayed at. We have an autographed book that Eddie Rickenbach sent him. Letters from girls, he was like a rock star then. Everything but the car, that is in Akron.

 

I found this at my local antique store today. The seller happend to be there and said this was first built around 1961. It has a different style brake than the previous ones in this thread. The brake on this one you lean back in the seat to activate it. I really wanted to bring it home but the price tag was too high...

 

looks cool...
but the old cars are not allowed to run with the new ones in all american local races I wish they would come up with a way to run the classic cars kinda a run what ya brung race

 

The rules changed so much year to year that a 5 years old car would almost never qualify without major alterations.

The other thing that happened was that the "energy" in the body would be lost over time and the car would not perform as well. I can't explain what that means exactly but it was true. In my era the cars were made of 1/4 to 1/2 inch sticks of fir and needed to be assembled as close to race day as possible. The car would be good for about a season.

 

Here is my son's car from 1982, Laguna Nigel. It was just accepted into the Caruso Racing Museum here in Las Vegas. What a great honor.


This is a photo of his Junior car the year before.