Well, I did get my soapbox racer done for the derby on Nov. 1st. I met with success in that I actually built it in two days! It even had fully functioning steering and a brake! Unfortunately I didn’t really get a chance to use the latter since it was soooo DAMN SLOW! I blew it by going cheap on the wheels. I bought the $8 non-ball bearing wheels from my local hardware store Pagano’s. I think these wheels would be great on a lawn mower, but the plastic and brass bushings they roll on just caused too much friction to keep me moving at a decent pace (or any pace at all).

I did just order some better wheels from Ebay. I’ll get those on the soapbox as soon as possible and take it out for another run.

The cool part was that my friend Murilee Martin dropped by to see the soapbox project and did a write-up about it on Jalopnik. Check out  the post:

http://jalopnik.com/5399652/mystery-seat-from-20r-sprite-hell-project-lives-on-in-illegal-soapbox-derby-racer

~ admin, December 9, 2009

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Not sure if I will be able to attain this build quality... but I'll have a better seat.

I’ve decided to build a soapbox racer for the 2009 soapbox derby in SF on Nov. 1st. I have no experience with this whatsoever, but how difficult can this be? The only rules, as I understand them are that the car can’t have a motor, but it must have a beer holder. Okay, no problems there.

So far I have a seat from an old Austin-Healey Sprite and four wheels from the hardware store. This weekend I start in on building the chassis. That means I needs so materials. Lumber yard and ALCO Metals, here I come!

~ Jesse, October 23, 2009

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