I don’t know how interesting this is to some of you, but I’m sure there are engineering types about and probably some people that have done this sort of thing in the past. So you might enjoy the read.
This year, RedBull are having their 2013 Soapbox race in London. So me and a few friends have got a together and applied, as ‘team ds:lc’. Currently the team consists of myself, French, Slabs and Forza (not out real names...) along with help from a few others in designing, building and testing the kart. The theme for the soapbox kart is the WW-II Hurricane fighter plane – We all live in Derby, so it seems a relevant choice as the Merlin was built literally on our doorstep.
We started back in March with an ikea chair welded to a basic frame French had made many years ago. This became the basis for the mk1 kart. The frame already had the steering rack and rear wheels taken from a pram, the front wheels taken from an electric wheel chair and a basic push bar braking system.
We spend the best part of a Sunday taking the mk1 kart for a test run.
A few things were concluded from the day:
1. Steering definitely needs to be improved, the current steering rack is far too narrow which makes cornering at high speeds difficult, you sort of have to give it a on/off shuffle when turning corners. A wider rack would give the kart more stability.
2. After a long heated discussion between a few of us (and £200 on the table) we’ve decided that we need bigger wheels on the kart, for speed and more stability.
3. The kart needs a more streamline design. The driver sits too high and too upright, which (combined with the steering) stops the kart from cornering easily at high speed.
4. The braking system may need to be revamped, or at least improved. It’s not quite providing the stopping power needed at the moment.
Its in debate between a few of the team members weather the mk1 kart should be improved by adding a seat and steering rack taken from a go-kart and push-bike wheels combined with disk brakes. Or if the mk1 should be scrapped off completely and we start over with a mk2 kart design.
So, it's still a skeleton at the moment, but what do people think?
Redbull Soapbox 2013 team progress.
Threaded Mode