We have many people who like to speculate about how little, they say, in our country today is being done to educate the younger generation. There are no school clubs, no children's technical creativity centers, no dancing, no songs, no swimming, no kart racing - nothing! Continuous gateways, beer, glue and drugs. Terrible! “Russia is lost! Earlier …”However, I see a different picture. There is one such children's center near my house. My granddaughter went there and did both dancing and modeling from clay. And there were as many as two music schools nearby, circles in schools, in our pool "Sura", located in the very center of the city, if you come in the morning, then … you can go deaf from the splash of children swimming in it. Just some kind of water frenzy: seven out of 10 tracks are occupied by children of different ages, and they all swim back and forth for an hour as if they were instinctive. Then they launch new ones and so on all the time. 7-10 children per track. Sometimes five. In the class where my granddaughter is studying, I taught classes on technical creativity from the first to the fourth, and how much we did there …
The modern “soap box” cannot be called a box …
Want more? Agree! But you can come up with a lot of things, and the main thing is to put your hands on what you would like to achieve, and not wait until “from above” come and solve all the problems you have seen.
One of the ideas personally haunts me for a long time, but little by little I will get my hands on its solution.
And it so happened that in 1956 in the USSR there was published a book by the children's writer N. Kalma "Children of the Mustard Paradise" about the plight of ordinary people in America. I read it somewhere in 1964 and I remember well that I just really liked it, and, by the way, it is on the Internet, where today you can read it and even listen to it. In some ways a very funny book. In it, for example, at the end, an explanation is given to such words as "hobby", "business", which later became familiar to us. And then it was from this book that I learned about the popular "tobacco box" races among American boys. Described in the novel, these same "boxes", and in fact, the most real racing cars, were in great detail. And I immediately wanted to do the same. But … I was in a much worse position than the most disadvantaged black children in the United States - they had something to make such a car from, but I have nothing. Neither me nor my comrades down the street.
Here is this book from my childhood.
In 1968, I read about how to make such a car in the "Modelist-Constructor" magazine. It was also written there that such cars are simpler than karts, they do not need motors and fuel, that they are noiseless and environmentally friendly, so they can be raced anywhere there are streets with great steepness. And just in Penza we have a lot of such streets, so our city is just an ideal place for competitions of such cars with a "gravitational drive". That is, the idea in the USSR was recognized as sound, but for some reason it did not receive embodiment either at that time or later. Meanwhile, these races, as well as the construction of such cars, are an excellent means of developing children's technical creativity and training future drivers.
Well, the history of "soap box races" began in 1904 in Germany, where the first homemade car races for children took place in Frankfurt.
But its name - "Soapbox Derby" - these competitions received only in 1933. The name was coined by Dayton Daily News photographer Myron Scott of the US state of Ohio, who once saw children building their cars from plywood packing boxes for soap, troughs and baby baths and driving them through the steep city streets. He decided to write a report about it, and when he wrote, he immediately realized that he was in front of a real "gold mine". After all, this was the time of the "Great Depression". People simply did not have money for expensive entertainment. And here you have technical creativity and passion - all together! In addition, Scott liked the democracy and entertainment of these competitions: after all, the cars did not require engines, the materials were quite affordable, and the results depended solely on the "engineering talents" and the skill of driving the boy sitting in the "box" cabin. Therefore, he took the initiative to hold such competitions on an official basis and ensured that they were held in Daytona in the same year, in which more than 300 "soap boxes" took part. That is, his idea was a success!
In 1934, the restless Myron Scott managed to organize the Soapbox Derby national championship in Daytona. However, they were moved to Akron the following year. Moreover, the city authorities were pleased with the results of this event, which even allocated a real racing track for their holding.
Since that time, the city of Akron in the USA has become the real capital of the "tobacco box" races - and here every year championship winners from different countries and states of America began to meet, and where the absolute world champion was determined.
Winner "Soapbox-derby" 1934.
The popularity of these competitions peaked in the 1950s – 1960s, when the Chevrolet automobile company became their sponsor. Film and television stars did not disdain to appear on them, and sometimes up to 70,000 people came to support young athletes aged 11-15. However, in the 70s of the last century, this championship gradually lost its popularity. Why did this happen?
The reason is banal and very simple: over time, having smelled a lot of money, adults came to this sport, who somehow ruined everything. To win, they began to hire professional engineers and build ultra-modern, expensive cars, race cars. Cases of fraud have also become more frequent: where there is a tote, it is inevitable. So, in 1973, fourteen-year-old Jimmy Gronen lost his championship title two days after the final race, when his car was x-rayed and found that there was an electromagnet in the front of his car. At the start, he turned on and pulled his "soap box" to the metal platform located at the beginning of the track, which gave the car an additional impulse. The inventor, the uncle and official guardian of the failed champion Robert Lange, was prosecuted for assisting in this crime.
Well, as soon as racing from a unique and exciting family show turned into another and very expensive hobby for adult eccentrics, Chevrolet refused to finance them. Even a new direction has emerged - the creation of super-perfect "race cars" without an engine and a new type of competition with them - "Extreme gravity races". The price for them has become simply prohibitive. The hydrocarbon fiber alone for one of these machines cost $ 15,000, and about the same went to the wheels and everything else. But their massiveness with the races of ordinary "boxes" was simply incomparable.
Oklahoma Tobacco Box Race.
The chances of bringing this popular sport back to its former popularity came in 2000 when it was included in the famous Red Bull Brewing Show of Historic Cars. This event attracts over 100,000 spectators annually. Therefore, in order to increase the entertainment and attractiveness of the competition, everything possible was done. For example, for the 2004 competitions, an accelerating ramp was built with a height of 4.5 meters and a length of 23 meters, which turned into a hundred-meter asphalt line. The track was fenced off with straw bumpers. It turned out to be not so easy to drive the "soap dish" in a straight line: the control with the flexible rods required considerable strength and a good sense of the track. However, then history repeated itself: every year the "soap boxes" became more complicated, more expensive, and gradually the competition lost its attractiveness, so that these races were the last.
But now, for the umpteenth time, they are being held in Luxembourg, and even with great success! So, in the 2011 races, 33 children's cars made of wood and metal took part. The drivers were between the ages of 10 and 16, and they competed in two categories: speed and slalom. Then the audience (there were about three thousand of them in the Luxembourg town of Differdange) chose the most beautiful "box".
It remains to be noted that the "soap box" race is very useful for children, and in all respects. Race participants build their carts on their own (in the USA, of course, you can buy a construction kit, but still, at least you need to assemble it from its parts). Since there is no engine, and motorists move downhill under the influence of gravity, then when descending from a good hill, accelerate to 50-70 km / h, but no more, so that serious accidents are excluded. At first glance, the organization of the track is a big problem. However, nothing particularly complicated is required from her - the most ordinary asphalt and the presence of a noticeable slope - that's all to hold these competitions. Moreover, abroad they are often timed to coincide with the City Day holiday and are the reason for advertising drinks and food. All this is of great interest to sponsors, not to mention the obvious need to develop children's technical creativity in our country and to distract children from idle pastime!
Poor, destitute black woman in her "box".
As for the design, the main requirements for the "box" are reduced to the presence of a steering wheel, brakes and a helmet on the driver's head. Traffic accidents and other injuries happen very rarely - small wheels do not drive well on the road, so if such a "car" pulls over to the side of the road, it loses speed very quickly. It is also quite difficult for him to tip over, because his turning radius is large, and his center of gravity is very low. Mutual collisions are not dangerous - after all, the speed of the competing cars is approximately the same and they go in the same direction.
Also, both the minimum and maximum weight of the car may be limited, since a heavier car accelerates faster. But the main thing is, of course, the absence of an engine. Therefore, there is neither noise nor smelly fumes on the track, as a result of which these races can be held literally in the city center.
The number of wheels can be regulated, but in any case there cannot be less than three or more than four. Cars are launched from a special ramp - a platform that is raised with a jack from the side of the track, preventing the cars from rolling. At the start, it lowers and the cars begin to move.
Of course, it is unreasonable to ride in winter, but if this idea interests someone, then cars can be built during the winter, and competitions can be held in spring or summer. It is somewhat difficult to transport such a car to the place of the competition, but if there is no car, then it can even be towed behind you on a string, or you can take it to the place by taxi with a roof rack.
Well, the stations of young technicians or schools always have places where such cars can be built and stored.
So why shouldn't activists of children's patriotic education just take, and even start pushing through the idea of "races of boxes from under the soap" in their city? And to spend them on the City Day! Usually, for such an event, neither governors, nor mayors, nor candidates for governors and mayors, nor candidates for the Duma spare any money. So you should tell them: “This is where your popularity lies, you idiot! Children are your future electorate, not yours, so your son's. Think! " You look, it will be possible in one place, our media, constantly experiencing a shortage of positive information directly from Russia, will inflate this "initiative" and who knows, maybe your city, built on steep hills, will eventually turn into new "New Vasyuki"? !
