Remembering my first race car

• 

We spotted this sidewalk push racer only a few days ago. I was surprised these are still made. I remember that I built my first one in 1963 (driver is my co-engineer Willem, fuzzy photo by editor). Prior to every school holiday we looked around for an old pram or at least a set of wheels. Then we went to collect a few odd ends of timber. After that came the big investment. The pivot bolt for the steering. Four hours of engineering and off we went. We push raced through three feet wide back alleys behind our houses and made power slides doing tight corners. Often ending in broken axles and skin injuries. What a time. In general the racers were scrap within days. But what the heck. Next holiday, next cart. Great to see they're still around. JB

Update: Bas de Voogd suggests that these official soapbox races may have been the inspiration....  To be honest, we had no idea of the mere existence of all that. I only saw the local newspaper, we even had no TV yet back then... We built what we saw others did and in my remembrance these kind of carts were built from generation to generation. 

Plaats een reactie...