Good Clean Fun!
As part of Hereford College of Technology's National Diploma in Engineering, students were invited to design, build and race a Soap Box as part of their course work with each phase documented in a project file.
This years student group consisted of Dale Brown, Jack England, Ashley Kennett, Alexander Saunders and Steven Galpin all of which were aged between 17 and 18 years old. Steven Galpin agreed to be the test and race driver.
In the concept design phase the students were required to design a number of space frames, steering mechanisms, braking systems and general mechanical linkages for evaluation before the final design was selected. The concept was then moved into the manufacture phase where a multitude of production engineering solutions were evaluated, optimised and selected to produce the Soap Box racer "Cool Runnings".
Due to adverse weather conditions the target day for racing was postponed, however, with extremely kind co-operation of Cal Edwards, the original event organiser, the "Cool Runnings" Soap Box was allowed to run at Mansel Lacy, courtesy of Lord Davenport, on Monday the 15th June 2009.
On the day the students tested the conditions of the track and made all necessary adjustments to their Soap Box to ensure maximum performance.
Out of the three runs conducted, the first two resulted in spins. Significant lessons were learnt from analysing how the different systems performed and with further adjustment the third and final run resulted in a successful time of 2.46 minutes.
From the general smiles and enthusiasm it was concluded it was a very successful way of learning how theoretical engineering works in practise.
Building on this fantastic experience, Hereford College of Technology intends to build another Soap Box next year to bring together a real world feeling to the National Diploma in Engineering course.
