Lotus win at GFOS
Soap box racer broke records
The Lotus Type 119c blitzed the competition to win the Gravity Racing Club's Soapbox Challenge at the 2004 Goodwood Festival of Speed with a record-breaking performance.
Lotus' 24-year old Paul Adams piloted the Type 119c soapbox racer to an emphatic win over the weekend. The newest Hethel-bred racer, Lotus' first enclosed-cockpit 'streamliner' soapbox, set an exceptionally high standard in Friday's practice, as Adams steered the 119c to a time of under 64 seconds, breaking McLaren's record from 2002 by over a second.
The competition could not match Adams' blistering pace, his nearest rival a full eight seconds adrift. Saturday saw slower times for the first competitive run due to a wet track, but Adams nevertheless secured an overnight second position behind Bentley.
The second and final timed run on Sunday saw the competition trying one by one to match the Type 119c's pace. Adams, however, was fastest again, breaking his own record from Friday with a scorching run of 63.810secs, and in doing so reaching speeds of over 63mph.
The marshals called an end to the day's soapboxing after only six of the 22 entrants had run,
blaming a dangerously high crosswind. Sunday's times were therefore declared void and the fastest individual time from either Friday's or Saturday's runs were used to determine the results. Lotus won with Friday's time, 63.998secs, and with a massive margin of over 3.5 seconds from
Bentley's 67.529secs, while B.A.R.'s open-topped roadster-class soapbox finished third with 69.230secs.
Head of Vehicle Engineering, Steve Swift was delighted with the result. "This was a splendid result over the weekend, and it is marvellous to witness the team's dedication to this project paying off. Winning is always special, but by such a huge margin and with a record time is fantastic and
shows what an incredible job these talented young engineers have done!"
During the nine-month concept-to-production programme, the Type 119c project team had access to the state-of-the-art facilities at Lotus' Hethel base. The Lotus Type 119c will now take its place in the Soapbox Hall of Fame at Hethel, alongside its predecessors, the 2002 Type
119 and last year's winning roadster-class Type 119b.
? 
As its name suggests, no engine. You roll down the hill under gravity, just like the soapbox* racers of yesteryear.
* ie. (originally) a soap box, a few pram wheels, a few bits of wood and some rope to steer with.
>> Edited by JonRB on Tuesday 29th June 15:26
[url]www.goodwood.co.uk/2004/fos/intro/soapboxc.htm[/url]
Here's the Lotus release about the 'car' - no picture of it though
[url]www.johnburn.co.uk/docs/lotusmay2004.pdf[/url]
>> Edited by hedgerley on Wednesday 30th June 14:33
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