Our village is lucky to have a pub, and lucky also that the current owner is a chap with ideas who likes to see things happening. He also has two teenage children. So the last weekend in September, and for the second year running, he organised the Vieil Bauge Soap Box Derby. He had help from a load of local farmers, the quad bike club, a number of local companies, the council and the comite des fetes, and put on an amazing spectacle that closed the village to traffic for a whole Sunday.
There is quite a gradient in the village, so the unpowered vehicles started at the top by the school and relied on gravity to get them down to river level, and skill and decent steering equipment to get them through a number of hair raising bends and a chicane, and adequate brakes to stop them disappearing into the river at the bottom of the hill. The following photos are from the quad bike putt to the top of the track and the final series of timed descents.
Then in order of racing:
They were very safe, very yellow and quite slow.
Quite scary this one.
This elegant machine handled well, had good if simple brakes and was incredibly fast - not to break the suspence but this was the winner with the TWO fastest times.
This was the 'home' team, the Excalibur car, driven this time by Alain's daughter.
Closest perhaps the the Soap Box ethos, this terrifying machine with its three riders was so much more stable, robust and fast than it looked.
This sleek little number had amazing handling.
These guys had wheel problems, with 3 different types/sizes. It could have been that which caused the problems with gravity - at one stage on one descent they ran out of impetus and had to use a straw bale to get themselves moving again.
This one was scary, but the pilots had clearly been practicing and never missed a turn, however not one for the girls as you can see from the back view....
You know what the caption is to this, don't you?
This one juddered so much as it went, it was impossible to get a front view that was in focus (my excuse anyway). It looked to us like it was built on a ride on mower base, with a water barrel as a front hood.
On one run, this mean machine had the nastiest accident, and everyone's hearts were in their mouths, but it was the fact that it had a roll cage and seat belts that made it hard to get the unharmed crew out, in order to get it upright again.
These are the official times for each of the cars on each run.
And here is the trophy being handed over to the winning team by the mayor of Vieil Bauge, Beatrice Tessier. Thanks to everyone for a really fab day - even the weather was on our side!