A soapbox car (or gravity racer) is a manned vehicle commonly used for recreation on planets with a hilly topography, such as Earth or Halii. It is powered by gravity.
A history of soapbox racing[]
Halii hosted the most famous four-seater soapbox car race in the galaxy, the Andobi Mountain Run. The race was one of the holoprograms kept onboard the Bouteina. (RIS Bouteina: "Varlamov Steak")
Soapbox racing was a popular sport among Lyrans and, as such, Lyran-based teams dominated the galactic circuit of soapbox racing. (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files)
Brianna Reiss was a soapbox racing enthusiast. She kept holoprograms aboard the Atreides and the Stoneship (BC-347) and later took part in the Malachor Grand Prix, a four-seater race, placing 3rd. (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "Highly Illogical")
There existed single-seater, two-seater and four-seater races, as well as carts. Single-seater races were usually started from a ramp that was lowered when the heat started, whereas multi-seater races usually involved all members of a crew pushing against the cart and later going into the cart on its initial descent. Multi-seater teams always comprised a driver, who steered the cart at the foremost position, and a brakeman, who always sat on the rearmost position in a multi-seater soapbox car and activated the brakes if deemed necessary. On Xita, soapbox racing was a major sport, where even weekly races could draw tens of thousands of spectators along the track of a race. Also, a race commissioner, in the soapbox racing world, was typically the person put in charge of starting a race. (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "At the Soapbox Races")
- It appeared that soapbox racing, as depicted in RIS Bouteina and in Star Trek: The Stoneship Files, at least in their multi-seater versions, was more akin to street bobsleigh than to real-world soapbox racing.
Betting on soapbox races wasn't unheard of; by the 25th century, Klingon and Lyran bettors are known to wager items like gagh farms, mansions, dilithium, even items as sensitive as convoy schedules or starship schematics. (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "Dilithium Dance")
A Lyran shuttle can house two four-seater soapbox carts when the seats are retracted. (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files)
Soapbox races in Star Trek fanon[]
Designing a soapbox race course required one to pay attention to the slope grade. A slope grade of 30 degrees is considered too dangerous to race on. (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "Off Coverage")
Single-seater[]
Two-seater[]
- Grabvine Gateway (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "At the Soapbox Races")
- Frozen Howler (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "Cruchitude Dump")
Four-seater[]
- Andobi Mountain Run
- Malachor Grand Prix (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files)
- Badlands (soapbox race)
- Jadefire Run
- Grimsborough 500
Soapbox racers[]
- Brianna Reiss
- Catalena Rinne (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files)
- Urie (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files)
- Jutudiel (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "At the Soapbox Races")
- Mrazek (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "At the Soapbox Races")
- Faith Kingsford (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files)
- Shi'ow (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "Cruchitude Dump")
- Leonard Malton (Star Trek: The Stoneship Files: "Off Coverage")
External link[]
- Soapbox car article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.