Star Trek Expanded Universe

Soapbox car

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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 racingEdit

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 fanonEdit

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")




Soapbox racersEdit

External linkEdit

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