Earlier this year, three of my coursemates and I applied to the London Red Bull Soapbox Race with a sketch of a giant Henry Hoover - and somehow got accepted. That left us with a fun problem: build a race-worthy soapbox while all four of us were in the thick of our Master's theses.
We chose Henry because he's a British icon, he's roughly the right shape for a soapbox, and, most importantly, our driver's name was Henry, copilot was me (Ben) and it was a stupid, but funny bit to call the car "Benry".
I designed the chassis and steering - the parts that had to survive the jumps and keep us pointed down the track - and worked on every part of the build alongside the team. All in, we probably spent a couple of weeks of actual build time on it, spread between thesis deadlines and work.
For something we threw together in a month, Henry held up remarkably well on race day. Here's the run down the hill:
