A text strip from The Hotspur (second series)

See The Victor and The Hotspur (second series) 278 - 296.

Writer:- The Victor editorial team. Artist:- Hotspur series Kennedy? for some of the art, with other contributions from other unknown artists.

Main cast:- Andy Taylor.

Time period:- 1960's & Second World War.

From Wikipedia, 'A gravity racer or soapbox is a motorless vehicle which is raced on a downhill road either against the clock or against another competitor.' Originally the cars were built from wooden soap or apple crate box, but other materials have been used to construct cars over the decades.

This series was chosen to coincide with a soapbox race held yearly here in York, England.

This text series tells the adventures of a young Andy Taylor, a Britisher (a DC Thomson term) and his Soap-box Special car. His friend’s parents can provide their sons with bicycles, but Andy’s father can’t as he is poorly paid and finds it difficult to obtain work. Andy though initially sad that he can’t have a bicycle, soon finds himself wrapped up in the engineering challenge of building a soapbox car. (The writer for this series, appears to have done his homework on the best way to construct a soap-box car. Which is mentioned in the text. For example, ‘Weight, for one thing. Centre of gravity, for another. Then there’s the friction between wheel-rims and road, and the friction between wheel-hubs and axles.’ I never knew there was so much to consider in the building of such a simple vehicle).

The soap-box car comes into its own as Andy uses it to help rescue a young American boy who has fallen into the town harbour where Andy lives. This is turn leads to Andy travelling with the boy and his multi-millionaire father to America to take part in the US soap-box championship. There are many trials and exciting races and problems to overcome, before a winner is crowned champion.

This series was probably originally published in one of the DC Thomson text paper comics. Although I don't currently know which one at the present.

For the last two years on the August Bank Holiday Monday, some enterprising business's on Micklegate have organised and run a soapbox derby. (A bit of a challenge this, as York is as flat as a pancake. So to give the cars a bit of momentum, they are pushed down a wooden ramp). The idea is that contestants (groups of friends or companies and so on), build a soapbox car then propel the vehicle down the ramp and then on down the slightly downhill road. The fastest ten soapboxes after two runs, then have one final run. The winner is the soapbox that completes the run in the shortest amount of time. The race is purely for fun and any money raised goes to charity. For those interested please search on You Tube to view the York soapbox races.

The following adventures of Andy Taylor and his soapbox car are from The Hotspur (2nd series) 278; 279; 280; 281; 283; 285; 288; 293 & 296.

Following on from Andy Taylor's adventures is a one issue text story from The Victor issue 327, about an British Army unit using soapboxes during the Second World War.

***Please note that I am using a standard thumbnail image for all the full size pictures on this page. This is purely being done to save myself sometime.***