Born 120 years ago with a first race in Oberursel near Frankfurt, soapbox racers (i.e. racing cars built with soap boxes and which move on sloping tracks) have only recently become a widespread phenomenon also in Great Britain. Brittany following a series of races held between 2000 and 2004 at the Festival of Speed at Goodwood.
Precisely to commemorate Rolls-Royce's participation in these first 'gravity' competitions (i.e. for cars pushed by gravity) as part of the Soapbox Challenge, the famous super luxury model company now presents an update of its previous range of push single-seaters .
Called RR_02, the new soap-box car is inspired in design by the Silver Ghost, winner of the 1911 London to Edinburgh Trial and the 1913 Alpine Trial, results which at the beginning of the last century consolidated Rolls-Royce's position as the maker of the 'best cars in the world'.
Like its two predecessors - the RR-0.01 and RR-0.02 single-seaters built in carbon fiber with honeycomb composite plates and precision aluminum components - RR_02 was also built with the most advanced high-tech solutions and with speed in mind .
This is underlined by the racing-style rack-and-pinion steering and smooth tubular tires to minimize rolling resistance.
It should be remembered that this special activity within the scope of Rolls-Royce production, carried out by the apprentices, constitutes a 'historic' stage in the most recent era of the brand, the one under the ownership of the BMW Group.
With the Rolls-Royce project still in its infancy - planning permission for the new site had just been granted - the company decided to enter the Soapbox Challenges at the 2001 and 2002 Goodwood Festival of Speed, ahead of the launch of the first RR of the modern era, the Phantom, which was delivered to its owner at 00:01 on January 1, 2003.
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