On Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 3:53:55 PM UTC-5, Lew Hodgett wrote:
"John McCoy" wrote:


As desirable as that is, eventually you run into the twin
problems of it being too expensive and too fast for safety
on any available course.
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Cost doesn't seem to be a problem for L Ellison or Bill Koch when
they won the America's Cup in their respective years.

OTOH, neither one of them were going to lose.

Whatever it took.

Lew

"Cost" was one of the 2 main reasons the Soap Box Derby Masters division
almost became extinct. Having the expertise to build a highly customized car
was the other. The thing is, you really can't have one without the other.

Building a highly customized car was not cheap, nor were all of the weekend
trips to other cities to race. Weekend rallies were used for 2 things: seat time
for your driver and testing of different tune-ups, weight distributions, etc.

It was no coincidence that the families that we saw at rallies weekend
after weekend were the same families that qualified to race in the World
Championship races in Akron, year after year.

The problem was, those of us with highly customized cars (and high spend
rates) were the ones winning all the races. Eventually, the other families
stopped showing up and many families never even bothered getting into the
Masters division. Their kids would race in the 2 lower divisions and then move
on to other activities.

There was a few years when the 6 driver minimum at the weekend rallies couldn't be met.
Instead of not racing, 1 or 2 fake names were placed on the grids so the other kids
could race. Akron made believe that they didn't know what was going on for a while but
eventually had no choice but to eliminate the customizations. It worked. It took a
few years, but the Masters Division, while still the smallest division, is thriving now.

It still takes some expertise to build a good Masters car and it still cost more
to build a good Masters car when compared to the lower divisions, but it's back
to being within reach of almost all families that want to move up.