What’s Soapbox racing and why was it a hit in Hyderabad?

Experience the thrill of soapbox racing at Hyderabad's Red Bull Soapbox Race 2024, which saw many creative cars and some memorable crashes too.

A car crash isn’t fun.

But it could be, if your car is built like a soapbox and if you are at Hyderabad’s Ramanaidu Studios for the recent Red Bull Soapbox Race 2024.

It was smooth sailing for some, but for others, it was a drive full of ups and downs as 28 five-member teams from across the country assembled their own cars and manoeuvred their way downhill at the track.

Soapbox racing, for the uninitiated, revolves around teams battling it out in non-motorised vehicles that they have designed themselves. The objective is to plummet down a hill using gravity and avoid any obstacles that the track might have en route. Born in 2000 in Belgium, the race has been organised in more than 50 countries, with over four million spectators catching up on the thrilling action, creatively-designed cars and, sometimes, memorable crashes too.

To the finish line

Hyderabad witnessed all that during the latest edition of the race, with teams displaying a lot of creativity not just in the racing but also in the making of their machines. From 3,300 registrations across India from 23 different states, the final 28 carts drove down the slopes of Hyderabad in style.

Like team Kith and Kin 2.0, which had come from Mumbai and ended up in the second place, not very far behind title winner Kraken Wagen from Hyderabad. Introducing Kith and Kin was Kirsten Gonsalves, a self-confessed old-school team that consisted of his family members. “My dad, my sister, my cousin and my brother-in-law are here,” he beams, pointing out to them. Kith and Kin based their snazzy-looking green vehicle on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles concept because “we are all ‘90s kids, and we don’t like these new-age cartoons.”