Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Portal
    • Join the Club
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Business Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Galleries
  • Magazine
  • Motorsport
    • DTC Live Results – October 2022
    • DTC Live Results – August 2022
    • DTC Live Results – July 2022
    • DTC Live Results – June 2022
  • Archives
The-finished-billy-cart

The Red Bull Billy Cart Challenge

Red Bull Billy Cart 2015 / James Bond – Lotus Seven

By John Barram

It all started a couple of months ago when our son Richard requested my involvement if he was lucky enough to be accepted into the first Australian Red Bull Billy Cart challenge. Now Red Bull, being Red Bull, don’t have an ordinary soapbox race. They have a comedy event where a team of four is to build something from scratch, do an amusing 30 sec skit related to their “theme”, then run the billy cart down the course, through slaloms, over jumps and even down stairs. So I watched the YouTube clips, most of which involved riding something like a giant hamburger down the track until it fell apart over the jump. Hmmm.

151120 Ghostbuster
Crossing the finish line
Fitting the front guards
Ghostbusters
No problems for Bond and the Lotus
On the track
Ready to go with Bond, Moneypenny and Bond girl (in jacket).
Richard fits
The finished billy cart
The frame complete
The nose as shaped
[Show thumbnails]

So my response was that if I/we were going to make the effort to build something, I wanted to build a scale model Lotus Seven which would not fall apart during the event and just might have a use with my little grandsons who are fast approaching the age where they could enjoy such a thing, possibly with a motor!

There were over 500 applications and Richard was one of the 60 chosen. His theme was “The James Bond Wedding Car” so their skit involved a couple of his big, hairy mates dressed up as the bride – Miss Moneypenny – and the other as a Bond Girl in a bright orange bikini interrupting the wedding and then Bond “escaping” down the track in the Lotus Seven.

So we had about six weeks for the build. We soon established 60% was the smallest we could go, so we got some steel and started cutting and welding and in three days had a rough frame. Meanwhile Richard had been scouting for appropriate wheels and had come up with mini moto-cross wheels, complete with brakes. The people at the Big Kart Track were keen to help and came up with front upright/axle/steering arm assemblies, plus a steering column and a seat from their karts. We went with a simple swing arm front suspension with spring/shock assemblies from a little quad bike.

The back axle we welded rigidly to the frame in the name of simplicity and ruggedness. Richard would need padding on his seat! By this time my brother David had got involved, and the pace quickened.

We could see from the previous races that Red Bull was setting tougher and tougher courses, with lots of the racers breaking over the jumps. So as soon as we had it mechanically complete it was test time. We easily achieved 48KPH on the sort of slope expected. It steered and it braked. Then for the jump. The first at about 30kph over 25cm was a breeze. So we went to 50cm with a steeper approach. Richard and cart flew through the air rotating steadily forward until he landed nose down at 45%, crunching the frame on to the roadway as the suspension bottomed out. But nothing broke and nothing bent. So we rearranged things to double the front spring rates and left it at that. It was time to get serious on the body.

Flat aluminium panels are no challenge to people who have been around Clubman race cars as long as David and I have, so these were soon sorted. We have access to a set of rollers so the bonnet and rear corners soon followed. But the most complex shapes on a Seven are the mudguards and nose.

I had a 45 year old pair of Seven front guard moulds which were no longer serviceable so I was able to cut the mould down to about 60% length in a way that gave a reasonable approximation of the full thing. Done. They just needed a lot of filling and finishing. In the “old race car parts” pile we came up with a pair of Clubman front guards which had enough flex in them to pull them in to the tighter radius required. A bit of trimming here and there and we had rear guards. But we could see no real shortcuts for the nose. So I made up a wooden frame and glued on surfboard foam. I then took to it with knives and sanding equipment. By the end of the day I had the shape of a nose, at least good enough for this exercise, so it went off to a mate for coating in fibreglass.

The fibreglass panels were painted, we sorted the brakes, checked the wheel-alignment, fitted head lights and a “windscreen” and with a few days to spare were ready to roll. Then off to Sydney with it in the back of Richard’s Prado like it had been built to fit. Pure fluke!

There were plenty of carts with an Australian theme and plenty of laughs. There was a Harbour Bridge, an Opera House, a meat pie, a Chiko roll, a thong, two shrimps on a barbie, etc. There was a beautifully built little Delorean and Derek Dean’s boys were there with a Ghostbusters entry.

The track, however, was mild compared to the more recent ones used by Red Bull. Most carts built up very little speed on the mostly gentle slope and the 20cm jump held few fears. It was a bit of an anti-climax for us. In speed our cart was about 12th out of the 57 runners.

The winner was the Harbour Bridge, iconic, beautifully built and one of the quickest carts there. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. Now to fit it out for the grandsons!

A History of the Lotus Seven LCQ wins 2015 Interclub Challenge

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

leyburn-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Leyburn 2022

Random images

img_1032
img_0947
IMG_0414
IMG_0421
1425983899_9ef272b9d3_m_1
Ploughman's Lunch
Anita_Dean_in_340R
lec_0180
P1010419
P1010428
P1010438
main-2
main-6
main-24
Clive-getting-some-fishing-tips-from-a-local
Mar-Shane-and-Derek
main-19
main-22
main-28
IMG_8472
IMG_8509
IMG_5075
IMG_5084
IMG_8008
IMG_6340
IMG_6342
P8310155
IMG_3932
P1050418
2009_Maccleans_Bridge_006
IMG_5643
P1060286
1938_SS_Jaguar_100_Engine_Bay
Austin_Healy
IMG_2555
IMG_2607
6_IMG_9530
2_Warm_up_lap
23d
IMG_7414
IMG_4336
IMG_6547
IMG_7128
IMG_7132
IMG_4404
IMG_4444
121_2128_IMG
121_2181_IMG
121_2195_IMG
IMG_6503
IMG_8730
IMG_5294
P1020861
10-Carpark-at-The-Bellbird
18-Nightcap-before-bed
6-Heading-for-a-wet-run
Club-Flags
20160514_124022
dtc-shane
Daryl, Dick and Shane
Jeff and Co
Paul
Jon Tinkering
Lotus display in the street
Vintage car display
IMG_20160821_105559
Martin no plate
Timers
Clive followed by Rob & Joe
A-Good-Year
MG-8164
MG-8180
2 Garry 1 Andrew 3 Phil
Clive-Shona
IMG_0516-2
Evans-Motorsport-Exige
The-Lotus-Six
20220220_093818
DSC_0213
Joes-Elise-by-Trapnell-Creations
Three Amigos
Some_of_the_cars_2
Cones
JB-21-4
Colin-Elan
Just-the-right-number-of-zip-ties-for-dynamic-flex-aero-by-Darryl-Ringuet
Clive & John
Mike-and-Maggie
Loons
alfa-105
IMAG5969
alex-photo-4-col&robyn
Jason on the straight
main-24
Bettys on hand
main-37
IMAG6049
main-46
Low Line
main-104

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios