I never won anything, never went to the Nationals. But I sure had a lot of fun with it all. They'd find a sponsor for each car, that sponsor would then supply the official Derby axles and wheels to us, and we'd build the cars from scratch. No kits, nothing very professional. My Dad had the maintenance shop at his work make up a half steering wheel and cable pipe. Then I rigged the cables and pulleys for the steering apparatus.
Ahh... the drag brake! I was proud of that. I rigged up a double action lever, and foot pedal operated, to put more pressure on the hinged from the bottom drag brake. Complete with a piece of tire tread that grabbed the pavement and brought the racer to a stop. Albeit, not exactly a sudden stop!
My neighborhood had perfect streets to "test" the racers. A pretty steep hill for one block long, then a gradual downhill slope for two more blocks. In those days (early 50's) traffic was very light, and we could race to our hearts content with little interference.
Sometimes we'd get a younger kid to help push the racer back up to the hill top, with a ride down sitting on the back of the car, as compensation! (what a guy!)
Too bad tho I don't have any pics of the finished "racer". Jet black it was one year, bright red another year, and then dark blue.
Many fond memories of that time period!! :-)
