Graduate designers clean up at Soapbox Challenge

A team of Northumbria University design graduates has won this year’s Red Bull Soapbox Challenge.

Mark Wells, Ian Wride and Roy Norton, who are all graduates of the Transportation Design programme, impressed judges with their speed, creativity and showmanship to carry off the title.

Their streamlined retro creation, Phya-Bird, won against 70 other entries which vied for the title at Alexandra Palace in London.

The Red Bull Soapbox Challenge sees competitors building a soapbox cart and racing it over bumps, curves and swerves designed to give as rough a ride as possible. The competition started in 2000 and has been held all over the world in countries as diverse as Australia, Jamaica and South Africa.

The Phya-Bird design was inspired by Britain’s land speed pioneers Donald Campbell and John Cobb.

The team won a once-in-a lifetime tour of the Red Bull Racing Factory and will get the chance to show off their racing prowess at a high-performance race day.

Thomas Kasher and Gregg Seed were the other members of the team. They, along with Roy Norton, work for motorcycle design business Xenophya Design which was set up by Ian and Mark after graduation.

Date posted: July 18, 2013