Cullman Derby Ramp - Part 4 - Starting Mechanism

 The next design task was a mechanism for starting races. Cars need to be held on the ramp, then simultaneously released to start. While Unalam has always fabricated some of the steel connections for our projects, I'm not sure we've ever needed to design and fabricate something with moving steel parts before. Our criteria were:

• Start both ramps at the same time
• Reliable starting function
• Easy to assemble and disassemble with the rest of the ramp

A triggered latch system of some kind seemed like a possibility, but also potentially complicated and therefore unreliable. One of the examples we found was a direct handle release... where starting blocks and a handle are all welded to a single rotating pipe. This definitely seemed like it fulfilled all three criteria.

Blue starter handle, Red start blocks

To give maximum flexibility with vehicle sizes, we included 12" tall wood blocks for holding the cars in place. We also needed holes in the ramp for the start blocks to drop in to.

We needed the starting mechanism to be easy to assemble with the ramp, and it needed to stay in place left-right relative to the ramp. We designed custom steel brackets the assembly can easily be lifted in to, with rings on the pipe to keep it aligned in those brackets.

Starter Assembly

That completed our design of the Cullman Derby start ramp. We can't wait to see it in action!

The Complete Ramp

View from below