Hyundai wants to help you build a soapbox racer

Looking for a fun automotive project you can complete in the safety of your own garage? Perhaps an engine swap is a bit out of your budget, and you’d love to get the kids involved. Hyundai just released a comprehensive guide for building a soap box racer using components easily found at your local hardware store. At-home shop class, anyone?

“In recent months, spending time together as a family has become more valuable to people. We wanted to create a fun project that would give families and friends an enjoyable project that brings them together,” says Andreas Christoph-Hofmann, vice president of marketing and product for Hyundai’s European branch.

What should you put on your shopping list? Brackets, screws, wood, metal rods, and some wheelbarrow wheels. A quick animation of the building process is below, but you can find complete step-by-step instructions here.

Though some might think this racer has all the elegance of a Cybertruck, Hyundai points out that a curvier design would have been far more challenging to fabricate with a typical garage’s worth of tools.

“When designing the Hyundai Soapbox, it was important for us to ensure feasibility,” says Eduardo Ramirez, head of Hyundai Europe’s exterior design team. “We didn’t want to disadvantage parents for the sake of staying true to our original design. So when the design got too complex, we needed to take a step back and rethink.”

The end result was this edgy contraption inspired by the firm’s 2019 45 concept. Your kids probably won’t care about its artistic origins, however: They’ll want to build it, and go fast.

The finished result will be 3.2-feet wide and roughly 5.75-feet long. Though Hyundai shows the racer painted in a vibrant yellow, we can imagine all kinds of fun livery choices: a tribute to your favorite comic book hero’s ride, zebra stripes, glow-in-the-dark paint, or stickers.

Already making a list for your local Home Depot or Lowe’s? Be sure to keep us informed on the Hagerty Community if you decide to take on this project!