More Powerwheels Racing

[bennelson]

Hey Guys,

While these aren't street-legal electric cars, there is a LOT of design that goes into them and they are a BLAST!

Last weekend, the Milwaukee MakerSpace brought out our four competition-modified kid's electric cars to go head-to-head against other teams through the mid-west and as far east as Pittsburg.

Here's a video of the endurance race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nfO838aKOQ

And there's some more info on the event at my blog including me visiting Thomas Edison's lab!


PS: One of our drivers even ROLLED a car! If that's not real racing, I don't know what is!

[cleanspeed1]

This is the coolest, most hilarious thing I've ever seen! Talking about getting to your inner child!

[bennelson]

We actually made a t-shirt just about that.

In the still photos near the end of the video, you can see Rich (Mr. Beard) wearing a white t-shirt with sort of a yield sign and silloette of him riding the Pink Trike. On the back, it says something like "Inner Child at Play".

[cleanspeed1]

I love it! Best thing I have seen in a long time. Put a big ol' smile on my face!

[bennelson]

Here's the Drag Race Footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osfur8Zsj2k

[ecomodded]

Wow, Those are some very big 5 year old's, Races begin after nap time
joking round man! looks like fun, ha haa.

[kir_kenix]

That looks like an absolute blast! Thanks for sharing.

[DonR]

Did they change the rules from last year? I saw some non stock Power Wheels wheels.

[bennelson]

The original rules from last year said you had to use the actual PowerWheels wheels. Everyone had such trouble making them work, that they changed that last year before any of the races started. Those plastic wheels just aren't designed to connect to anything other than the custom plastic gearboxes those vehicles have.

We still aren't allowed go-cart racing slicks, but anything else is pretty fair game. There were a lot of riding lawn mower wheels, and off-the-shelf industrial wheels of various types, wheelbarrow wheels, whatever!

They also DID allow for up to a 36V battery system this year, but not too many people ran it. There's just so little room in these vehicles that space and weight are very limiting.

On DC motors, more volts means a higher top speed, but we were really already going as fast as you could want in one of these!

[Nevyn]

What in the pants gives off the burst of flame at 1:40 in the background?