My Little Smurf Cat Racer

Event Year: 2023
Event Location: Orange County STEM Saturday
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
School: Palmetto Elementary
Team Name: Cranium Crushers
Project Name: My Little Smurf Cat Racer
Team Size: 4

Palmetto Elementary School’s Jr. Solar Sprint Car Competition Vehicle

Nyx H.- 4th, Thavin P.-5th, Brandon T.-4th, Rinhaya L.- 4th.

Design and Build Log:

Sept 7th: Each of us designed our own initial plans for car. All members (30 min)

Sept 22nd: We decided on the design we wanted to go with and began to build the car. All members (45 minutes)

Sept 21st: We designed the board to cut out of the shapes and lines to make it simple. All members (30 minutes)

Sept 28th: We built supports for the solar panel and a chair for the rider. We accidentally glued the spinning rod w/ wheels to the axel. We had to remove every bit of glue that was connecting the axel to the rod. NH, BT, RL (1 hour)

Oct 5th: We accidentally broke the wood base of the car. We had to spend time fixing the wood base. We attached the wheels to the car. All members (30 min)

Oct 19th: We figured out most of the functional parts so we created a design for the car. All members (30 mins)

Oct 26th: Prepared for test run and made sure that all parts were working. ALL members (30 min)

Nov 9th: We failed the test run. We were missing an axel and the weight of the solar panel was pushing the wood down, forcing it to stop the car completely. All members (30 mins)

Nov 16th: We made changes to the car so the solar panel would stay down with a rubber band. We worked on this site. (30 mins)

Nov 30: Test run 1 wasn’t the best because it wouldn’t move when we placed it on the ground, but when we set it up the wheels was moving perfectly. Test run 2 with the batteries it was going very fast and it worked. Test run 3 was good but not as fast as the batteries. We had some spacers to keep the wheels from touching the chassis that we decided to remove because they were causing the front wheels to freeze up.

Measurements and Dimensions:

Left and Right side views (shown below) Top and Bottom views (middle)

Back and Front views (shown above)

25 centimeters long (side)

14 centimeters wide(front)

6 and 1/2 cm tall without panel + 12 and 1/2 cm tall with panel

Test Runs

Test Run 1 was not very good. Everytime we set the car on the ground it would slow down due to nearby shadows and it being overcast.

Test Run 2 was our best run. We used the battery pack to get the car moving for this test and it went FAST! It did not keep a very straight track so we are excited to see how it will run on the line during competition.