Gravity Racers

MiniBuggies

Minibuggies are small versions of our Gravity Racers. Made from 8 layers of sheet material these develop 2D-3D spatial awareness - a valuable skill for designers, engineers and architects.

This construction style can be taken to an extreme as shown with the Range Rover model on our Modelling page - made by a past student. You just need to understand what the buggy would look like cut through like a slice of bread.

This technique is covered in our CAD U CAN course

Stiction Racers

Sticktion Racers are our glue-less range where you build the car from a MDF frame and card body without the need for glue. Just a bit of Sellotape here and there maybe. These can be made by 10 year olds in 20 minutes and coloured to taste with felt tips.

The real STEM element comes when fettling the axles and wheels to achieve the highest speeds.

Our slow racing track facilitates competitive racing in as short a distance as 6 feet!

Kits cost from £2.50 each with the Bugatti as a starting point. Getting more complex (check out the Napier Railton) gets more costly in laser cutting but hey . . .what a car . . .!?

This project brings something for everyone. We can even laser cut a driver with your face!

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This is actually our oldest project! Developed from a project called 'pine car' - where competitors craft a car from a block of wood, two axles and 4 wheels this project has moved into the 21st century using CAD CAM. Various iterations include cars with sprung chassis, multilayer MDF to minimal MDF and cardboard bodies.

In this project participators design each layer of the racer to include a seat, a driver and body styling. The standard fittings connect the body to a standard chassis. This is fitted with bearings that can be changed out and compared for different frictional properties. The bearings can be fettled and honed to achieve amazingly free running.

This project can be run without a design element and by using standard bodies and chassis sets. Alternatively you can add to the racer, customise the layers to achieve your own unique design.