Over the years, I’ve done a lot of work to design a car project for my class. (You can read about the design process and/or just read the tutorial for our final design.) 

I’ve also tested the Basic Rubber Band Racer kit from TeacherGeek, and liked it a lot. It yields a better result than many of my tested options and is near zero prep time. It’s very manageable for young kids to do, and I like TeacherGeek’s recommendations for a build process, where first you build the body without wheels, and test sliding it down a ramp, then add the wheels and test that on various heights of ramps and graph out how far it travels, then add the rubber band that you can wind to “motorize” the car.

Here’s a video of the basic car:

Here’s a video using the rubber band to make it a pullback and release car.

TeacherGeek sells single rubber band racers for $9.48, or 10 kits for $78. (It’s also on Amazon for the same cost, but I encourage you to order directly from teh company – they have great customer service.) That’s outside my price range for my class, but Teacher Geek also sells bulk components, so I priced those out for 10 cars.

Body = 13.98 for 20 plates = $1.40per car

Wheels = $18.48 for 40 = $1.84 per car

Dowels for axles and to assemble car = $8.98 for 50 = 62 cents per car

Rubber bands for wheel traction = 1 pound (~145 bands) for $16.98 = 47 cents per car

Clips for holding/winding rubber bands = 9.98 for 100 clips = 10 cents per car

Slide stops for stopping a dowel from sliding out of frames  <5 cents per car

Rubber bands for “motors” = free (usually have plenty laying around)

About $4.50 per car