How to Make a Wind Powered Car

A wind powered car is an interesting and fun project that captures the power of wind and uses it to propel a vehicle. Wind powered cars are a very clever idea and are different from sail cars because they can travel in any direction with respect to the wind. This project uses household materials and a dollar store toy

watch the video or read through this post to see how

To start off you will need to get a dollar store car advertised as a friction drive car. It is the type of car where you push it once and it contains a gearbox to maintain momentum. Once the car is obtained remove the top of the car and anything under it that will be unnecessary. Take everything out of it except the back wheels and gearbox.

Cut off the front of the car and mount it so the wheel makes contact with the gearbox’s large metal round weight. This will convert the the vertical rotation of the windmill to a geared down horizontal rotation which drive the back wheels. the front of the car as seem in the pictures is placed vertically and is glued onto a skewer which is pushed through a hole in the base. this enables the vertical upright to rotate. In the picture an elastic band is attached around the wheel .however it is not necessary.

The next step is to ensure a constant pressure always holds the vertical wind catching structure against the gearbox so that there is enough contact to transfer the power to the wheels. To do this i make a small structure out of skewers and wrap and elastic around it so that it pulls the rotating upright towards the gearbox

Cut Styrofoam cups in half and glue them onto the top of wheel that extends in the air, Attach them to the wheel by using a skewer to hold them away from the center

Glue two more skewers off the front. Attach a straw to them and put a skewer through the straw to act as an axle that rotates inside of the straw. On the end of the skewer add wheels. You can use any wheels from toy car wheels to lego car wheels

if you like this also check out my website for more projects joshbuilds.com

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