Gpa's Awana Grand Prix Cars

The Awana races were held last Saturday and as usual Jon, Annette, Audrey and Madison were the winners for speed. I don't know their positions and I don't have any of their pictures.

Mom and I also won some awards. Mom's 1934 Ford Street Car was awarded first for race car design. I didn't consider it a race car, but happily accepted the award. As I said previously the car was designed over a plastic model that I bought. I then stripped some of the parts to enhance my Awana car. Notice the plastic radiator, seat and steering wheel.

My cars were first and second in design. The dump truck was my version of my grandfather's cast iron truck that is in the foreground. The dump bed was movable, as a matter of fact in one of the races it came off the truck and the bed had to be re glued. It ran again 2 races later.

The airplane was the result of insomnia. Just couldn't go to sleep and was wondering what other kind of car I could make that would shoot out flaming flash paper.



After using a mouse trap in last year's car I wanted something different. Jon and I both decided on flash paper being shot out when the cars crossed the finish line. There is a micro switch on the bottom of the cars and a AAA battery to turn on a glow plug. The glow plug ignited the flash paper that blew out the stack on the truck. The flash came out the back of the airplane. The button on the front of the plane was a mini light. The kids loved it.

These are pictures of all the cars that were entered.

The kid's cars are pictured on the left. The adult cars are on the right.

Just so you know, we did follow the Awana rules. Our cars were 5 ounces--usually right on the nose. The length was 7 inches. They were less than 2 3/4 inches wide and 3 inches high. Yes, we did use only Awana wheels. Audrey's car was an army tank with a cannon on top that shot the flash paper. It had 8 wheels, four on each side, but only 3 wheels touched the track. We usually keep the right front wheel a little higher and compensate with weight placement in the back.

So if you have Awana Grand Prix races at your church be sure and have an adult division. You'll be surprised how many adults like to play with little cars. It's just as much fun as when I was 6 years old.

Thanks for reading,

Love you all

Gpa G