It is that time of year again, a time where our Cubs put on their designer hats and need to start thinking about building Kub Kars!
What are Kub Kars you might ask? Kub Kars are a unique opportunity for our Cubs to blend science and engineering skills with their own creative flare to build the ultimate Kub Kar from a hunk of wood.
Kub Kars have been around forever and as such there are many resources around the web to help inspire your Cub to come up with the ultimate design. A quick Pinterest or Google search on Kub Kars with being a wealth of knowledge to your Cubs fingertips.
Our rallies focus on a few different things, the first being speed. Cubs have the opportunity to apply their knowledge and research on friction, air resistance and aerodynamics to streamline a Car design to build the ultimate racers. We usually dedicate a couple meetings to help out Cubs cut their designs out, from their it’s up to them to deck out their design with racing car flames, paint and whatever else their creative minds come up with. In the past we’ve had Lego, Minecraft, and GI Joe Kub Kar creations. The sky’s the limit, the only restrictions are the width of the car can’t be modified (bigger) and the bottom needs to stay stock so that when wheels are applied the car fits in the slot tracks.
Our rallies also consider overall design and appearance as well and usually have a variety of categories Kub Kars can be entered in that range from Best Movie themed car, Best Overall Appearance, Best Race Car design, Best Truck, Most Creative. (Don’t quote me on the categories as they change year to year.).
The point of the whole exercise is to combine a bit of thought and effort and some creativity to build your Best Kub Kar, while having a little fun racing your creation on the track and in mini games, like Kub Kar bowling. I remember past Akelas cautioning Cubs and parents that with this activity you really do get what you are willing to put into it back out of it, and we have no problem racing a block of wood with wheels if that’s all your Cub decides to come up. Of course, I’ve never seen a Cub throw in the towel like that and the designs we get back are usually incredibly thoughtful and amazing. This year we hope our Cub Leadership Team will take on the challenge to design and build Leader Kub Kars to race against our Cubs. Can’t wait to see the creations!
Check out Pinterest and YouTube for some inspiration and the following video (which will show at an upcoming meeting) does an amazing job looking at the science of design. Science of Kub Kar Racing
