Maker

Go-Karts Race

to College

Winner gets a $10,000 college scholarship. Loser goes home. By Nate Bell

Some high school students deliver newspapers or wash dishes to save money for college. The teens on the reality-based TV show Design Squad try to outbuild each other.

On our final episode of Season 2 we divided our young cast into two teams, and gave them identical sets of parts for off-road go-karts: front and rear suspension, steering, engine and rear drive train, seats, seat belts, and brakes. The teams had to design the chassis, roll cage, and side impact protection, taking into consideration how their designs would affect handling and vehicle weight.

Purple Team took a modular, design-as-you-go

48 Make: Volume 15

approach, thinking about the chassis, roll cage, and side impact protection separately. They focused on a machine that was easy to get in and out of, because the racers had to stop and pick up flags along the course.

Green Team designed the chassis, roll cage, and side impact protection as an integrated unit. This meant that Green used much less metal and kept the weight low — but they had to be careful with the design to ensure that the overall structure would be strong enough to survive intense off-road battering. Green’s racing crew members were smaller and more willing to bump shoulders during the race, so

Photography by Helen Tsai