It was highly competitive then as well as now. There are many books and websites full of engineering strategies to get the most performance out of your car. I would say most often the fathers would take over the projects to have the coolest design or fastest car. I remember being stunned at the works of art that were produced while mine looked like a very fat doorstop.
Despite my present prodigious design and craftsmanship abilities, when I was 9 or 10, as you can tell by the photos I had zero design or engineering ideas and my only carpentry skill was the ability to keep my fingers attached to my hand. Believe it or not, I made this car mostly by myself. I think I had help sanding the mold lines off the wheels and drilling holes to help the car make weight at weigh ins.
There was no design. I copied the generic drawing that was in the included instructions. All the cuts were made with a coping saw which accounts for no cut being straight and no angle matching another. There are visible saw marks and gouges in the wood. I must have only had 60 grit sandpaper because the sanding marks are still visible. The inexplicable Tarheel blue painted body still has fingerprint marks where I handled the car wet. The silver stripe is painted freehand and the painted yellow headlights look like they are dripping. The wheels sport a heavy negative camber. Apparently I couldn't hammer a nail in straight either.
So how did I do? Half the time one of the wheels fell off, causing the entire car to fly off the track. But ages later I still have it. It sure is terrible, but at least I made it myself.
