This is the solar car my son and I made.

Here is the bank of solar cells which powers the car. The cells each produce about 0.5 volts and 0.3 amps (in full sunlight, at noon, blah, blah, blah). The motor requires 1.5 volts and 0.6 amps, so we have three banks in series (giving us 1.5 volts) and each bank has two cells in parallel (giving us 0.6 amps).

The front wheels were borrowed from my son’s Lego set.

This is the motor that runs the car.

This is a gear box that gears down the speed of the motor.

The chassis is three strips of cardboard laminated with hot glue.

A close-up of the laminations.

The solar cells are as brittle as glass. So after soldering the leads to the cells, we drilled holes in the plastic cases the cells originally came in and ran the leads out through the holes. This was to protect the cells from damage.

This is for scale.

Download a movie of the solar car in action here. (2Mb)