Design approach taken – explain how it worked

Wound-up balloons were used, as in a rubber band powered airplane, to drive a

propeller. The equal and opposite reaction force to pushing air backwards propelled
the car forward.
I tied the two balloons together to make the rubber band as long as possible. One
free end of the band was attached to the body of the car; the other end was
attached to the propeller drive shaft (a bent piece of wire). The rubber band was
twisted by winding the propeller in the reverse direction.
Some background… The most efficient way to store energy in a material is to stress
the material in tension. I built the Dream Roller to use the balloon in uniaxial tension,
like a rubber band, and wanted to do something different, quick and easy for a
second car. Unfortunately, my “Faster, Better, Cheaper” car ended up taking much
longer to build than the Dream Roller (because of its numerous intricate assemblies

and belt sanded parts), and it didn’t go as far 🙁

From playing with rubber band powered airplanes as a child, I knew that a great deal
of energy could be stored in a rubber band twisted in torsion. My initial thought was
to build a car that used wound-up balloons as rubber bands to drive the wheels,
using a miniature automotive design: the balloons would be the
engine/transmission/driveshaft that turned the axle. The torque from the wound up
balloons would then be delivered to the wheels which would push the car forward
using friction between the road and tire. This turned out to be the design used by
Paul MacNeal in his Rubber Fueled Dragster
The problem with this approach was that, since I started the night before the race,
there was no time for me to get the right angle gearset and bearings needed to build
the rear-axle unit.
Also, after the rubber band unwound and stopped powering the car, I wanted the
car to be able to coast freely until its momentum was expended. This would have
required a one-way clutch in the drivetrain.
Therefore, at the expense of efficiency I decided to do the next best thing: use the
torque from the wound up balloons to drive a propeller which propelled the car
forward by pushing air backwards. The propeller drive also provides the coast
feature without any extra effort.