Picture a sunny afternoon in the Tuscan countryside. In front of you: a stack of corrugated cardboard, a set of yellow wheels, and a blank sheet of paper waiting for your team’s best design. This isn’t a movie set — it’s exactly what one corporate team experienced during one of our most original and engaging team building activities. Cardboard car races — also known as corporate soapbox races — turn a group of colleagues into a real racing team, complete with ingenuity, negotiation, team pride and a healthy dose of competition.
The Challenge: Building a Bolide from Scratch
Every team receives the same starting kit — cardboard, wheels, assembly tools and decoration materials — and from that moment on, everything is in their hands. They need to design the structure, decide on proportions, assign roles. And of course: who gets to drive the car down the track? That seemingly simple decision is often the most spirited conversation of the entire day. The debates are lively but constructive, communication becomes visual and hands-on, and leadership roles emerge naturally without any facilitator having to impose them.
The building process is the heart of the activity. It’s not just about putting pieces together — it’s about finding a balance between design and functionality, between one person’s bold idea and another’s practical suggestion. This is where team dynamics reveal themselves, and often transform for the better.
The Race: Adrenaline and Team Identity
Once the bolide is ready — painted in the team’s chosen colours, christened with a team name that says something about who they are — it’s time for the moment of truth: the track. The hand-built cars compete in races that test not only the quality of the construction, but also the driver’s nerve and the energy of the teammates cheering from the sidelines.
What emerges at this stage is remarkable: teams that seemed divided during the building phase suddenly become perfectly united in supporting their driver. A sense of belonging grows spontaneously, without any need for motivational speeches. The bolide — built with their own hands, shaped by their own ideas — becomes a tangible symbol of what the group is capable of achieving together.
Why It Works: The Power of Experiential Team Building
Cardboard car races are much more than a game. From a group dynamics perspective, this activity activates essential soft skills: creative problem solving, communication under pressure, role management, and situational leadership. All of this happens in an informal, fun setting that lowers guards and fosters genuine connections between people.
With 22 years of experience and over 130 original formats, at TeamBuilding.it we know that the most effective experiences are those where people forget they’re
