From the Red Bull Soapbox Race to a Children’s Hospital: Team Dom Toretto’s QIDI Q2 Story

Some 3D printing stories end when the build is finished. Team Dom Toretto’s kept moving—from the course of the Red Bull Soapbox Race to a community event at Miller Children’s Hospital.

Using a QIDI Q2, the team printed custom parts that helped bring the personality of its homemade race car to life. After the car flipped during the race, the 3D-printed components remained remarkably intact. Later, QIDI supplied filament so the team could turn the same creative energy toward personalized keychains for children and their families.

The Story at a Glance

Building a Soapbox Car With an Unmistakable Identity

A soapbox car needs more than wheels and a steering system. At an event known for imaginative, human-powered vehicles, its personality matters too.

Team Dom Toretto drew inspiration from the Dodge Charger associated with the Fast & Furious films. The team wanted its homemade racer to be recognizable before it even started moving.

The QIDI Q2 was used to create several of the details that shaped the car’s appearance, including the front grille, ram-air scoop, bumper elements and the large supercharger mounted on the hood. According to the project account, the supercharger alone took nearly 36 hours to print with QIDI ABS Rapido filament.

These were not generic decorations added at the last minute. Together, they helped transform a handmade vehicle into Team Dom Toretto’s own interpretation of an automotive icon.

The team supplied the concept, design work, assembly and countless hours of preparation. The QIDI Q2 helped turn the digital models behind those details into physical parts ready for race day.

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When the Race Took an Unexpected Turn

The Red Bull Soapbox Race course was built to challenge both the creativity and construction of every team. It included turns, obstacles and jumps that could quickly expose the limits of a homemade vehicle.

Team Dom Toretto’s run ended dramatically. After launching from one of the jumps, the car flipped, sending parts of its cardboard exterior across the course.

Much of the handcrafted bodywork was damaged. However, several of the 3D-printed components remained intact after the crash.

This was not a controlled durability test, and it would be misleading to present it as one. It was something more straightforward: a real observation made by the team after an unpredictable race-day accident.

The difference was visible enough that the surviving printed parts soon became keepsakes. The large hood-mounted supercharger was saved as a reminder of the build, while the front bumper and other smaller pieces went home with members of the team.

What began as a collection of printed car details had become a set of physical memories from the project.

The race ended with a crash, but the team’s story with 3D printing did not end there.

Taking the Project Beyond the Racecourse

The next chapter placed the team in a very different setting.

Following the Soapbox Race, Team Dom Toretto took part in an event at Miller Children’s Hospital. Instead of preparing another vehicle, the team used 3D printing to create personalized keychains that could be shared as keepsakes.

QIDI supplied filament to support the project.

The objects were much smaller than the car parts printed for the race, but their purpose was more personal. Each keychain was designed and printed as a unique keepsake for the children and their families.

For the team, this created a new way to use the skills and tools developed during the race project. The same process that had produced a grille, bumper details and a hood-mounted supercharger could now produce individual gifts for a community event.

The focus had shifted from building something designed to attract attention on a racetrack to making something a child or family could take home.

One Printer, Two Very Different Kinds of Making

The race car and the keychains were very different projects, but they shared the same starting point: an idea that needed to become something physical.

For the Soapbox Race, 3D printing gave the team a practical way to create custom parts that matched its specific design. The team was not limited to searching for ready-made decorations that might not fit the car or its theme.

For the hospital event, the same technology made personalization possible. Rather than distributing identical objects, the team could create small keepsakes with an individual connection.

For QIDI, the two projects show why a 3D printer should not be defined by a single type of output. The value of the tool depends on what its users choose to create with it.

A printed part can help complete an ambitious competition build. It can survive an unexpected accident and become a souvenir. It can also become a small gift made for someone else.

Why Team Dom Toretto’s Story Matters to QIDI

At QIDI, we want 3D printing to give creators more freedom to explore ideas, solve practical problems and make projects that feel distinctly their own.

Team Dom Toretto’s journey reflects that purpose without needing to turn the story into a product demonstration. The team brought the imagination, engineering work and commitment. The QIDI Q2 helped bring its custom designs into the physical world.

When the team later found an opportunity to use 3D printing at Miller Children’s Hospital, we were glad to support the next stage of its work by supplying filament. Our contribution was one part of a project led and carried out by the team, but it helped their creativity travel beyond the racecourse.

For us, this is what meaningful 3D printing can look like: an idea shaped by its creator, brought into the real world and carried forward in a way that reaches someone else.

Team Dom Toretto started with a homemade race car. What remained was more than a collection of surviving parts. It was a story about making, resilience and finding a new purpose for creativity.