Cowling, the executive director of the American Box Car Racing International, runs the box car track behind Sam's Club on Acacia Road that offers gravity-powered box car rides for $6.

The track has been featured in numerous island and international publications, and draws an average of 30,000 people annually from toddlers to senior citizens, according to Cowling.

"We say it's fun for kids from 1 to 100," Cowling said.

The unique and relatively simple attraction that features sleek and stylish box cars that roll down a ramp and travel through a flat 600-foot asphalt course has developed a devoted following of future drivers, such as 7-year-old Travis Kilgore.

"The easiest part is you get to steer and pull the brake," Kilgore said. "The hard part is you go fast and you crash sometimes."

The crashes, as Kilgore noted, are relatively minor and are lessened by several well-placed tires around the track that absorb impact.

In addition, first-time box car drivers are provided 15 minutes of safety instruction before going on the track. Also, children must be accompanied by an adult, everyone must wear all-purpose shoes, and children younger than 18 must wear long pants covering their ankles.

"They have enough safeguards with the tires and instructions," said Travis' mother, Brenda. "They have a great Web site. It tells you everything you need to know. I would recommend it definitely."

Brenda Kilgore said she treated Travis, his sister Erika, 8, and their friend Katie Ezell, 11, to the track because she wanted to celebrate's Travis' birthday with a wholesome outdoor activity.

"It's the basic fun that kids want to have without it being complicated," Brenda Kilgore said. "They can sit in front of the TV or movie or video games anytime. This is just unique."

Cowling said the box cars offer real, hands-on driving experiences — something video games can't do.

"With box cars, the kids are actually driving themselves instead of watching somebody else do it, or doing it vicariously or virtually through a computer," he said. "You get a child sitting behind a wheel and there's a fascination with guiding a car through a course and learning driving skills."

Instructor Windell Jones said most box cars are designed for straightaway racing. But their box cars are different, he said.

"This type of box car that goes through turns is the only type in the world," Jones said. "There are soap box derbies, but that's different from us. We're the only one in the world like this, and we just happen to be in Hawai'i."

Cowling said box car driving is one of the few outdoor activities parents can participate with their children. Instructors encourage parents to train their children and also ride with or alongside, Cowling said.

Instructor Kelly Carrington said its fairly easy to learn to drive a box car. She said her youngest pupil was 2 1/2 years old.

"Most kids over the age of seven can ride by themselves," Carrington said. "As long as the child is over 1 year, they can ride with an adult."

Melanie Kodama, of Honolulu, said the box cars offer children a one-of-a-kind outdoor activity. Kodama brought her son, Nicholas, 5, to the track recently.

"I feel that older children around 5 to 6 years old enjoy this more than just video games and sitting down and having pizza and things like that," Kodama said. "It gives them more independence. They get their own car, and get to choose which lane they want to drive in instead of playing the same video game over and over."

And as Nicholas put it, nothing is more enjoyable than driving a box car with a friend such as Kale Worthy, 7.

"I'm having so much fun playing with Kale," Nicholas Kodama said. "Going up the ramp and going down the track. I like it when I race somebody."