When I was a kid ..............
An abandoned (well ..... maybe pinched ) orange crate mounted on a discarded 2 x 4 piece of wood (can't say lumber it was so junky ) put together with nails gathered over weeks and made straight by banging them on the sidewalk with a brick, then attaching discarded metal roller skates that normally would attach to your shoes using a 'skate key', and came in two pieces which we separated and put one half of the skate on the front of the 2 x 4 and the other half of the skate on the rear of the 2 x 4 and then race them.
Tape of any kind was unheard of then but boy we had plenty of cardboard and plenty of spit.