Pinewood Derby

[Harvo]

Not sure if any of you have boys in the scouts, but my 6 y/o is in his first year. Last week we built his pinewood derby car to race this morning at the derby. We really didn't have a ton of time to spend on it, nor had I ever built one before. Needless to say, it's alot like any speed event. There are all kinds of tricks to make a pinewood derby car go faster, and we didn't find out any of them until last night at Hobby Lobby while I was buying some graphite.

Apparently there is an ideal weight distribution, you can polish the axles and the wheels, and of course there are aerodynamic benefits to certain shapes. It was too late for most of that, so we grabbed the graphite and headed home.

My son is 6 right? And this is supposed to be his car.... so I let him pick the shape (a pickup truck). I let him pick the paint and he applied it after he sanded the corners down. He picked the decals (from my RC junk), and all i did was make sure it weighed exactly what it was supposed to.

5 oz. on the nose using VANQUISH DH slugs :mrgreen:

Here is the truck

And here is my boy. After 29 heat races he made the top 18. After 19 more races he made the top 6, and after 6 more races he finished....
2nd Place!

Not bad for a first timer ! "thumbsup""thumbsup"

 

[Harley]

I'll have to post up the pictures of the open class car we did this year. Sangell here on RCC had the idea since they let the parents run a car too, I drew it up and 99Ram machined it. ALL aluminum....

 

[Harley]

 

[crash]

I have pics someplace when I did it in the mid 70's :mrgreen:

 

[JEFF THE JET]

My son was champ 3 years in a row, lots of tips on pinepro.com.

 

[Duuuuuuuude]

Somewhere I've got the cars my dad and I built during my 3 year stint in the scouts. One was actually redwood, not pine. "thumbsup"

I typically finished pretty poorly up untill my last year when I came in 1st place in my troop. Got my ass handed to me when I went to the semi-regionals.

Congrats on your boys finish...2nd place the first time out is pretty awesome. :mrgreen:

 

[microgoat]

When I worked at the LHS we'f have lots of customers ask for pre-built pinewood derby cars. Talk about missing the point :roll:

 

[RANOVRU]

Ha, That is SICK looking.

Back when I was in school we did wood cars that ran off co2 cartridges and were led by string. Basically the same concept.

 

[dezrik]

i think i still have most of my pinewood derby cars....dont have any trophys for it though

 

[hellbentrodder]

That is awesome."thumbsup" I want it!

 

[Dynamic Concepts]

I am working on a pinewood derby for my 7-yr. old Tiger Cub Scout this weekend. I'll have to check out pinepro.com

I am working on unproportionally scaling the geometry from the bobbed Early Bronco body I sell. If it doesn't work, I'll have to improvise.....:mrgreen:

 

[version_three]

aww man, this is bringin back memories... i ran pinewood derbies for about 6-7 years back when i was in the scouts. I always tried to push the envelope in my designs - one of them was made to look like a lizard/iguana :mrgreen: I'll have to go find it again and get some pics.

 

[soilwork]

That's awesome"thumbsup" Congrats to your son. When I was in the Cub Scouts, the pinewood derby was the only I looked forward to. That was so much fun! I miss that.

 

[MnRockCrawler]

Thats awesome. Tell him congrats!
I still have my derby car from when I was in the scouts. Sure was fun to build. Even remember me and my dad bringing it into the post office to weigh it

 

[Harvo]

Thanks guys... Ive been sharing your congrats and stories with him. He had a blast.

That unlimited is pretty cool Harley. I didn't even know there were different classes of cars. We just do the traditional thing around here I guess.

Our troop's track is awsome though. Its all aluminum and 6 lanes wide. It has an electronic finish line that feeds info to a computer program that records time and placement of each racer during the whole event and gives you the finishing order at the the end. They had running order and results projected on a screen above the track all day.

After the race, they brought out a new loop for the track to try out for the first time. It looked cool, but all the cars had too much overhang to make it. I guess maybe it's for one of those different classes of cars ?

Fun times though!

 

[nomobux]

He did a nice job. "thumbsup" Not to get OT, but you know it leads to other things down the road. Valve cover racin. Same deal, gravity :mrgreen:

 

[CUSTOMHILUX]

i was in boy scouts, pinewood derbey was the best!

 

[sally1800]

Our is this weekend. My son is a First year Tiger Scout.

We made a Great White Shark on a Blue Surf Board. I cut, he drew the design and painted. Still have to prep the axles.

Will see what happens, I have a speed secrets book that a guy from work gave me. :ror:

 

[ROCKEDUP RICKY]

The 1st car of any kind that I buildt was a pinewood derby car, I was 7 in cub scouts. I did it all by myself, I did it for 4 years the 3rd year I won.
We lived in Cali. and there were a 100 cars at these events. The 1st year I didn't finish well but had a great time and was hooked. I worked on the next car all year and made the top 10, 3rd year I was the winner and the 4th year I made the top 10.
My Dad would never help me, but with ideas. I did all the work and use to think He should of helped me until I did well .Then I would brag to the other boys that I did it by myself. It made me way more proud on the win.

Thanks Dad."thumbsup"

 

[Walldog]

Probably the coolest thing I've seen so far this year"thumbsup""thumbsup"