Pinewood derby cars

[onanysunday]

Anyone else ever build these? Always looked fun and finally got a crack at it with both of my grandsons. Read lots of theory online before building them. Quite a bit to it. About 6 hours to build both cars. Used a lot of tools in my garage. lol. One car got 1st place (never lost a race) and one got 8th place. 

 

[Sausage450r]

I did once for my kids. Did all the tricks. Buffed the axles (nails) with 2000 grit sand paper. Shaved the wheels and angled for less surface contact resistance. I used stick on low profile lead tire weights to weight weight/balance correct. 
still lost to a kid that hammered together a redneck car from a chunk of unrefined 2x4

 

[ROBERT L]

The wife kept her sons cars. I don’t know how they did. 
 

 

[Bobalos]

The first year, I let my oldest do whatever he wanted and it was the mess I figured it would turn out to be.  

Yhe next year my youngest was old enough to play too.  So....  we made 2 cars each.  One was all them the second was the one they raced.  I only did the Axles and wheels, they did the rest.  We did the math and I explained the science and they made the cars as close to "perfect a design" as could be.  They came in 1&2 rhat year. 

We raced the official cars against the unofficial cars and they were not even close to the same speed.  This helped to confirm the value of the effort and design choices.  

The next year the oldest was aged out and the younger did the same thing (2 cars).  He came in first place again. 

All 3 years the field was pretty small, so it's not like we won state or anything.  LOL 

The following year we watched and it was nothing but store bought cars....  

 

[Crusty]

My Dad helped me and this stuff was magic LOL.

Straight Wheels and screws were the key. We got 1st place. 

 

[Poule43]

My Son won his qualifiers and went to the big event in San Diego and took 3rd Place! Was a Blast!!!!

oule:

 

[Mac]

I remember this.   Like Sausage, my Dad and I did everything to make it go fast and still got beat by some bullsh*t low-tech job.

This should really be called the Scout DAD derby.  Every Dad takes this over trying to beat the other kids/dads... :lol:

If you haven't, see the South Park episode on this... :lol:

 

[Crusty]

I remember this.   Like Sausage, my Dad and I did everything to make it go fast and still got beat by some bullsh*t low-tech job.

This should really be called the Scout DAD derby.  Every Dad takes this over trying to beat the other kids/dads... :lol:

If you haven't, see the South Park episode on this... :lol:

 

[Dune-Track-N]

Funny last year I challenged all my regular camp group guys to a Derby. I bought all the supplies and handed them out at Thanksgiving for a race in February. It was EPIC everyone loved it. Most surprising was how many cars were so similar.

 

[Dune-Track-N]

my dad's beer truck was the clear show winner

 

[Rockwood]

The church does this every year by age group including adults.  Sadly I have a trip this year, so can't see my chit dominate. :biggrin:

My son is scrambling to finish his by Sunday.  We shall see how that turns out.

Highly recommend doing it.  First time was a wooden track like @Dune-Track-N did with the lane equalizer spreadsheet and an iPhone to take slow-mo video of the finish line.  Church has a timing rig and uses average time to determine final heats with head to head eliminations.  Super fun.

 

[Bobalos]

the beer wagon is awesome. 

 

[Crusty]

Thread full of awesomeness...

:cheers:

 

[xtream1]

here's one from back in the day...about 1972. Yes, dad did alot LOL

 

[DSchuck]

Our local YMCA has a race every year.  I have young kids and they love it.