Pinewood Derby Racing

twiley

Not sure if this is considered a sport or not? Its that time of the year for scouts to have their Pinewood Derby races. Last night and today I helped our troop set up the track. It was a sport just getting the dang thing set up. After 10 + hours the track is set up and ready for tomorrow's race. I guess the troop is considering a metal track vs the old wooden one we currently have. Anyway my son is psyched for tomorrows race. He is a tiger cub so it will be his first derby. I will post pics of his car after tomorrow and report back on how he did. Wish him luck!

Hallco

Very cool! I was a cub scout in the 70s and had cars 2 years that I remember. I was a HUGE fan of Earl Campbell and the first year's had the team colors of the (then) Houston Oilers with #34 stickers that I had from some of my football players action figures that my grandmother ordered from the JC Penney catalog!!! Those things were AWESOME!!

twiley

Cool! I was a cub scout in the 70s as well. My first car # was #76 so I did a 1776 theme car because the year was 1976. Car was red white and blue. I didn't do so well far as placement in the elimination but I had fun building and racing it. I think my draw back was I didn't have a scale to get the car up to the 5 oz. regulation mark. Lucky for my son I have a scale for my ebay sales. So I helped him get the car as close to 5 oz. as possible. It weighs 4.9 oz. I also did a test run on the track after we set it up and the car was pretty darn fast. He has a good shot at placing in the top 5 in the troop.

I will post pics of the car and report on how he did.

Tabe

I enjoyed the Pinewood Derby as a kid but got tired of seeing the cars from the winners having obviously been made by their dad instead of the scout as it's supposed to be. Kinda ruins it when the kids who get rewarded are the ones going against the spirit of the thing.

Tabe

Boopotts

<< <i>I enjoyed the Pinewood Derby as a kid but got tired of seeing the cars from the winners having obviously been made by their dad instead of the scout as it's supposed to be. Kinda ruins it when the kids who get rewarded are the ones going against the spirit of the thing.

Tabe >>



My experience was exactly the opposite. My dad and my friend's dad would spend weeks huddled together in my buddy's basement, drinking Meister Brau and agonizing over our cars' designs. They would try everything- weight the wheels, run 'mock races' down an impromptu track, toy with axel placement, etc.-- in an effort to build the fastest cars, and my buddy and I would be totally frozen out. In fact, we usually never saw the cars until they were presented to us on race day. Then we'd all walk over to the elementary school for the race, and a kid with a car shaped like a simple wedge would win. Of all the 'dad made' cars I saw- and there were a lot of them-- I don't think I ever saw on place better than 6th.

I guess Webster Groves, Mo., was home to a lot of lousy engineers!

twiley

Well I didn't pick my son's derby car design. He did. He did most of the work to his car. I only did the cuts and melted the lead for weight. He did the sanding, painting, wheels etc. I did the cuts so he didn't cut off his limbs. I also melted the lead while wearing a respirator. I wouldn't allow him (even though he wanted to do it) because of the toxic fumes the lead put out.

The race is over. He placed 2nd over all and will be going on to district! I am very surprised and very happy for him.

Pics and video links of the races to come later.

Dboneesq

CONGRATS to your son! Tell him your friends from the board wish him luck with his next race.

coinkat

I think I still have my pinewood derby cars- it may take a week to find them and yes... over 40 years ago, yours truly was a trophy winner- I suspect it may even take longer to find that

Hallco

My wife reminded me that our youngest was also a tiger cub at one point....and she wanted me to tell you that those old ugly Sacagawea gold dollars glued to the bottom of the car help get your car up to the acceptable weight!!! I forgot that until she told me! Also, Lego men sitting in the driver's seat look pretty neat too!!

twiley

Ok now that I have some more stuff and info to share about today's race. I am currently working on the video. I taped the entire event. Having some trouble creating titles and heat 1 2 3 etc for the video. I already captured the video so that part is done. Anywho

My son won 3 awards.

3rd place medal for Cubs originality
2nd place medal for Cubs speed
2nd place trophy for overall speed

Here is a picture of my proud little tiger cub with his car (Francisco). Francisco is named after the car in the Disney Pixar Cars 2 movie. The color he chose was the color of Fin McMissile and the lightning bolt and 95 car # is after Lightning McQueen.





I will post links to the video when I get it done.

Dave99B

What an awesome young man!!!! Congrats to him, and the proud pappa.

Great looking car, too.

Dave

twiley

Ok here are some links to heats my son was in. The track is set up with lanes 1 thru 6 going left to right. So viewing the video the farthest left lane is lane 1 the farthest right lane is lane 6. I named the links to each heat with the lane his car was in...

First round
Lane 6

Lane 5

Lane 4

Lane 3

This is the only heat he won which I was glad he at least won one of the heats. The car that kept getting first was the car that won first over all.
Lane 2

Lane 1

Second Round

Lane 6

Lane 5

Lane 4

Lane 3

Lane 2

Lane 1

To scale his car had an adv. speed of 210.8 MPH. The first place car had an adv. of 211.1 MPH.

He had such a great time he is talking about what he wants to do for next year. LOL! I told him he should be thinking about his district race coming up this March.

He read this thread before he went to bed. He was happy you got to see his car.

Connecticoin

I always lost to the cars that were cut on thier Dad's band saw.

Unfortunately, my parents played by the rules, and made me whittle the car myself with a pocket knife.

orioles93

Very cool. I always loved the pinewood derby in scouts. I came in 1st the last year i did it, with a car that i made myself! It was great to see my poorly painted car beat all the ones that kids dads built.

Connecticoin

<< <i>Very cool. I always loved the pinewood derby in scouts. I came in 1st the last year i did it, with a car that i made myself! It was great to see my poorly painted car beat all the ones that kids dads built. >>



Yeah, I'll admit I sucked at whittling. I did have an awesome coin collection to earn my coin collecting merit badge, though!

Statman

I have to admit, I was one of those scouts whose father helped them. My dad was actually the pack leader for awhile, but better yet, he was a physicist with an engineering background. So, he knew all the tricks to make the car go the fastest. So, from about 1972-76, my and my brother ruled the local pinewood derby.

I guess it also helped that with my dad as pack leader, we stored the race track at our house - so we could do all the test drives we wanted.

It didn't seem like such an advantge back then, but now looking back, I feel like such a cheater!

twiley

My son asked me to pass along a huge.

Thank you to everyone.

Tonight he gets his bobcat badge at the pack meeting.

57loaded

the metal tracks should even out the speed/friction discrepancy between lanes, if you have it with the wood tracks.


congrats to your son.

i also noted the big smile with the trophy and ribbon!

MeteoriteGuy

Nice, Your son looks quite pleased......now you need to make him one of the custom Topps cards.

72skywalker

I remember that when I was a kid I won the pinewood Derby for my town. It was the only trophy that I got that was deserved. All my others were from "everybody gets a trophy day" from basketball and baseball. As the winner I had to go to the neighboring town and compete against all the other winners from all the other towns in our area. I remember getting smoked pretty bad that day. At least I won from my town. Ahhh.. the memories.