Thread: That time again...

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Pinewood Derby...

For all of you CHR "oldtimers", you know that my son is a scout and we have been building and racing pinewood derby cars for the last several years. Over the years I have posted some of our creations and reported the results from the events we have attended. This year is my son's last year as a cub scout and he is crossing over to the boy scouts. That means that this was his last pinewood season!

This year Cole decided he wanted to build the "Bumble Bee" car from the Transformers movie. You guys would know that to be the 2009 Camaro. Needless to say this would be quite a challenge, however I think we ended up pulling it off quite well.

The Pack race went well with Cole winning several awards including "Best of show" and "Scout's Choice" as well as finishing 2nd in the race. This was the fastest car we had ever built, but another scout was able to build a car that was consistantly faster and finished well ahead of my son's car.

The top three cars from each pack race get to represent their packs at a district event. After thinking it over, we decided we wanted to try to get more speed out of the car. I mean, what's the point of taking a 2nd place car to a bigger event and not working on it to try to make it better. Of course we wanted to try to win the district event, but that seemed to be a lofty goal since the pack winner, seemed to be much faster than we were. We decided that we would be happy if we could make the car faster than the car that had won from our pack. As things turned out we were able to improve on the speed of the car and was finished 2nd overall at district, beating the car that won our pack, and showing improvment over his 4th place finish last year. Bumble Bee also won "Best of Show" in the district design competition.

The red coupe shown in some of the photos below was the car I build for the parents "Outlaw" race. I took 2nd place in the pack race, but was also able to do some tuning and ended up winning the outlaw division at the district races.

Overall it was a pretty good year!

Dave Brisco

Cool.. that's a good finish.... I never did the pinewood derby cars but in 8th grade, my technology class built C02 dragsters.. my car had come in 4th overall but was the fastest car that did not break from structural weakness.

congrats on the car. very nice looking.

Attaboys for you and the kid.... Now come on Dave, isn't it about time to build him a bit bigger one with an engine!!!?????

Very nice! Excellect workmanship on those cars and the camaro is uncanny!

In my pinewood days the car was nothing really to look at but won the race 2 out of 2 years (undefeated )... I guess that has followed me through these years to fast cars that aren't much to look at :lol:

I had quite a few tricks up my sleave to maximize performance of the pinewood cars (well... at least my dad did at the time ) but nothing I would share publicly... Gotta hold onto those aces for my future kids

Shoot me a PM for some secrets...

-Chris

Terrific job Davey!

Dave, great looking car. In fact they all are pretty sharp. Congrats on placing so well in the race too.

The cars have come a long way since I had one in 1957. My dad hand carved it out of a block of wood, and put in to full length channels for the rubber wheels. I got to paint it red and stripe it. It came in 6th place, but I was sure proud of it. I think I still have it in a box along with my electric trains.

Nice Job! My son's didn't look anything like that. The thing I remember most about the pinewood derby was the big hoo-rah-rah about graphite on the gymn
floor

hahahaha... Yep that graphite gets everywhere...

One of the speed tips that I used to make the cars faster for the district derby was one that Richard (techinspector) shared on a thread here on CHR a year or two ago. The tip was to use the head of a straight pin betweed the wheel hub and the body to result in less friction in that area... Worked like a charm!!!

Thanks Richard!!!

Dave Brisco

Been there done that.I was associated with the Cub,Boys and Weblos when the boys (2) were growing up.Pine Wood Derby time was always a hoot.The Dads got more out of it than the Kids.

One of the features we used in the cars was a weight system just behind the wheels that gave it a trampoline effect at the bottom of the ramp.The front wheels would do whellies as it entered the straightaway.We had a blast.We won a few and we lost a few as the car would leave the track on occasion.

Originally Posted by LarryH

. The thing I remember most about the pinewood derby was the big hoo-rah-rah about graphite on the gymn
floor

Don't use graphite! It gets all over everything including the kids!

Find a little molybdenum disulfide (maybe thats spelled right). It not nasty and it works better. The stuff looks (and works) like a zillion tiny little ball bearings

When my kid got his car inspected they walked him over to where a guy was very generously dumping graphite on everybody's axles. I told them "HOLD IT! Don't put that stuff on that car!" One of the extremely wise leaders said "Well, well, well! We seem to have Andy Granatelli with us today!" Loud laughter filled the room.

To shorten this boring story, Our son's car not only was "top eliminator" with over 100 cars competing, it really kicked arse! Not even close.

Again, loud laughter filled the room. That time it was mine.


Jim

... yup moly lube, maximum weight (I think it was 5.0oz in the day) in the right places and those little things to minimize any friction (axles and otherwise )... now if only I had the talent like Dave to make em look good too!