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Pinewood Derby Racing


JamesRobot

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Events Team · Posted

It's racin' season!  The boy and I just finished our third Pinewood Derby car and the pack race is next Saturday. 

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This year we made a Bendy and the Ink Machine car.  It's considerably thinner than last year's ghost car with a greater weight concentration near the rear axle. Here's all of our cars so far.

fSL5kwU.jpg

Anyone racing this year?  Any past cars to show off?

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Here is my son's pinewood derby car.  This was his first year at the Derby and my first time in over 30 years.  He finished second in his age group and the car that beat us ended up winning the entire thing.  We qualified for the District races which are in March.

I wanted to go with a little more competitive design, but it was my son's choice and he wanted to go with something that looked more like a real car.  After he saw which cars were winning everything he said that next year he wants to go with that kind of design (something like a wedge).  So I'm looking forward to next year trying to make a car that can run for the top spot.  

Overall we had fun which is what counts and it was fun watching him get excited about it.

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Events Team · Posted
13 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

My daughter's Daisy troop are doing pinewood derby with the cubscouts this year, so we need to get a car built next weekend.

Looking forward to it.

Better get on that.  Especially if you're having her do some of the work.  It took us three weekends.  (Barely any time during the week with work and all the extra curriculars.)

22 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

Here is my son's pinewood derby car.  This was his first year at the Derby and my first time in over 30 years.  He finished second in his age group and the car that beat us ended up winning the entire thing.  We qualified for the District races which are in March.

I wanted to go with a little more competitive design, but it was my son's choice and he wanted to go with something that looked more like a real car.  After he saw which cars were winning everything he said that next year he wants to go with that kind of design (something like a wedge).  So I'm looking forward to next year trying to make a car that can run for the top spot.  

Overall we had fun which is what counts and it was fun watching him get excited about it.

Nice!  The District race is a good time.  We had the same experience last year.  Our car placed second in the pack.  His buddy's car took first and went on to win the District championship.  Our car ended up around 10th or so in the district.  Really hoping for a better showing this year but there's some pretty competitive dads in the area.

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28 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

Better get on that.  Especially if you're having her do some of the work.  It took us three weekends.  (Barely any time during the week with work and all the extra curriculars.)

We have a couple of weeks to go, and I know what I am getting into in terms of the build.

I haven't participated in a derby in quite awhile, though, so I am mainly hoping that it isn't a situation where some dads with a misplaced competitive spirit suck the fun out of the activity for the kids.

Main focus this week is getting my daughter to cook up a design.

Edited by arch_8ngel
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Man, this was his first year. We got the car weight to 4.9 ounces, polished the axles, used the graphite. He came in 2nd three times and 3rd once. They emailed us all the stats with his cumulative time and average scale mph and what not. He had so much fun it was great. The den leader had been practicing with a track in his basement, he was a total freak. I think he got his car up to 207 scale mph.

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On 1/19/2020 at 9:59 PM, JamesRobot said:

It's racin' season!  The boy and I just finished our third Pinewood Derby car and the pack race is next Saturday. 

TXk5lcF.jpg

This year we made a Bendy and the Ink Machine car.  It's considerably thinner than last year's ghost car with a greater weight concentration near the rear axle. Here's all of our cars so far.

fSL5kwU.jpg

Anyone racing this year?  Any past cars to show off?

Did they let you race with the back wheels cambered like that? They made a big deal about no cambering and all four wheels having to touch the track. 

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Events Team · Posted
2 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

Did they let you race with the back wheels cambered like that? They made a big deal about no cambering and all four wheels having to touch the track. 

Yeah our district doesn't throw in any extra rules.  We rock the 3 wheel rail rider.  

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I'm sure it's different all around the country.  I hadn't race in almost 3 decades, so I went over the rule list for my district pretty closely.

  • If I didn't use the pine block that came in the kit I wasn't racing.
  • If I didn't use the wheels that came with the kit, I wasn't racing.
  • If I didn't use the nails/axles that came with the kit, I wasn't racing.
  • If I didn't use the pre-cut groves in the wood block for the axles, I wasn't racing.
  • If 3 out of the 4 wheels weren't completely flat to the track I wasn't racing. 
  • If the car rides the rail down the entire track you are disqualified.  
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Events Team · Posted
1 hour ago, BriGuy82 said:

Lol, they inspected and impounded our car 48 hours before the race. The guy tested it, measured it, broke out his flashlight... it was serious business. 

Impounded? That's ridiculous.  If our cars are out of spec, they just give em back so you have a chance to fix it.

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16 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

Impounded? That's ridiculous.  If our cars are out of spec, they just give em back so you have a chance to fix it.

I think he is referring to check in.  Once our cars are checked in, we cannot touch them until after racing is over.  I'm just surprised that they check them in 48 hours in advance.  We just check in an hour before the races start.  

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19 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

I think he is referring to check in.  Once our cars are checked in, we cannot touch them until after racing is over.  I'm just surprised that they check them in 48 hours in advance.  We just check in an hour before the races start.  

Lol, no seriously they impounded the car.

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13 minutes ago, BriGuy82 said:

Lol, no seriously they impounded the car.

 

Yes, I know.  That's what I was saying.  James thought you meant they impounded the car if it DIDN'T meet specs.  

Checking the car in without the ability to handle it again is the same as impounding the car.  James just got mixed up because using the word impounded makes it sound like something bad happened. 😛

Edited by TDIRunner
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This is insane.  I use to race these as a kid and I took it "seriously" for back then before the internet.  My uncle was always a physics nerd so he had a ton of ideas, but since he was in charge of the troop... he shared that info.  We knew about many of the tricks used today, but we never considered the "3-wheel" trick.

Anyway, the last I looked into pine car derby racing was probably 5 years or so ago.  With the advent of the internet and videos on YouTube, I think these tourneys have realized there are a lot of techniques which may now seem like "cheating".  Personally, I think anything should go so long as you're using stock wheels and your car's the right size and weight.

But, personally, I was more interested in what my car looked like anyway.  There needs to always be two categories of competition.  Fastest car and Best Looking.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Daughter just finished her first set of races and won her age group, second over all.

Average scale speed of 181.9, overall winner was only 182.1, so neck and neck.

 

We didn't do anything fancy with the wheels, any could have squeezed another 0.05 ounces on if we wanted.

Might do that for when she races the cub scouts next month.

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Hell yeah! Love me some pinewood derby! I remember one year when I was a webelo one kid literally didn't cut his pine block at all and wrapped it in wrapping paper to make a "christmas present on wheels." 

The mad lad was a genius, because he won all the best in show awards with such minimal effort.

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Aww yeah. I was so into Pinewood Derby racing. Here are my cars.

The first 2 years we modeled them after Herbie the Love Bug. I loved those movies.

3rd year was my favorite car. The beautiful gold one. This was slick! I won a lot of races with it. I was 3rd place champion.

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Edited by acromite53
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  • 11 months later...

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