Pinewood Derby Racing

[BriGuy82 | 768]

Last year a few dads bought the cars off Ebay! 

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

1 hour ago, BriGuy82 said:

The guy running it this year is a detective. He stamped the bottom of the wood blocks and he said he would be checking them with a forensic camera to make sure they weren't switched out.

That sucks. The official rules don't require you to use the block you are given. There are obviously a lot of rules about what kind of block you can use, but you should be allowed to pick your own to keep things fair. 

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

1 hour ago, BriGuy82 said:

The guy running it this year is a detective. He stamped the bottom of the wood blocks and he said he would be checking them with a forensic camera to make sure they weren't switched out.

That sucks. The official rules don't require you to use the block you are given. There are obviously a lot of rules about what kind of block you can use, but you should be allowed to pick your own to keep things fair. 

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

Our derby has been pushed back to Feb 28th in an attempt to hold the event with everyone present. realistically, that probably won't happen. I'm guessing we will watch our cars race on a live stream. I've started on the car, but I still need to do the body. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

5 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

That sucks. The official rules don't require you to use the block you are given. There are obviously a lot of rules about what kind of block you can use, but you should be allowed to pick your own to keep things fair. 

That would be the opposite of "keeping things fair", IMO -- using the issued kit for the main car is part of the starting from a level playing field.

Any derby I've ever participated in required you to use the parts from the kit.  (had to use those nails, those wheels, that block)

You an modify from there within the weight and size limits -- but you had to use the core kit.

Edited January 30, 2021 by arch_8ngel

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

Just now, arch_8ngel said:

That is the opposite of "keeping things fair".

Any derby I've ever participated in required you to use the parts from the kit.  (had to use those nails, those wheels, that block)

You an modify from there within the weight and size limits -- but you had to use the core kit.

Getting stuck with a bad grain pattern because you were given your block is the opposite of fair. What stops the leader from assigning the good blocks the his friends?  I never said to work outside the kit. But you HAVE to be given the chance to choose your own kit or replace it with a better kit. Forcing a kit on someone is a huge red flag for cheating. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

2 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Getting stuck with a bad grain pattern because you were given your block is the opposite of fair. What stops the leader from assigning the good blocks the his friends?  I never said to work outside the kit. But you HAVE to be given the chance to choose your own kit or replace it with a better kit. Forcing a kit on someone is a huge red flag for cheating. 

Well that is a different story -- I thought you were talking about picking a non-kit block.

If you have some dickhead running the show that assigning blocks as a starting point rather than random assignment or some kind of lottery-order, that is a different issue.

 

Though it would take a pretty horrific grain pattern to make the block unworkable when the vast majority of the block is "waste material" anyway, and the vast majority of the weight is non-wood weight added anywhere you want it during the construction process   (could certainly end up with a situation that leaves you dealing with power-tools to work the block, though, I guess, if you had a giant knot in the middle)

Edited January 30, 2021 by arch_8ngel

[BriGuy82 | 768]

We won the award for fasted looking! That's all we were going for. Every year it's a competition between these 3 dads who go bonkers and the cars go over 200 scale mph. The guy told me he spent over 40 hours on it and had a fishing line hooked up to it while it was running on his treadmill. 

[BriGuy82 | 768]

2 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

Our derby has been pushed back to Feb 28th in an attempt to hold the event with everyone present. realistically, that probably won't happen. I'm guessing we will watch our cars race on a live stream. I've started on the car, but I still need to do the body. 

Yeah it was cold as hell outside. I guess they say that the cold temps also expose who puts oil on the axles .

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

Alright!  Pack race is this weekend.  We took 2nd in the pack last year (again) with the Bendy car and got hosed on the district race due to COVID.  District is running this year though.

Here's our new Predator whip.  I believe it's our fastest yet but we'll see come Saturday.  Doubled up the height on the back to concentrate more weight around the axles and gave it a more sloped posture.  I think we did a better job polishing our axles and wheels as well.

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

Unfortunately, due to scheduling, I had to throw a car together in about two nights and didn't get to do everything with it that I wanted.  We finished 3rd in our pack (compared to 2nd last year), but we still qualified for districts.  Districts was held entirely online with a YouTube live stream.  Honestly, I didn't mind that.  The kids loved watching their cars race on the TV in the living room, and we didn't have to be there all day.  We placed 8th which I was ok with considering the lack of time to properly prepare the car, but I felt really bad for my son because the trophy cut off was 6th place and I know he really wanted a trophy.  I have some big plans for next year and we are going to try and make a competitive car.  The good news is that he did win one of his heats.  While winning a heat means nothing for the overall results, it's still really fun for my son to see his car cross the finish line first.  

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

So second in pack again.  And I'm kinda pissed.  My son and the "champ" are good friends and it comes out that he has someone straight building the car for him.  Not even his dad.  He basically just puts in the order of what he wants the car to look like and receives the car before race day.  Fine.  Whatever.  I know a bunch of dads just buy cars off of ebay.

Then on race day at the venue, we're adding a little graphite and the other kid says, "why are you putting powder on the wheels?"  I explained it was graphite and didn't really think about his question til later when we were talking about the process of polishing our axels.

"What do you use to polish your axels?" the kid says and I explain our process with using progressively finer sand paper to make them shiny and smooth.  "Oh, we use something called goo lubes or good lube... " 

Then it dawns on me that he uses oil based lubricant.  Then I also recalled that his car was always so clean.  There was never any graphite residue on his cars.  This little shit wins the district race every damn year and not only is his dad straight up cheating for him, the kid doesn't even know it's against the rules!

 

Edit:  Might have jumped the gun a little.  The district does allow for dry silicone lubricants as well and I don't really know what they used.  Still...

Edited March 22, 2021 by JamesRobot

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

Anyway, it was a close race and I'm pretty proud about how the car performed against an illegal entry.

We were about half a car length behind at the finish in all the heats. 

 

We also made a killer box for the car.

 

And check out the 1984 Sheepdog.  It's a shaggin wagon!

[BriGuy82 | 768]

On 3/22/2021 at 3:38 PM, JamesRobot said:

So second in pack again.  And I'm kinda pissed.  My son and the "champ" are good friends and it comes out that he has someone straight building the car for him.  Not even his dad.  He basically just puts in the order of what he wants the car to look like and receives the car before race day.  Fine.  Whatever.  I know a bunch of dads just buy cars off of ebay.

Then on race day at the venue, we're adding a little graphite and the other kid says, "why are you putting powder on the wheels?"  I explained it was graphite and didn't really think about his question til later when we were talking about the process of polishing our axels.

"What do you use to polish your axels?" the kid says and I explain our process with using progressively finer sand paper to make them shiny and smooth.  "Oh, we use something called goo lubes or good lube... " 

Then it dawns on me that he uses oil based lubricant.  Then I also recalled that his car was always so clean.  There was never any graphite residue on his cars.  This little shit wins the district race every damn year and not only is his dad straight up cheating for him, the kid doesn't even know it's against the rules!

 

Edit:  Might have jumped the gun a little.  The district does allow for dry silicone lubricants as well and I don't really know what they used.  Still...

Did you make sure to flip them the double bird?!

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

2 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

Did you make sure to flip them the double bird?!

Nah.  They were wearing masks. 

[PII | 1,885]

Awesome thread!  I got inspired to dig out my old cars from the late 80's.  Orangey there medaled back in the day. Back then almost no one had yet tried cutting their car super low.  I remember sanding the wheels down and using the powdered graphite on the axles.  The trick back then that was always risky was attaching weights to the bottom because you risked having them scrape the track.  Orangey "photo finished" three times in a row at the end with the car that took 1st place.  I'd bet a penny in gold that the other kid's dad bribed the judge, cuz he was definitely the type for that sort of thing; even more likely to have paid someone to have it built in the first place, lol.  Still, it's a great tradition!   

 

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by PII

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

Today was the district race via Zoom.  Took 2nd place which is the best we've ever done.  Averaged 199.95 scale miles an hour.  1st place beat us by only 0.025ths of a second.

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

Things have changed a lot since I was a kid in the 80s and I slapped together a car myself. It wasn't great but I tried my best. Now it looks like the dads have taken over. I'm sure there were a few who were doing it back then, but it seems to be on a whole different level nowadays.

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

My son wanted to do a Zelda themed car this year.  The race is in a few weeks and we are trying a new design this year.  

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

Aw man, thanks for keeping it rolling @TDIRunner.  Love the LoZ car.

I think our derby days are done.  My son is a Boy Scout now.  I don't think they do the PWD.  I'd love to join an adult circuit.  I don't think there's any local to me though.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

Never did the pinewold racing but I really enjoyed the science behind the race.

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

20 minutes ago, FireHazard51 said:

Never did the pinewold racing but I really enjoyed the science behind the race.

That's my favorite pwd video.

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

27 minutes ago, FireHazard51 said:

Never did the pinewold racing but I really enjoyed the science behind the race.

 

6 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

That's my favorite pwd video.

 

I haven't seen this video, but I recognize it because it's been appearing in my suggested video feed lately (probably because I've been researching PWD related stuff).  I will probably watch it eventually.  

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

Anyone else racing this year?  This was the first year for my youngest son and the first year of making two cars (4th year of racing).  The yellow car on the left finished 2nd in the Den and 3rd in the Pack.  The car on the right finished 1st in the Den and also 1st overall.  The boys were pretty excited since this was our best overall year since we started racing.  Definitely curious to see how the cars do at districts.  

[RH | 4,903]

I know I already posted a couple years ago of how I would race these as a kid, but I didn't talk about my "last car".

By the time of my last race, we happen to have a friend who knew a guy who owned a car painting company.  Through the grape vine, I managed to ask him if he'd paint my car, and he agreed.  I asked to him to "be creative" and that it didn't have to be a solid color.   Well, I loved the end result, but in my own typical fashion, the paint job was so nice I didn't want to do anything to it to potentially ruin it.  I intended to take all of my former experience of applying decals and sanding and painting engine blocks and such and making it "perfect" but I never did.  I was too scared to mess this up.  So, it was never entered in a race.

Maybe one day I'll finish it.  My 9 year old sone would LOVE pine car derby racing, but I've not found any around here.  Maybe if he/we can get into that I'll be motivated to finish this beast.