OT: Congrats to our son

[Thomas Rogers]

This weekend our son Logan placed first in his scout Pinewood Derby race. His car averaged a scale-equivalent speed of 207.8 mph.



For the first time, he is going to the district finals. He was saving the best for last as he is a Webelos II, about to cross over into Boy Scouts:



[Broken External Image]:



TJR

 

[Rick Kent]

Quote from Days of Thunder:



Duval: "There's nothing stock about Pinewood Derby Race cars"



Cruise: "But the cars are all supposed to be designed to be equal"



Duval: " So you wont get beat by the car, only the scout who put it on the track"

 

[Thomas Rogers]

FKent,



The funny thing was this year was our most "stock" year of all. As my son got older, he did more and more of the work. In years past I would debur the nails (axles), sand the injection mold bumps off the tire treads, polish the axles, and lube the heck out of it with graphite. Now that he is 11yo, he did most all the finish construction, and didn't want to do ANY of that stuff.



For whatever reason we were just lucky enough to have a car that went straight. Most cars typically run a little bit of an arc to them, so they bounce back and forth against the rail. This car, just thrown together, ran straight and true.



And one of the front wheels just barely missed making contact with the "road", it would hit the rail, but only on a bump would touch the road surface....this was unintentional. That "technique" is suppose to improve speed as the common thought is one less wheel touching means that much less friction and drag (I am skeptical still).



BTW, it's not uncommon for the younger boys to beat the pants off the olders for the reason I mentioned. We ran the heats in order of age, oldest to youngest, and it was like watching the NASCAR track "heat up" as the cars just got faster and faster (as the dad's did more and more of the work).



The fastest car of the day just broke 211 mph equiv.



TJR

 

[A K]

How about boring out the bottom and sticking bolts in it, then using wood putty to cover it, and painting it with a few coats to hide it?



Just joking. I remember back in the day the pinewood derby competitions. I called it a day after getting the arrow of light and stuck solely to sports. Congratulations to your son!

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Adam, thanks!



As for weights, that is more or less what we did. We bore out the bottom of the car with a Dremel tool and filled it back in with lead weights until it was 4.99 oz and some change (the limit is 5 oz total).



TJR

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I congratulate him. I had no luck in those things. Last race I had one of the people dropped my car and the wheel fell off.

 

[Todd Z]

Congrats to him !!!!!!



I remember those days..

Todd Z

 

[EddieS'04]

 

[Jeff C]

Yeah, they get more and more high tech. My little brother's last car, he took the block, cut it in half, then used the top half and traced out the wheels and then put those parts on the side, so it basically looked like a formula car. Instead of the wheels sticking out, they were tucked up inside "fenders" and with the design of an airplane wing, 1 wheel not touching (as you described) and led up just behind the front wheels, netted him a 2nd place finish in his troop.

 

[gary s]

congrats and be proud

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

You know what they say about too much of a good thing.

 

[John Zuber]

That's cool. We got first place too back about 8 years ago. Part of the secret is to get the weight to the max legal limit. there is also a small book that details some of the secrets to making a good car. I brougt a drill to shave off any excess weight..and we got lucky. Congrats!

 

[Fred]

Congrats to Logan!

 

[Frank Marano]

I placed 2nd in my pinewood derby.......two brothers got 1st and 3rd. Daddy helped them, lol:lol:

 

[Keith McElroy]

Congrats. My cars never seemed to be contenders, but I placed 2nd in the boat regatta.

 

[Bill V]

TJR, if you're limited to 5 ounces, can you have your vehicle be 1 ounce pinewood and 4 ounces nitrous oxide?

 

[Jackie Richardson]

Congrats to your son!!!! I have about 20 of those cars at my house and never did better than best looking car. Had 3 sons in scouts and we tried everything from lead weights on top and bottom of the car, fishing weights, to a vial of water on top of the car. We had cars that were wedges, indy cars, old hot rod looking cars and even a car that looked like the candy bar Whatchamacallit. Those were fun days.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Bill V, no, you can't have any type of assist.



Jackie, a vial of water wouldn't be allowed in today's rules. Anything that can shift during the race isn't allowed.

 

[Tom Shirley]

Did you try burning the wood where the wheel comes in contact with the body. The carbon created by burning the wood also helps to reduce friction. Every little bit helps. My son is 16 and we were just talking about his cars teh other day. Great memories.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Teskicks, no we didn't try that. But we did test fit the axles, then pulled them back out then painted the car. Four coats of base, three coats of clear. The inner portion of the wheels hit against all that paint, slicked up with graphite as well.