Pinewood Derby Q&A

Can anyone give me suggestions on building a great pinewood derby car?

Last year was our first year doing a pinewood derby and our car didn't fair so well. This year I would like it to be better but need some help on how to make a great car? Any ideas from experiance??

Public Comments

1. I haven't done a pinewood derby in years! How fun! I'm assuming that all the cars are weighted the same. So, the best thing you can do is to take your clues from fast automobiles: aerodynamics! You want your car to have as little friction of air on it as possible, so that it just cuts right through and isn't slowed down. Making a pointy front end, keeping the body super smooth (Sandpaper that thing down as smooth as you can, using every grit of paper, workinf from the most coarse to the finest grain), rounding out all the sides. Think of a bullet or a drag racer. Do a bit of a search on aerodynamics on the web, and I bet you'll find plenty! Good luck!