Pinewood Derby Q&A

Anyone ever done a pinewood derby car race??

My son is a tiger cub and this will be our first year doing the race. It has to be by Boy Scouts regulations. Any suggestions on building a winning car? They gave us a small box with a block of wood and 4 crappy tires.. I've looked online but every site wants you to pay for their book.

Public Comments

1. Gotta use the wheels that come with the kit. The fastest car I ever made was a thin aero wedge, weighted at the bottom to maximum weight. I also cleaned up the wheels with steel wool, and polished up the nails that act as axles. We painted her up pretty good too. Have fun, but remember, it's HIS car. Ask your Pack leader if you can have a parents race, full custom, with a weight limit and no motors. You'll be surprised what comes to the track. Good luck, and welcome to the BSA.
2. My advice is to go for the creativity trophy. It's really hard to get the top speeds unless the dad has a shop full of equipment. (And yes, dads and moms get very involved with their son's project. My son won several creativity trophys - come up with an interesting idea and go for it. Some ideas - paint the car to look like a candy bar. Paint it like Sponge Bob Square Pants. Carve it like a ketchup bottle. etc. etc. This can be lots of fun to come up with ideas. Also - be sure to be on time so all the scouts can see your car to vote on it. (We lost several votes one year cause dad was late from work.) Your troop may have a web site with all the official rules - check them carefully. Also, search under Yahoo's images tab for pictures of other people's cars. I found lots when I searched for Pinewood Derby.
3. 1. follow the rules, cars are checked 2. Go to hobby store. 3. Buy weight and make your car the heaviest allowed. 4. Lithium grease for wheels. 5. Trophy case for car and the memories. Here's something you can do My son and I bought a plastic car model, Jeff Gordons and used many parts and stickers. It was pretty nice and everyone loved it.
4. One of the things that matters the most, but many people ignore it is the wheel/axle alignment. you need to make sure that the nails are in at exactly 90 degrees to the wood, and right in those little grooves in the bottom of the car (one of the design decisions that need to be made are which end faces forward, the long end or the short end. Most people put the short end first, in order to mimic the design of real cars, but I've seen cars with the long end first win.) If the wheels are in at perfect 90 degrees, the wheels won't be adding extra friction against the track, pushing th car sideways or into a turn. With perfectly aligned wheels, you could race that block of wood down the track and it would win. Another good plan is to make sure that your son is proud of his car. Ask him to draw plans and talk with him about cool cars that he likes.There are always three sets of car designs at Pinewood derbys; The Real Cars, or models of cars, The Art Cars, the bathtub on wheels, the cake, and all the other fun designs, and finally the Pinewood Aerodynamics. The last group is usually made up of veterans (and their fathers) who make flat cars with fins and needle shapes in order to scrape those key few miliseconds off. Be careful with these, though as really pointy ends can break easily, and most stopping mechaisms on the ends of the tracks are just a block of foam rubber. (I've seen some tracks, though where the center cesction raises up, and the friction between the bottom of the car, and the track stops them.) Be careful with gold or other reflective paints, as these can muck up the sensors at the end of the track, efectively making a stealth car. I had a gold car one year that would never register on the finish line. I had to put a big black electrical tape stripe on it in order for the machine to see it. Most of all, have fun, and let your son do as much work as you feel comfortable letting him do, but don't make him do it alone,though ; he will appreciate your help, but be disinterested if he's racing your car.
5. Make sure the mold burs are filed off the nails. and that they are smooth. Make sure all 4 tires are on right meaning that all touch the table surface. The Post office used to let us weigh our cars for free. So maybe yours will too. Let your son draw a picture of what he'd like his car to look like. Like everyone else said let him have fun.
6. It's been a LOOOOONG time but here's a few words of advice: - shape the car to be very aerodynamic and then sand it so as to round all the corners etc. (there are lots of different shapes you could do - my best car was just a simple triangle where the front end of the car and the back end both slanted up towards the middle) When sanding, take some time and start with rougher grit paper and sand it well and then use fine grit paper and finish sand it. I'm sure someone at a hardware store or home depot or something can explain how that is done, if you don't already know. - carve a hollow slot in the belly of the car (underneath) and glue in lead weights to make it heavier so it picks up speed quicker (maybe use some type of lead fishing weights and, of course you can't make it heavier than regulations allow, so use a scale to check it) - lastly, get some graphite powder (try a bicycle shop) and squirt that, liberally, on the axles where the wheels spin and really work it in by spinning the wheels a lot - and add more after the car runs a few times to keep it well lubricated...this really helps a ton! (oh and don't screw the wheels on too tight or you will slow them down) - the only other thought I could offer is to maybe talk to some of the dads of the other boys for advice Good Luck!!!