Running a Pinewood Derby tomorrow.
Jstas
Posts: 14,842
These are the kids entries.
Truck is full of Pinewood Derby track and assorted equipment.
Blue one is the boy and my best attempt at a blue Ford Fusion, like mom's car. Would have been better if I had more time with him.
Red one is a dragon. It's also a cheater. There's 5 ounces of extra weight hidden behind the eyes. Car weighs 9 ounces, has solid axles, turned down wheels, only 3 wheels touching too.
Yes, the wide bodies are legal.
Yes, I channeled the dragon car so it sits down over the track rail. Looks sick on the track!
Yes, I have issues.
Last year we did an Angry Birds theme and the kid wanted the 3 blue birds. Of course, why make it easy? So we glued two pinewood bodies together and carved 3 blue birds on a plank out of it.
The cheater car was razor thin with a blob of weight at the middle. Heaviest I could get it and keep the crazy thin shape was only 5.2 ounce. We lost to a guy who basically put 3 spindles on a board and loaded it up with metal washers. If I had known I was competing against a hardware store I would have just put wheels on a brick and painted a big single finger salute on it.
The "sibling car" last year was my hurried attempt at a 34 Ford 5 window coupe, hot rod complete with flames, blue dot taillights, straight pipe exhausts and Torq Thrust style wheels.
Truck is full of Pinewood Derby track and assorted equipment.
Blue one is the boy and my best attempt at a blue Ford Fusion, like mom's car. Would have been better if I had more time with him.
Red one is a dragon. It's also a cheater. There's 5 ounces of extra weight hidden behind the eyes. Car weighs 9 ounces, has solid axles, turned down wheels, only 3 wheels touching too.
Yes, the wide bodies are legal.
Yes, I channeled the dragon car so it sits down over the track rail. Looks sick on the track!
Yes, I have issues.
Last year we did an Angry Birds theme and the kid wanted the 3 blue birds. Of course, why make it easy? So we glued two pinewood bodies together and carved 3 blue birds on a plank out of it.
The cheater car was razor thin with a blob of weight at the middle. Heaviest I could get it and keep the crazy thin shape was only 5.2 ounce. We lost to a guy who basically put 3 spindles on a board and loaded it up with metal washers. If I had known I was competing against a hardware store I would have just put wheels on a brick and painted a big single finger salute on it.
The "sibling car" last year was my hurried attempt at a 34 Ford 5 window coupe, hot rod complete with flames, blue dot taillights, straight pipe exhausts and Torq Thrust style wheels.
Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
Comments
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YOUTUBE wrap up video....good luck with the kids2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
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erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a -
John.... You're nuts, but I like it! Hope y'all have a fun day!
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Nice looking cars. Pinewood derby is always the best pack meeting of the year. The boys get super excited. We have almost 80 active scouts in our pack & it's just crazy nuts all day long.
I run the tech inspection. We try to keep the sibling cars to the same set of rules as the regular competition. Looks like yours is run differently. The dragon car would fail based on weight & the non-BSA sanctioned wheels. At one time we had an unlimited adult race as well. That never had many entries & we eventually did away with it. -
excellent!
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Nice... I remember those days. I never won, but when I helped my son, I had it figured out. He did all the design, paint and assembly and then I added the weight. This too was years ago...Music: Oppo103 - Parasound JC2 - Parasound A21- SDA 3.1
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Wow, I was just stating in another post how I was into model cars and used to follow F1, Indy, Nascar, etc racing as a kid. I remember getting dusted as a kid when we did a regional pinewood derby. When my son did it for two years I told him that we would build a race car together. I made sure he was a part of every step. We won two years in a row! Here are the cars...all had build in tungston weights at the back. We kicked butt, no other cars were even close. I volenteered to give a class on building these to go fast .
Lightning McQueen, the Yellow Bullet, and the Blue Scouts Tribute racer!
Great Father-Son memories!Post edited by WLDock on2.2 Office Setup | LG 29UB55 21:9 UltraWide | HP Probook 630 G8 | Dell Latitude | Cabasse Stream Amp 100 | Boston Acoustics VS 240 | AUDIORAX Desk Stands | Mirage Omni S8 sub1 | Mirage Omni S8 Sub2 -
I was the Pack Derby coordinator/race runner for the last two years before crossing over to Boy Scouts. We had a big Pack (~100 kids). So we had Den competitions and then Pack Grand Finals. 6-lane track with the laptop connected to an electronic timer start/finish, running from 8am till after lunch to get all the cars ran (each car gets a run in each lane; Winner based on lowest cumulative time. It is a crazy, but fun day. We had strict rules on weight/wheels/size. The Dragon wouldn't pass inspection. We did have an outlaw class that was run for fun after everything was done.
I always let me son come up with design and made sure he at least helped in every stage, although, I ended up polishing the axles mostly by myself every year. His last year, he actually did most by himself.
Overall, through 5 years of competition, we took home three trophies...two fastest in Den, and one best design for the Den. We never placed in the top three for the Pack finals. Our Pack had some very competitive Dads who clearly did most/all the work every year...
Two years ago, I had some Dad ask me for all the individual heat results for his Son's race. He put that info into and Excel workbook, had pivot tables, graphs, statistical analysis, etc, all to try and prove the point that his son would have won if we had dropped the slowest heat...Yes, the software has that option, but our Pack never used it. It was a week or more after the race had ended. Get a life dude!For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
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WOW! As a parent I was all about showing my son how the extra work would pay of in how well the car looked and performed. However that Dad has lost touch of the event. its great and all to show the kids the tech side of racing but....as you said, get a life. He needs to do compeditive races on his own...there are adult events around. Some that require you to put your money where your mouth is to enter their races and have a chance at the purse.He put that info into and Excel workbook, had pivot tables, graphs, statistical analysis, etc, all to try and prove the point that his son would have won if we had dropped the slowest heat...Yes, the software has that option, but our Pack never used it. It was a week or more after the race had ended. Get a life dude!2.2 Office Setup | LG 29UB55 21:9 UltraWide | HP Probook 630 G8 | Dell Latitude | Cabasse Stream Amp 100 | Boston Acoustics VS 240 | AUDIORAX Desk Stands | Mirage Omni S8 sub1 | Mirage Omni S8 Sub2 -
FUN times. I was a race official back in 1995
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Back in my day we had to use buttons for wheels.
Those are exotic rides for sure. Good luck!2 Channel "Polk" Room:
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Back in my day we had to use buttons for wheels.
Those are exotic rides for sure. Good luck!
Which hole did you put the axle in?
Seriously, I loved those times with my boys! Had to resist the temptation of taking over the project!Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
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Two years ago, I had some Dad ask me for all the individual heat results for his Son's race. He put that info into and Excel workbook, had pivot tables, graphs, statistical analysis, etc, all to try and prove the point that his son would have won if we had dropped the slowest heat...Yes, the software has that option, but our Pack never used it. It was a week or more after the race had ended. Get a life dude!
I hear that. One year I 'splurged' and bought the red-colored wheels at the local scout shop (Identical in every way but color) because that's what my son wanted...
Anyhoo, while dropping it off to be weighed/tested I commented to my father in law "these red wheels make the car 10% faster" --an obvious joke, right? Well my boy's car won his den and finished 2nd overall in the pack, and a complaint was lodged with the cubmaster, complaining about our 'illegally modified" car.
Sigh.Jay
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I saw a Derby held in our local Mall one afternoon just by chance. It was the FINALS and the tension in the air was thick! All eyes were on that track. Parents looked serious, the kids looked worried. I think it was 6 or 8 cars in the final. I could be wrong because I was looking at the peoples faces and actions for the most part.
About 100 people were gathered all around jostling for a clear view. About 30 were ready to take videos of that final race too.
It was AWESOME!
My wife and I had a blast for those 15 short minutes and we didn't know a person there.Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them. -
" Down and Derby "
I really loved watching this movie! It seemed so realistically possible. A ton of laughs for sure.
Here's a short trailer for it.
https://youtu.be/rodvR8i-qXY Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them. -
When I was younger I tried to do a race, and I managed to do it one year, however it was one of those “everyone wins!” Kind of thing which I think is stupid. Anyway, I got first for all 3 categories, but so did everyone else. Woo hoo.
Anyway, the next year I wanted to go again, so we made a car and everything, and we went to the track, and on the way in I dropped it and it broke in half. Never had time to do it again, but it was fun making those cars. We would buy the blocks to do it every year but never use them, so we probably have quite a few kicking around in the garage somewhere, and I’ve thought of making some cars just for the fun of it, if you know what I mean. That was definitely the most fun part of the race, I though anyway. -
This thread makes me think of slot car racing. Love slot car racing!
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I loved slot cars but I couldn't afford to pay the track for track time. Too poor way back then.
Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them. -
It's an expensive hobby for sure!I loved slot cars but I couldn't afford to pay the track for track time. Too poor way back then.
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Wow...seems like just yesterday I ran my first pinewood with my oldest. It was a blast building with him over the years using more tools each year. This was his last year and he wanted to go fast so we went all in. A lot of rules to kill creativity...but it did say we could decorate with anything so we cut all the pine out of the way and decorated with 1/64 birch plywood. I let him do all but cut the original block to thickness. His car is the red one and he did manage to finally win. The green one is my youngest boys...the purple one mine.
