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Pinewood Derby

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well, my son and I got to participate in his first Pinewood Derby this past Saturday with the Cub Scouts.

Prior to racing, you obviously need to make your car out of a block of wood. I let him design but I had to run the saw (for safety reasons).

We got the car all shaped, sanded... and then I weighed it. Uh oh... We're waaayyyyy light. So I had to start drilling holes in it and fill them with BB's. Uh oh (#2). It's going to take about 16, 3/8" holes to get all these BB's in there. Solved by switching to #8 lead shot. More weight and less air between the BB's. I only needed 6 holes. Get the BB's in and weigh car. Phew, we're close(er). Better save a few grams for paint, polyurethane...

I put the first coat of paint on. My son is going to do the 2nd (finish) coat. He watches my technique (standard stuff) so it's now his turn. He starts. Uh Oh (#3). He didn't quite get the technique down. Big puddle of paint on the hood of the car, running down the sides... Oh well. Wipe, sand... and start over.

Let it dry. Then stickers/decals, markers... Apply coat of polyurethane and let sit for a day. Uh oh (#4). It doesn't seem to be drying quite right. Fixed by moving to a cooler room.

OK,

Paint the car, decals, polyurethane... The car is done.

Go to the pre-race for weigh-in, inspection, test run and car impound. Uh-oh (#5). The car didn't gain any real weight from the paint, stickers, polyurethane... I'm 3 grams short of max weight. Oh well, it's only 3 grams (of 141 max). That should be OK (not...).

Saturday... Time for racing.

His car is drawn in the 2nd heat. It flies down beating the other 2 cars without problem.

I wasn't timing any cars but could tell there were some really fast ones in the other heats

Draws again in the 5th heat. Wins again. Cool, we may have a chance at placing.

Cars are starting to fall out, even with double elimination

OK, 6 cars left (out of 15 that started).

He gets knocked out of placing by double elimination :(

I guess those 3 grams probably mattered. I'll know for next year.

Below a pic someone took. His is the blue car. The red ended up winning this heat and took 3rd overall. It was the closest race of the day.

I wish they had a timer to see the difference in times crossing the finish line. When my daughter ran soapbox derby (the cars you ride in), they would cover 1/2 mile and the winner normally won by a tenth of a second. I'll bet these were in the hundredth of a second.
 

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Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Pretty cool BC! I remember doing that with my Dad when I was young. I think my car didn't win but it was very aerodynamic and cool looking. Probably should have done the weighting thing. :pat:
 

RNE228

Bronze Member
Site Supporter
We had to go to electronic timing; we had to many "photo finishes". One year, we even video taped so we could do instant replay, some finishes were so close!

One of the fastest cars we had show up, was an unfinshed block of wood right out of the box. The family had been out of town and unable to work on the boy's car. They did, however, trim and polish the axles very well. turns out the plain wood block, with axles/wheels installed, was right at the weight limit. That weight, and the axles, led them to 2nd place easily that year.

One of the biggest things, is to make sure the axles are nice and round, and well polished, with a little graphite sprinkled on(all legal in BSA circles).

The little ridges on the axles(nails), will slow you down faster than anything else besides being to light...

how many boys were there? We usually had 40-50 competing.

A couple of times, we had the local Sheriff's office, and the Highway Patrol build cars and compete. They had a face off, and also "chased" the kids cars. We did our derby at the local fire station a couple of times, they built a Fire Engine...
 

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
We had to go to electronic timing; we had to many "photo finishes". One year, we even video taped so we could do instant replay, some finishes were so close!

One of the biggest things, is to make sure the axles are nice and round, and well polished, with a little graphite sprinkled on(all legal in BSA circles).

The little ridges on the axles(nails), will slow you down faster than anything else besides being to light...

how many boys were there? We usually had 40-50 competing.
We do have electronic timing but it just shows what the finish sequence was. It doesn't tell by how much time.

I was told by one of the officials that we weren't allowed to touch the axles (remove those ridges) but it's OK to use the graphite. I did see some "after-market" axles in some cars and will mention it to the pack leader.

We have 72 kids in the pack. I don't think each had a car there. Probably 60 cars raced.
 

RNE228

Bronze Member
Site Supporter
We do have electronic timing but it just shows what the finish sequence was. It doesn't tell by how much time.

I was told by one of the officials that we weren't allowed to touch the axles (remove those ridges) but it's OK to use the graphite. I did see some "after-market" axles in some cars and will mention it to the pack leader.

We have 72 kids in the pack. I don't think each had a car there. Probably 60 cars raced.

I do not know what system the Pack uses(we moved to Boy Scouts four years ago). It does show times. I can find out if you like.

Everyone that I have known of polishes thier axles. We(they) have one or two car work days. One of the leaders that has a band saw and other wood working tools lets the kids come over if they wish. That way, they all have access to the good stuff to cut thier car out etc. We always had a couple stations set up for polishing the axles. All the boys had opportunity.

The Pack my Sister is Cubmaster for is the same. They let the parents build cars too.

2004 was the last one my son did. This was at a volunteer fire station. It was too hard to get the elementary school that we usually used, for a Saturday. My son and I didn't make it in the pictures...

http://www.cub117.org/images/2004/dscn3027.jpg

Where's those safety glasses...
http://www.cub117.org/images/2004/dscn2977.jpg
 

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
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I do not know what system the Pack uses(we moved to Boy Scouts four years ago). It does show times. I can find out if you like.
Thanks but not necessary. We're just happy to have the track we have now. We're not a very rich pack. Someone donated a track and the finish gear to us a few years back and we're just grateful for that.
 
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