Derby Talk

Nice job on the feature article, "Is It Cheating?"

Wow! That is beautiful! And nice job adding the salt detail too!

whodathunkit wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:07 pm

And my fix for that mistake in my design.
Is to use a popsicle stick and inset it flush to the noise and bottom side of the car.

Yeah, that's the easy fix. I'd keep it as an option if the car fails inspection without it.

The design looks great, BTW. Please post photos of the finished car!

That's pretty cool! It looks like the "trailer" is rigidly attached to the "jeep", making it a 6-wheel derby car rather than a 4-wheel derby car with a trailer. Is that correct?

Great job!

California is due for another earthquake. That might help lift the western end of the track high enough to produce the needed slope.

I'm curious to hear what others think about a car that is automatically disqualified at the start because it is "too good". Unfortunately, I hear about that going on quite often. It ignores the fact that this should be a joint project of a child working with an adult, not the child alone. Besides, ...

We used to use a similar system, except we always had a car in each lane: 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 5 3 4 5 6 ... 18 19 20 1 19 20 1 2 20 1 2 3 Years ago, we switched to a system that is essentially another implementation of Partial Perfect-N (PPN). The cars get to race against different opponents each time, th...

Now, the point of the post is "before you cut that block". Our "before you cut that block" emphasis is related to alignment (friction), not aerodynamics. We make sure that the kids press their axle holes before they cut the block, so all the sides of the block are still square. We saw a huge improv...

My experience changing the rules/procedures for a derby was at the local level, with no regional authority to stay compatible with, and no conflicts with the instructions in the box. And even then, it was a challenge. It's just a lot easier to keep doing things the way they've always been done. Ther...

Air flowing around the car is not why the car must be aerodynamic. It must be aerodynamic so the additional added weight (tungsten) can be placed in a certain area and can be placed where it will do the most good. "Get Rid of the Wood". I'm sorry if I did not make that clear at the very beginning. ...

We've always used big cardboard boxes set up outside, with plastic turntables.

Wow! That's a really nice design. I don't think it would fit our track (the rear wheel would probably drop into the slot for the start gate), but it's still gorgeous!

The inline videos are not playing for me. If that happens to anyone else, you can go directly to the YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKdHZe ... EEw/videos

Wow... Those are really nice!