Search found 17 matches

by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:49 pm
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Vitamin K wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:08 pm If you're getting migration to the axle head both forward and back, you're probably pretty good.
That is what I was hoping for. Thanks for confirming that :thumbup:
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:47 pm
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

I highly recommend you get Troy Thorne's book," Build a Winning Pinewood Derby Car." You can order it from Fox Chapel Publishing. There are no pictures of Big, Bulky cars in the book. It's all about speed. The book will put you on the right track after reading it a few times and then you ...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:45 pm
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

The most basic way is to roll the car forward and backwards and watch the way the wheels migrate on the axles. Ideally, both wheels will move out towards the axle heads, both in forward and in reverse. If the wheel moves in towards the body of the car instead of out to the axle head, that indicates...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:58 am
Forum: Software
Topic: Changes to track length in Grand Prix Software
Replies: 1
Views: 7410

Changes to track length in Grand Prix Software

Hi,
Just wondering where you would go to in the Grand Prix software if you wanted to verify or change the track length information used for calculating the scaled speed values.
Thanks!
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:43 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

If you break 3 seconds on stock wheels and axles, that's dang good. That said, remember that track times vary widely, even for tracks of the same length and same brand. Heck, the "speed" of a track can change just by setting it up in a different location. Don't get too hung up comparing t...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:24 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Sounds like you've done your due diligence with prep on the cars. Since you're running bent rear axles, there's a lot of speed to be either lost or gained depending on how well you've eliminated any potential toe-in or toe-out in the rear. Have you done any testing for that? We were running bent re...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:17 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

If you counted 4 sections then it was a 42' Best track. That is good to know. I'll try to make sure of the number of sections next time. I have a 35' Best track as does our Pack and District. The cars run 29'10". The best time at our District race is 2.4XX. More common time is 2.5XX. I never r...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:55 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

I like the Pro-Axle guide for putting axles into slots. I use a sacrificial axle to open up the slot (with the guide attached) before I attach my real axle with the wheel. One thing to make sure of first is that the slot is deep enough. I've found a few blocks with shallow slots. I have found that ...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:46 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Thanks for the time details. I'm not 100% on the track length, just trying to guess by looking at videos of cars going down the track. I just can't wrap my head around a car that goes 200mph on that track when we are doing 160mph? Could the software maybe mistakenly think we are using a 35ft track ...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:26 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Here was my car.

I was worried when pressing the nails in that the body would crack. I could feel the slot spreading apart when pressing in the front wheel nails.

Image
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:20 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

DerbyDad325, your email address does not work for me. Might I get a picture of your car? Thank you Bill Bill, I'm not sure why might posted pictures are not visible to you. Could be I posted them from dropbox so maybe others are having issues? Here I'll try photobucket Here is my son's car. http://...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:34 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

For "What It's Worth Department". 42' Best track the cars travel 36'10" from start pin to timer. Mid America 2017 Race-Adult Graphite. 1st place 2.9393. 2nd place 2.9413. All cars recorded over 200 MPH until car #61 recorded 3.2198 at 199.58 MPH. These cars were probably all using 1 ...
by DerbyDad325
Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:17 am
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Vitamin K wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:35 pm Can you post a link to your rules? If I can see the rules, I can give my recommendations for what I'd do if I were trying to squeeze more speed out of the car.
Here were the rules
Image
by DerbyDad325
Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:52 pm
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

Re: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Hi Speedster, thanks for the welcome! The track was an aluminum 3 lane BestTrack with a "The Champ" timer and a manual operated lever for the spring loaded start gates. I'm not sure if it was a 42' or a 35' ? But it looks like after the ramp, there were i think 4 long straight sections. Th...
by DerbyDad325
Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:08 pm
Forum: General Car/Truck Racer Topics
Topic: First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Replies: 25
Views: 35622

First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...

Hi everyone! I'm brand new here on DT and to pinewood derby, but thought I'd share my experience and ask a few questions to the experts! I was never a scout but heard great things about it growing up. My son is now a Tiger scout so this was his first experience too! When pinewood derby came around I...