Derby Talk

I'm working on a set right now (and here I thought I was being creative...)

It seems to cut and sand well, and as I understand it a thin layer of acrylic paint will serve to protect and strengthen them.

I've noticed some of the vendors indicating that the BSA wheel quality has gotten pretty bad suddenly. I looked at the calendar and realized it is 2019, ten years since the "new" wheels came out in 2009. Before that, we got a wheel update in 1999. Before that, looks like 1988 or so. So 10-...

B. The body of the car must be made from the block of wood provided in an official B.S.A. PINEWOOD DERBY Kit (Cat. No. P1622). The wheels must be placed in the slots provided (the original slots are cut at 4 1/2”). Wheels may not be designed to ride upon the guide strip of the track. I'd ask for cla...

That's a good point - in my experience using a 1.5 degree bend will allow for migration and steer while the wheels still "ride flat". If the rule prohibition is against bent axles, then you might not go this way, but if the rules just say that the wheels have to "be flat" then th...

A few things here: 1. Revell wheels are heavier than their BSA counterparts, and therefore slower on a normal sized track. 2. Revell axles, while having a better surface finish, are smaller than their BSA counterparts, and therefore slower than a properly prepped BSA axle. 3. Most BSA axles have a s...

Hi DCDAD, Awesome - I wish we had a district race to go to here...I might have to see about putting one on. It is absolutely worth it to sort through wheels and find the ones with the least runout. I did the same with my son this last race, and had him sort our wheel collection into good (less than ...

Usually 4 wheels touching means 4 wheels touching on a flat surface (granite or sheet of glass or equivalent). Axles aren't always perfectly straight. I'd try rotating the offending axle about 15 degrees at a time and see if I could get it to touch. Hopefully that does it. If it doesn't, you might p...

I can’t believe they’re still touting a quick start front as being a speed secret these days! I thought those went out of style when the spring loaded start gates came on the scene? You'd be surprised how many packs are still running a manual start on an older track. We got beat by one of these thi...

Hi all, After our second place finish last weekend, my son and I are already plotting our reven...er...comeback next year. One question I had was with regard to the camber angle on the rear wheel. A lot of the tools out there seem to be set at 2.5 degrees negative camber, and that's approximately wh...

We had our Pack Pinewood Derby this past Saturday. I was rolling out the new instant replay system as well as my computer integration. There were a few glitches, but for the most part, everything went pretty solidly. My son wanted to focus on getting a shiny finish this year, so we applied multiple ...

Hi Ben in SD, Certainly - my code is in the description of this youtube demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QyMxKfBaAE Here is some video of it in action on an actual track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3lcQHWGq88 Note to get clear video you do have to focus the camera for this distance and m...

I've never had great luck with the slots. For the longest time our pack required us to use the slots. I was so glad when we came back and found that the rules had changed. I think that the best way to use the slots is to actually drill holes into the slots. The jig I currently have allows you to ali...

It is a nice track. I spent the better part of yesterday with our cubmaster extending the stopping area - over the years the original foam rubber compacted in the box, and previous years' attempts at adding grip tape, sandpaper, and who-knows-what else on top have been ineffective. We built an exten...

Ah, that makes sense - thanks for the clarification! We're on a wood track (20 year old Piantadosi, but in pretty good shape).

My daughter's name is Emma - so we'll be rooting for you!

Andre

Speedster wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 6:06 am Always, and I mean Always, the car will drift to somewhere close to 36".

Thanks for the info Speedster - but do you mean 36", as in 3 feet of drift over 4 feet of running? My tuning board isn't that wide...Is this a typo?

Regards,

Andre