When to get started?

[DougD]

Hey friends,

I was interested in getting some opinions, especially from those that have been doing PWD for years...

How early do you start on the next season's car? My son just had his first derby this past saturday and we are both itching to build again. Would it seem unfair to start this early on next year's car? Our pack's rules only stipulate that the car raced has to built for that season, no past runners...

I would love to hear your thoughts on this...

[pwdarchitect]

Build it! Any time spent working with your child on a project they can cherish is time well spent.

[M7 Racing]

Take any opportunity possible to spend quality time with your kids. Just spending time with the boys is what makes pinewood derby so special. If your son is itching to start building I would go for it. You would be building it for the next season anyway so your legal. Also, nothing is stoping you from building a couple of cars (one now and one later) and see which one you want to race next year.

As for us. We just packed away the pinewood stuff but are constantly talking and planning for next year and doing lots of research. We just have our other addiction in full swing right now (baseball). Once we stop baseball in Oct we start building immediately for our January races.

[2kids10horses]

If you are early in your son's Cub Scout career, you might consider building your own test track!

My son is a Weblos II, but we really got into PWD a couple of years ago. If I had known then how "into it" we'd be now, I would have either bought or built one. You only need a one laner and a timer.

I wish we had one. Then, we could REALLY get good!

2k10h

[PWD]

We also discuss PWD all year long. Every year we also plan on starting earlier but as things turn out we still never seem to get started before November doing any actual building.

[Go Bubba Go]

...We just packed away the pinewood stuff but are constantly talking and planning for next year and doing lots of research.

The comment about "research" prompted a couple of thoughts in my mind.

Even if you aren't going to do a start to finish build on a car, there is lots of research you could do over the summer in areas you might like to improve. Could be paint, body shaping, wheel modifications, etc. etc.

You can also build other pinewood related projects like a test track, display boxes for your completed cars, go / no-go boxes, workshop jigs, etc.

You could also do a "out of the box" build just to mix things up i.e. Semi, Airplane, Battery Powered propeller car, etc.

Or if the 2 of you do want to do a start to finish build, go for it. Send it off to proxy race if you want. Just keep an eye on his enthusiasm level to ensure that he doesn't overdue it and burn himself out. Burnout? Did I just say that???