Today's Race Results

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Scrollsawer
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Today's Race Results

Post by Scrollsawer »

Well, another race is in the books. We fared pretty well...

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The Creeper car was indeed fast, winning 1st Place in rank, and 1st Place Overall in the Pack.

The Fire & Ice car could not overcome a last minute axle disaster, and scored a respectable 4th place in the boys' rank category.

The oddest result came with the Pink Copperhead car. I didn't want to spill the beans last night, but we glued the axles in without having had a chance check the alignment. When I DID check it, the car was dialed in for perfect drift...Toward the DFW side!!! Therefore it rode the rail using the raised wheel, not the DFW. It easily won 1st Place in the Open Division, and was almost as fast as the Creeper car. Odd huh?

Learned a lot this year. Thanks to everyone, especially Sporty, for the great advice! :wewon:

Regards,

Scrollsawer




Now THAT was a long day of prepping, building, disaster recovery, tuning, weighting, lubing, and voila...

Here comes Creeper:

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Next, we have 'Pink Copperhead':

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And finally, we have 'Fire & Ice':

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I almost had a disaster with Fire & Ice (ruined an axle at the last minute, and had to create a race axle from scratch in about 5 minutes so we could make tonight's car impoundment). I think the car is still competitive, but I had to cut corners to get the boys' car back in racing shape quickly.

The Creeper car feels wicked fast (at least for our humble build skills). It's one of those cars that just starts rolling the moment you set it down on any table. This thing WANTS to move.

The Pink Copperhead is what threw a wrench in the works. My daughter decided last minute she wanted to race, so we lost a lot of time on the 3rd car that would have gone into the other two. It's a good car, but it's not aligned as well as I would like it to be. Just ran out of time.

Tomorrow is race day. Wish us luck!

Scrollsawer
Last edited by Scrollsawer on Sat Feb 02, 2013 7:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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DerbyDash
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Re: They're finally done. - Derby is Tomorrow

Post by DerbyDash »

All of them look great. Good luck!!
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Noskills
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Re: They're finally done. - Derby is Tomorrow

Post by Noskills »

Good luck man, those our real crowd pleasers for the kids. Love the two colored wheels. Very creative.
Let us know how you do.
Seth
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Aron
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Re: They're finally done. - Derby is Tomorrow

Post by Aron »

Cool cars! They all look fast. Let us know how the race goes.
pgosselin
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Re: They're finally done. - Derby is Tomorrow

Post by pgosselin »

Looks great. Good luck.
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Noskills
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Re: They're finally done - Derby's Tomorrow - Race Results A

Post by Noskills »

Congrats on the wins.
You are very lucky that your drift towards the the DFW did not cause your raised wheel to hope the center rail and jump the track. That's what mine did last years. Search under "jumping the track" for all the gory details.
Seth
"Nunchuk skills... bowhunting skills... pinewood derby skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"
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Scrollsawer
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Re: They're finally done - Derby's Tomorrow - Race Results A

Post by Scrollsawer »

Seth, the goriest part of that post was getting folks to understand that your elevated wheel was the one making contact with the center guide rail, lol.

As for our "luck", I think I have a working theory as to why it happened to your sons' car, but not my daughters car. 'Vertical center of gravity'. Your sons' car was much taller than my daughters. The bulk of the mass of his car (the top half of your car) was already higher than the guide rail, so all the car has to do was follow the momentum f that mass up and over the rail.. My daughters' car is only 1/4 inches thick. In fact, the majority of her car's mass is at the rail heightism what likely kept it from hopping. Just a theory.

Scrollsawer
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rpcarpe
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Re: Today's Race Results

Post by rpcarpe »

Congrats!
My wife started a new support group... Widows of the Pinewood Derby.
DerbyDash
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Re: Today's Race Results

Post by DerbyDash »

Congratulations! Did I miss where you ended up with the COM's on the cars? I know they were aggressive when I saw them listed in another post.
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