New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Show off your cool vehicle designs and track burning speedsters!
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thecapotc
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New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by thecapotc »

Hi All,

I've been looking around a lurking for a while, and decided to start posting. I'll try and keep this short ... we just started doing Awana Grand Prix races last year, and have built a total of 5 cars. I hadn't done any races of this sort since I was a Cub Scout in the early 90s. All of these cars have been played with since the races, and show some wear and tear.

Last Year's Car
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My son (5 at the time) came up with the design, a Lightning McQueen body style, and then helped with sanding, priming, and completed the painting entirely on his own. We didn't check alignment, lube, etc. Basically got the car painted and put the wheels on. He won a 3rd place design award for Cubbies and made it into the semi-finals for speed.

This Year's Cars
ImageImage
Oldest son (6) came up with the design, Francesco Bernoulli, traced and cut out the template, helped use the bandsaw, sanded, primed, and painted. Due to poor time management on my part (our youngest was 3 months old during prep time) we again didn't do much beyond paint and put the wheels on. He won a 2nd place design award for Sparks and made it to the semi-finals for speed.

ImageImage
Younger son (3) wanted a fire truck so I designed a cab-over mid-ships pumper on AutoCAD at work. He 'helped' use the bandsaw, sanded, primed, and painted. I found a $3 fire truck at Dollar General and scavenged the lights, batteries, control board, ladder, and pump panel. The additional body pieces are basswood and balsa sheet stock. When it was done the lights worked and it made weight. During assembly one of the wheels was way off and since I didn't want to ruin the body it was left well off of true. He won a 1st place design award for Cubbies, and had the slowest car of all the clubbers.

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Daughter (2) didn't really know or care about the race, but I made her a flower car to avoid any problems once the boys had their cars. No wins but it doesn't matter because she loves her flower car.

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My car. Didn't come out as planned, because there was no time for the windshield since paint didn't finish drying until 10 minutes before the end of registration, which was a 10 minute drive away.

Sorry for such a long post. I'll probably be chiming in here and there, and continuing to lurk.

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Scrollsawer
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by Scrollsawer »

Fun cars! I like the vintage look of them. Are they weighted? If so, how did you weight them?

Scrollsawer
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whodathunkit
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by whodathunkit »

:welcome: thecapotc,

Like Scrollsawer I also like the looks of the cars and fire truck.

I've made a fire truck that looked kinda.. like this once myself.
I think at the time when I was looking for somthing to make the fire hose's with
that I ended useing white shoe string laces to make them with.

Is that a automotive split wire loom..
That your younger son used to make the fire hose on his fire truck with?
I must say I've seen alot of fire trucks useing shoe stings or straws or even dowl rods
to make the fire hose detail with.

But this is the first I've seen automotive split wire loom used for that detail. ;)

Whoda.
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
thecapotc
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

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Scrollsawer,

Thanks for the compliments. The last car I made is even more 'vintage' because I painted it as a kid with left over house paint. My kids still like playing with it. The kids cars are all weighted with some lead shot and hot glue that was available at the race during check-in. Another one of those things I forgot about both years.

The blue and white car was weighted with solder. Lots of solder. I melted an old reel of solder I had from work, although I misjudged how much it would take.

Whoda,

Not sure of the vintage/origin of the split loom. It's another work find (I'm an Engineer at an electronics manufacturing plant). In addition to the hard suction line (I even had some metal washers with fancy designs from the scrap bin at work for the couplers, but they weighed in at like .1 oz each) I also had plans for a booster reel (wooden thread spool and wire) and three inch line for the hose bed (rubber bands or elastic from the sewing shops). Needless to say I ran out of weight way before running out of ideas. Being a third generation volunteer firefighter might have gotten me carried away a bit.

Right now my design / planning ability far outweighs my assembly ability. Hopefully some builds this summer will go towards fixing that.

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thecapotc
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by thecapotc »

Scrollsawer,

Just in case it came across wrong, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic about the vintage look. My old car is shaped like a vintage pinewood derby car and painted in silver paint. It was a kit from when they still had the [censored]-pit cut out and I made it look like an old midget racer.

I'm actually considering trying to work out a midget racer / belly tank racer design that might work a la the So Cal speed shop car.

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Scrollsawer
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by Scrollsawer »

No offense taken. I think the cars are very well made, and represent Derby car design as it should ideally be. A lot of folks go for the 'Hershey Bar' car shape (for speed). I sometimes do that as well. However, being a car shape fan, I like anything that promotes individuality, and the cockpit, and shorter wheelbase designs appeal to my sense of nostalgia.

Regards,

Scrollsawer
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thecapotc
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by thecapotc »

My boys and I are in the make it look like a car group as well. My oldest wants to make fast cars but he wants to make cars, not wedges.

I'm continuing to dig around so that with new knowledge and some trial builds this summer our cars will get up onto the podium. It should be doable, there are like 40 or 50 cars in the clubbers group (all ages race against each other for speed) and 40 or 50 cars in the open group each year.

In the kids group nobody really builds cars specifically for speed, but there are cars that are clearly done entirely for the kids that win for speed and design every year. Bugs me more than my kids.

I was just worried that I sounded sarcastic because I tend to be sarcastic without even meaning to.

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ah8tk
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by ah8tk »

thecapotc wrote:My boys and I are in the make it look like a car group as well. My oldest wants to make fast cars but he wants to make cars, not wedges.
Cars, that look like cars can also be fast.
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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by thecapotc »

ah8tk wrote:
thecapotc wrote:My boys and I are in the make it look like a car group as well. My oldest wants to make fast cars but he wants to make cars, not wedges.
Cars, that look like cars can also be fast.
Fast cars that look like cars and boys doing most of the work are the goals for next year's race.

These past two years I kind of got behind the 8 ball and didn't do any prep or homework. :/ Next year's race planning started mentally about ten minutes after I got past check in this year and about three hours before the race started. Hoping to blow some doors off next year.

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Re: New Guy, Awana Grand Prix racer

Post by Darin McGrew »

Nice designs! Thanks for sharing!
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