What did we do right?

[jtdavies]

I made my first Pinewood Derby (as an adult) with my girlfriend's son.

After the first disastrous race we started winning. But how we won was a little strange. Every race we started out significantly behind. But then at the end we raced forward to win. It made a very exciting race. Eventually we got third place. Not bad.

But I'm curious - how did we make a car that did that? Any idea?

[roosclan]

Slow first race and the rest were faster? My #1 guess is that you loaded the axle bores with graphite before you checked them in. The excess graphite will actually slow your car until the excess is shaken out by racing.

As for starting behind and finishing ahead... I'm guessing you were rear weighted and aligned better than your opponents. You didn't really "pull ahead." They just slowed down more rapidly than your car slowed down.

[dna1990]

Tell us more about the track. Wood or aluminum? Did it have a long slant, or sloping curve, or did have it have a sorta steep ramp with a very sharp curve with the rest flat, etc. As posted above, most likely your ability to stay faster in the flat was good weight placement and lucky alignment. I would assume you did not see the car 'wiggle' while on the last flat section.

Did you use wheels from the older kits or the newest model? If you used old ones (but had them well sanding and polished) and everyone else had new, the lighter new wheels may have gotten some jump on you out of the gate - but then their poorer alignment cost them in the end...?

As to the first heat being so slow, too much unspun graphite would be my first guess too - but it could have also been that specific lane, or its timing sensor, or how the car was staged in the gate, or even a piece of lint or debris that worked it self out on that run.


And sometimes karma has a way of finding the kid that had a great volunteer help them out.

[jtdavies]

roosclan-

You're right we didn't pull ahead - that would be impossible. But it sure looked like we did.

And you're right on about the graphite. I was pretty heavy handed in applying it. I won't make that mistake again.

dna1990-

It was a wooden rack and it was a steep ramp that went flat at the bottom. That's where our car shined.

I used the stock kit that they provided. I guess it was the newest model; we didn't do anything special. I told Aidan that we were do the best we could with what we were given. I lightly ran some sandpaper over the roughest part of the wheel, but did that because the rules said that I could remove mold marks. The wheels were quite smooth, so I didn't do much. I didn't want to make things worse.

Best part of the day - Aidan introduced me as "my mom's most awesomest boyfriend ever".

[dna1990]

Who cares about wheels, go with the 'awesome boyfriend' theory.

[PWD_addict]

How long was the track? If it was exceptionally long, and you had 1999 wheels vs. everyone else's 2009 wheels, the others should start out faster but your's would maintain it's speed for longer.