First pinewood derby experience!! And now a few questions...
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:08 pm
Hi everyone! I'm brand new here on DT and to pinewood derby, but thought I'd share my experience and ask a few questions to the experts!
I was never a scout but heard great things about it growing up. My son is now a Tiger scout so this was his first experience too!
When pinewood derby came around I spent about a month researching, watching videos on how to make things faster and had my son watch a few as well. Our race day got delayed due to building reservations issues, so our pack race day just happened to be on the same day as the district. So no district race for our pack this year.
My son designed the car shape he wanted (like an Indy car) and I did the cutting since we were really pressed for time and he might still be a little young to put on the band saw.
Took off work on a Monday and Wednesday while kids were home for the holiday and then school canceled for an ice storm 2 days.
The practice was that Friday and race Saturday. So basically made both these cars from scratch in less than 4 days.
So cut everything out, then applied wood filler to my mistakes and showed my son how to sand and sand and sand.
I wasn't sure how the car would turn out but my son did the Indy car design and I did the flat car for speed and in case his didn't work out right.
I set up a MyBuddy heater in the garage to bring it up to 50F (had an on-going ice storm outside) since freezing outside and no time to wait for nice days.
Made a make-shift car fixture to hold the car in place while we rattle can painted them.
This worked nicely since I could just spin the fixture on the black sack I placed on my freezer lid.
Then on to wet sanding, stickers and clear coat.
The results.....
My son's blue car took 1st in Tiger scouts and then he took 1st in the pack against the winners from the Wolves, Bears, Webelos, and the Girl Scouts.
His blue car also was the only scout car to get below 3.0000 seconds for the day.
So he was Really excited! And because his car also had the fastest time of the day, (cub scouts vs girl scouts) the cub scouts got to keep the traveling trophy this year! It is too bad they didn't have a district race this year, but maybe next year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So here is my concern.
I would really like to break the track record which the scoutmaster has said is over 200mph, but I can't see how that is possible with the bsa rules requiring stock tires? Is the more tricks I don't know of ?
We worked really hard on the cars and I just can't figure out why they don't run close to 200mph like I see on many forums?
We didn't touch the wheels (rules say can only sand casting marks), but we did polish the axels and setup for canted wheels and right on 5.0oz both cars.
The blue car didn't rail ride (I forgot it needs to lean bottom in not out) but the black car does rail ride and its time was only in the 2.94xx range and it beat all the scoutmasters easily , but no where near 200mph??
We may be on their hit list next year with my son winning the pack and my black car beating all the scoutmasters easily, but I'd really like to figure out how to get over 200mph legally and take the track record
Here is a picture from one of my son's races, but the mph is nowhere near 200mph???
Here was the Finals
How fast can these BSA pinewood derby cars go with stock wheels and only axle mods?
Could their scaling factor maybe be off in the software?
I was never a scout but heard great things about it growing up. My son is now a Tiger scout so this was his first experience too!
When pinewood derby came around I spent about a month researching, watching videos on how to make things faster and had my son watch a few as well. Our race day got delayed due to building reservations issues, so our pack race day just happened to be on the same day as the district. So no district race for our pack this year.
My son designed the car shape he wanted (like an Indy car) and I did the cutting since we were really pressed for time and he might still be a little young to put on the band saw.
Took off work on a Monday and Wednesday while kids were home for the holiday and then school canceled for an ice storm 2 days.
The practice was that Friday and race Saturday. So basically made both these cars from scratch in less than 4 days.
So cut everything out, then applied wood filler to my mistakes and showed my son how to sand and sand and sand.
I wasn't sure how the car would turn out but my son did the Indy car design and I did the flat car for speed and in case his didn't work out right.
I set up a MyBuddy heater in the garage to bring it up to 50F (had an on-going ice storm outside) since freezing outside and no time to wait for nice days.
Made a make-shift car fixture to hold the car in place while we rattle can painted them.
This worked nicely since I could just spin the fixture on the black sack I placed on my freezer lid.
Then on to wet sanding, stickers and clear coat.
The results.....
My son's blue car took 1st in Tiger scouts and then he took 1st in the pack against the winners from the Wolves, Bears, Webelos, and the Girl Scouts.
His blue car also was the only scout car to get below 3.0000 seconds for the day.
So he was Really excited! And because his car also had the fastest time of the day, (cub scouts vs girl scouts) the cub scouts got to keep the traveling trophy this year! It is too bad they didn't have a district race this year, but maybe next year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So here is my concern.
I would really like to break the track record which the scoutmaster has said is over 200mph, but I can't see how that is possible with the bsa rules requiring stock tires? Is the more tricks I don't know of ?
We worked really hard on the cars and I just can't figure out why they don't run close to 200mph like I see on many forums?
We didn't touch the wheels (rules say can only sand casting marks), but we did polish the axels and setup for canted wheels and right on 5.0oz both cars.
The blue car didn't rail ride (I forgot it needs to lean bottom in not out) but the black car does rail ride and its time was only in the 2.94xx range and it beat all the scoutmasters easily , but no where near 200mph??
We may be on their hit list next year with my son winning the pack and my black car beating all the scoutmasters easily, but I'd really like to figure out how to get over 200mph legally and take the track record
Here is a picture from one of my son's races, but the mph is nowhere near 200mph???
Here was the Finals
How fast can these BSA pinewood derby cars go with stock wheels and only axle mods?
Could their scaling factor maybe be off in the software?