This past weekend was the Four Peaks District Pinewood Derby which generated so much discussion over the past couple pages.
All in all, it went extremely well. Thanks to a gang of excellent volunteers (mostly Boy Scouts), everyone had a great time. And I mean everybody. Well, except one parent, who thought we were being too lenient on weight. But even he sat down and watched the race. And if I only had one somewhat-irate parent the entire day, I can certainly call that a success.
We also allowed the Cubs to stage & retrieve their cars, unlike previous years. I think we'll stick with that. And we sent out a questionnaire asking Cubs what the car name was, who helped them, what they liked about the car, etc. We posted the best answers (anonymously) on posters at the event.
So, how did the actual rules go? First, let me introduce you to our Chief Inspector, Bob:
Bob had lots of fun looking at all the carefully-crafted wooden creations and checking their compliance to three decimal places.
And out of the 80+ cars, we only identified two as being clear candidates for inspection requiring removal of wheels. And we'd agreed that such an inspection would wait until after racing was completed, so as not to mess up any tuning or alignment. When Bob would encounter such a car, he'd explain that the car would be allowed to race, but would be held after the event for a supplemental inspection.
The responses were interesting. One car was identified, and raced without wheel removal. However, for some reason the car & its owner didn't return for the finals race - we can only presume that there was some sort of scheduling conflict. When it came to the other car, the owner immediately volunteered to pop the wheels off right then to present them for inspection - and we found out that this driver had definitely paid attention to the rules, as the wheels came out precisely at 1.170" diameter and 2.45 grams each (although it might seem that the rule against machining the wheels may have been slightly overlooked). The car was permitted to race, as it precisely met the defined minimum criteria.
As noted in other message areas, we found out empirically that it's danged near impossible to assess the provenance of axles. Bob had a full array of BSA axles in various levels of finishing for reference, along with Revell brand Peoples' Revolutionary BSA-blessed axles (OK) and PineCar axles (not OK). And without doing a ridiculously-obsessive 3-D dimensional analysis, we weren't going to be able to unambiguously weed out aftermarket axles. So we did our best and focused on anything obviously questionable (factory-graphite-coated, etc.) And didn't see much if any of that.
So what will we likely look at revising next year? Here's a short list:
Wheels:
- go to 1.180" minimum diameter
- specify tread thickness (measure a bunch o' wheels or get from you guys here at Derby Talk)
- specify tread width
- allow hub bore step removal
- allow shaving only to correct out-of-round
- state that any clearly visible evidence of machining of wheels will be grounds for rejection of those wheels (such as "H" grooving or a lip, step, or groove on the inside of the wheel indicating removal of material from the inside of the wheel)
Number of Wheels:
Some cars in the Pack races had more than four wheels, and looked & ran great. But the District rules called for four and only four wheels (3 touching), so most of them didn't move up (one did by popping off the spare ones). We're thinking of changing the rules to allow a minimum of four, all within the maximum allowable wheelbase (see next comment below).
Wheelbase:
Our very first car at inspection had an extended wheelbase far beyond what was clearly called out in the rules. The way we handled it was to offer two options: a move to Open Class (Plummet), or the use of our onsite Pro Body Tool (and a hand drill) to move the wheelbase to legal limits. The wheel move was chosen, and the car successfully raced in its rank.
But this raises a question: should there be a wheelbase limit, other than the 5 13/16" practical maximum? I'm inclined to be OK with it, but Bob's a bit dubious. We'll see what we work out.
Weight:
Next year, we'll be absolutely clear: 5.00 ounces, measured to 0.5 g or 0.02 oz precision. And we do have a reference weight.
Lubricants:
We don't have a reliable test for silicone, Krytox, or Nyloil. We may add a rule stating that any liquid lubricant observed leaving the car at any time is grounds for disqualification (graphite's enough of a mess).
"Proxy" racers:
Boys are busy on weekends, and some really wanted their cars to be there even if they couldn't. So, we'll add a rule saying that if a car owner can't be there in person, another Cub Scout may represent them - but the substitute will be fully responsible for the car, including answering all questions.
Webelos II:
We heard some Webelos didn't participate because they'd been fortunate enough to have their Arrow Of Light prior to the event. We'll make it clear that if they start the year as a Webelos II, they can race, regardless of crossover status.
And we'll probably split the rules into two parts for modularity: a section focused on car specifications, and then a supplement stating event-specific rules that can be modularized by Packs and Districts if needed while still keeping the cars uniformly-specified.
We'll get some more rest, and then see how it goes...