Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

General topics of interest to racers and race coordinators alike.
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birddog
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by birddog »

Nice looking fleet Seth!

Care to share any of details regarding COM, amount of steer, type of wheels, etc?

We went with more aggressive COM locations than I've ever done in the past. Somewhere between 5/8" and 3/4". I also tried to get away with less steer this time out (2 1/2" or 3" instead of the normal 4"). Finally, we went with wheels that weigh in at a mere 1.4 grams. Lightest wheels I've ever used!

Hopefully, it all adds up to speed, but if not, I can always keep my fingers crossed for that best track. Between the two of our families, we have a 9% chance of winning that baby!

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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by xanthrum »

You guys should check out all the other prizes that we are going to be giving out this year... I have been updating them on Facebook - lots more to go there will be several new posts tonight - and soon things will get on the website.

https://www.facebook.com/MidAmericaPinewoodDerby
Greg Dawes
Mid-America Pinewood Derby
http://www.midamericaderby.com
midamericaderby@yahoo.com
(402) 659-1714
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Noskills
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by Noskills »

Hi Birddog,

Sure. Happy to share stats. The silver and dark green both have extended wheelbases with COMs of 6/8th and 5/8ths, respectively. Drift of 2.5 in over 4 ft.
The bright green has a 5 in wheelbase. COM of 5/8 and 4 inches of drift. The Diamond Sword and Tiger have standard wheelbases COMs of 5/8th with drift of 3.5 and 4.5 inches respectively. Was able to fine tune drift based on pack performance. All wheels are 1.4 gms. Nice diversity in builds (based on pack restriction vs other rules. Bright green has 4 fenders and is untested.

Go big to or home right?

Noskills.
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by Speedster »

Noskills, I'm curious what kind and size axles you're using. Some grooved? All grooved? .091? .093? Are the cars with the aggressive toe-in faster then the others?
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birddog
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

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Greg-

Your prize pool is simply amazing! The BSA and MA council is lucky to have you and all of us appreciate all the great work you do to put on the best PWD race in the country!

I'm sending my cars in today with a box sized much larger than my cars to allow you to return ship all the swag you give out to the kids! Trying to make it easier on you. I can't imagine all the work you must do to deal with all the proxy cars that come in.

NoSkills: Sounds like our builds are very similar in their stats. Should be some great racing! I'm good with any outcome as I know we "tried our best".

Speedster: We used grooved .092 diameter axles on all 4 cars in our builds.

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Noskills
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

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Noskills, I'm curious what kind and size axles you're using. Some grooved? All grooved? .091? .093? Are the cars with the aggressive toe-in faster then the others?
Speedster,

All axles are grooved 0.092.

I cannot compare the speeds of the cars as they have raced with different wheels. All cars but the green machine have broke 3 in a 42 ft best track. The two with extended wheelbases ran very smooth with the less aggressive toe-in so I stuck with that. The Zombie car ran a 2.963 (with 1 gm wheels) and the silver one ran a 2.974 (with stock wheels). The stock wheelbase Diamond Sword ran well with 3.5 inches while the El Tigre (also stock) wobbled some so got dialed up to 4.5 inches. Diamond sword ran a 2.969 and El Tigre ran 2.996. (this is with stock wheels and axles).

The green machine has not raced so I was conservative at 4 in over 4 ft as it have a somewhat extended wheelbase. The green machine also has about 5-6 degrees of rear axle cant while the others are at 3.
NoSkills: Sounds like our builds are very similar in their stats. Should be some great racing! I'm good with any outcome as I know we "tried our best".
Birddog-hopefully we are both doing it right! I agree the racing should be brisk!!!

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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by knotthed »

Good Luck to all particpants!

I would share pics of our cars, but I am taking tomorrow off and we are letting our son out of school to help finish them.
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by Noskills »

Greg,
Any idea how the live feed is going to work? For example will there a separate feed per track or all tracks showing at once?
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birddog
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by birddog »

Noskills-

When I go to the "live video feed" section of the mid-america web site, it looks like they have 3 separate video feeds, one for each track. They have a scout track, an open kids/adult track and a pro track. My guess is that Greg will be up to his ears in alligators trying to get everything setup and ready for the race with less that 24 hours to go. I doubt he'll have time to post on these boards until the race is over.

Knotthed-

I'd say that is cutting it close! I assume you are driving to Omaha for the race to get your car there in time? Do you also go by Knotty Racing?

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Noskills
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by Noskills »

Thanks Birddog,

I am curious if my building got any better than last year. Came in 31st in about 80 in the 2013 mid America. Curious how the kids will do too.

I raced a league car in April and they wiped the floor with me! :paperbag:

Noskills
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birddog
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Re: Mid America Pinewood Derby 2014

Post by birddog »

I raced a league car last summer and they wiped the floor with me too! Haven't done it since! Still licking my wounds! I'm sure that is a great way to get really good, I just don't have the time (wish I did). Maybe when I retire some day......

Those guys are good and many of them build cars for this race, so I don't feel bad about not finishing near the top, but it is fun to see how we stack up against the "pros".

We did fairly well last year (16th in adult and top 12 in both kids and scouts). Something tells me we've got more top builders this year and I'm not optimistic about finishing that well this year.

We shall see.

Good luck!

birddog
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