1st in House

[geauxturbo]

Me and the boy finished the tuning and were thinking, "now what?"

RACE. Against every hot wheels or other car in the house. One particular Gold colored futuristic rail riding Hot Wheels gave his PWD car a run for its money but came up just short. At 1.4 oz it would've gotten smoked in the long run, but over 5 ft at 20 degrees, it was a quick little sucker.

Anyone else try this on their tuning board?

[RRS73]

Me and the boy finished the tuning and were thinking, "now what?"

RACE. Against every hot wheels or other car in the house. One particular Gold colored futuristic rail riding Hot Wheels gave his PWD car a run for its money but came up just short. At 1.4 oz it would've gotten smoked in the long run, but over 5 ft at 20 degrees, it was a quick little sucker.

Anyone else try this on their tuning board?

I did put last year's car against this year's car on the tuning board. This year's car was faster down the 6 foot board by a small margin 1/4 inch maybe. On the track, this year's car smoked last year's car by an average of 0.1 sec, and cub won 2nd place in the pack last year, and 4th at district.

Won 1st place this year. We'll see what happens at districts.

[geauxturbo]

Do they have council races after districts?

[RRS73]

Do they have council races after districts?

Not as far as I know. I wish they had state-wide races, or higher level than districts. It would be interesting to see how we would rank vs. the others across the region.

[rpcarpe]

I check every car that finishes at my workshop against an old 'test' car that's built fairly well, but has previous version of wheels, no RR etc... Usually any well built car will beat it. Maybe next year I'll get a better version of the 'test' car built.

[RRS73]

I check every car that finishes at my workshop against an old 'test' car that's built fairly well, but has previous version of wheels, no RR etc... Usually any well built car will beat it. Maybe next year I'll get a better version of the 'test' car built.

I brought my boy's old car from last year to test and tune night, and got a lot of dirty looks from other parents. One dad said, "That's last year's car, get it off the track!" Nevermind the fact that they didn't have a timer up and running that night, and my boy placed 2nd in the pack last year on the narrowest of margins. One would think that they might want to compare new cars vs. last year's 2nd place winner. I explained that to the complaining dad and he got even more enraged, after watching his boy's car fall behind my cub's 2nd place car from last year.

My son's car blew away his own car from last year. We knew he would win as soon as that feat was repeated a few times in different lanes. We'll always bring the previous year's car to test and tune night. Regardless of what other parents say. I mean, isn't that part of the intent of test and tune night, especially when the timer isn't set up yet?

[Stan Pope]

I explained that to the complaining dad and he got even more enraged, after watching his boy's car fall behind my cub's 2nd place car from last year.

My son's car blew away his own car from last year. We knew he would win as soon

Many packs around here do a test and tune night. One of the common rules is "no racing between competitors." (Comparing the Cub's new car with his old car is allowed.) The reason that timers are turned off is to avoid "racing between competitors ... by proxy." By introducing a common competitor, you have introduced racing between competitors by proxy.

[rpcarpe]

I rarely bring the test car for a 'test & tune' session unless I want to demonstrate what's wrong with the car.
First in your house/garage is one thing, bringing a common competitor can dash expectations a little early.

[drathbun]

We don't offer a test-n-tune prior to the pack derby. We test our track with prior year cars but don't race anything that will be entered this year. This year for the first time we're offering to set up the track to let folks tweak their cars for district, but that's an experiment to see how many kids show up.

But I feel strongly that the first time a current year car runs on our official pack track should be during the race, not before.

[resullivan]

I can see it from both sides; however, had I not happened to meet rpcarpe online and ran my new car vs old car, I would not have known that the new one was slower and that I needed to make some adjustments to make it faster.

I do not see what is wrong with giving everyone an opportunity to test run their car (as long as everyone has the same opportunity). Our pack did set up the track for everyone to use, but had they not it is almost an unfair advantage to have access to a track when many people do not. IMO it can level the playing field a little.

[rpcarpe]

Yup, we're a little off topic....

But who really puts out a completely unproven prototype? MacGyver.

Why not give the kids a test run, or a test n tune night?
If it helps the kids, let's do it. Sullivan watched kids from our Pack test their cars on the flat, a little way up, and then a full run. We found a few problems in all the packs. Helped out when we could. Made a differenct to the Cubs.

[MOFAST]

The biggest reason to have a test and tune night is to prevent a lot of unnecessay tears on race day. It is very valuable to new Scout parents, who otherwise would show up race day with sub-weight cars, wheels falling off, or a car that flies off the track. We did have a "pit crew" to help anyone that needed it, with tools, glue, weights, and graphite.

A perfect example is the Dad who didn't think graphite was necessary, what an eye opener for him.

We have a cut night and then two weeks later we have test/tune night. Neither is mandatory but we have over 90% participation. Test/tune night is two days before derby.

This year at test night my sons never lost a race, but nobody made changes. My boys each raced 3 times and then we quietly put their cars away. While other kids were sliding theirs over the dirty floor and slamming them in walls, ours were locked away.

[drathbun]

While other kids were sliding theirs over the dirty floor and slamming them in walls, ours were locked away.

And there's another reason not to do this.

Even with 90% participation, you've left out 10%. We allow an hour for check-in on race day, and our inspectors are fairly good at catching cars that aren't going to make it. We have a couple of fantastic guys that work Pit Row to help cars that come in with less than optimal configurations. There's no need to run on the track to do any of this, and it's easier for everyone to know that everyone is operating from the same baseline.

I've seen any number of topics here on this board (being relatively new, I have been going back and reading older topics voraciously ) and I've seen quite a few stories where unfortunate allegations were made. Why not avoid that whole issue and just let everyone race on race day? That way there's no accusations of advantages given or taken from those that got early access to the track versus those that don't.

Can you imagine what would happen if one team in the Super Bowl got an advance look at the opposition team's game plan, but not vice versa? Oh, wait, that already happened...

[Stan Pope]

Even with 90% participation, you've left out 10%.

Seems to me you are blaming the organizers when it is the families who "opted out."

[geauxturbo]

When i was in cub scouts, the car me and my dad put together looked pretty cool.

I love my old man but an innovator and mechanical person he is not. My car barely made it to the finish line.

I remember being so disappointed. A test and tune would have at least let me and pops know our car was a wobbly turtle and possibly figure out a fix. I was only in scouts for a year because our den never went camping in that year.

My son's car may not finish in the top 5, but it sure wont be a wobbly turtle. I'd like a test and tune night to make sure I can help dads like mine not have a disappointed scout.