Importance of Weight

General topics of interest to racers and race coordinators alike.
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Speedster
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Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:48 pm
Location: Toledo, Ohio

Importance of Weight

Post by Speedster »

First, My Hats Off to the Builder of the Best Track.
We were working on a friends rail rider a few days ago and when we got to the track it turned a time very close to our fastest times for other cars. The RR axle was the only one we did not have glued in. I suggested we do not attempt any higher speed. We went in the house, glued in the axle and sat their talking. This gentleman builds fast cars. I asked him what the car weighed and he said very close to 5 ounces. Very Close? I got out my scale and it weighed 136.04 grams. Very Close? It was a thin car with no good place to put the weight. He is a policeman so his son decorated it as a police car. We put tungsten putty on top and kept his 5/8" COM. Back to the track and the car picked up .02 of a second and turned the same time to the .00 three times in a row. He made a little Dome out of the putty and is going to paint it Red. This car turned the fastest time on my track so far.
I think this says a lot for the Best track and all the help it gives those building cars.
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Scrollsawer
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Re: Importance of Weight

Post by Scrollsawer »

Good info. Weight absolutely matters. It was the #1 variable (by a wide margin) in the Pinewood Derby Physics video that came out a year or two ago if I recall correctly.

Never invested in a track, and I know we've left a lot of speed off our cars in previous builds. Only cracked 'sub-three' a few times (graphite), I'm sure because we were not able to 'track tune' our cars.

Fortunately for us, we did not compete in a hyper-competitive Pack, so we never needed to invest in a track.

Scrollsawer
"Laugh a while you can Monkey Boy."
Speedster
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Re: Importance of Weight

Post by Speedster »

My friends team set a new track record yesterday. He's in another Pack and we were racing too so I couldn't attend his race. He's in our District so we will meet him on the District track on March 12.

Do you have a District race?
Last edited by Speedster on Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Scrollsawer
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Re: Importance of Weight

Post by Scrollsawer »

Our District just started with a District Derby this year. Too late for us, as my boys 'bridged over' last year. The boy who I helped with his car for this years' derby may or may not want to participate in the District Derby. We'll see, I suppose. I do know it gets a lot more competitive at the District level.

Scrollsawer
"Laugh a while you can Monkey Boy."
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Loder66
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Re: Importance of Weight

Post by Loder66 »

Speedster - What length is your bestrack and what is the record for your track? I purchased a 2 lane 42' besttrack last year. I am always trying to find exact information on how others set up their tracks. It seems even my track has the same cars running a little different times each time I set it up. I use my iPhone "Angle Pro" app and it jumps between 27-28 degrees depending on which part of the slope it is on. So far the track record for a car is 2.956.
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Plano, TX
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