Pine Wood Derby

[fuelie600]

The BSA released new kits this year. They have new wheel molds that don't leave mold marks on the wheel tread. The also revised the hub to use a cone form that was popular with most of the speed people. The tread is thinner, and the wheels are truer and lighter.
The idea is to level the playing field and eliminate any wheel mods. They look much better than the old wheels. Here is a pic....

[LWJ]

I noticed those wheels. My boy had them on his car. They weigh .1 oz less than the wheels I purchased from the Boy Scout Shop and were much smoother. If I run a car next year, I will be sure to run these. They have to be good for a boost in speed.

[idontknow]

We did ours last week. In our pack there's an unlimited class that all non scouts can participate in. Neither of our cars won but we had fun nonetheless.

I have access to the track and use of facilities if you're all still interested.

[nynor]

We did ours last week. In our pack there's an unlimited class that all non scouts can participate in. Neither of our cars won but we had fun nonetheless.

I have access to the track and use of facilities if you're all still interested.[/QUOTE]

damn. if i lived within 100 miles, i'd take advantage of that offer, for sure. i love building pinewood derby cars.

[jtfreels]

Originally Posted by idontknow

We did ours last week. In our pack there's an unlimited class that all non scouts can participate in. Neither of our cars won but we had fun nonetheless.

I have access to the track and use of facilities if you're all still interested.

Are you volunteering to run a Pelican "proxy" race ???

Jay

[idontknow]

I could do that.

Do you want it run by pinewood derby rules or whatever you send?

[Hugh R]

Drill and fill the back end 1/2 full with BBs as it goes down the ramp they slam forward and give it a kick. Don't let anyone else touch the car. Oh, you want to be legal? never mind.

Put the wheels on a lathe and turn the tread down to razor sharp

Put a drop of super slick teflon lube on each axle after polishing.

Epoxying and redrilling the holes in the wheels I didn't think of, but that's good.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by BeyGon

Isn't the idea that the kids build these?

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha

[avi8torny]

Here is a trick to making your car "faster" that is within the rules:


Instead of sloping the "hood" down to make it look like a race car.........slope the underside of the front up. In other words, the front of the car should be higher than the underside.

Typically the cars are released with pins that are retracted from the track. As the pin falls, the car, your car, starts to climb the pin ahead of the other cars. All the weights are the same so your car gets a slight head start. Head starts win.

We also hollowed out the bottom and put the weight low in the car. Not sure if the weight placement made any difference or not. Graphite on the axles too.

[red-beard]

My 2 pinewood entries in the middle 1970's were like this.

The first year, as a style feature, we put a slope on the front of the block. It was about 1 inch. This helped quite a bit. 2nd year we built a 2-3 inch sloped nose, taking this into account. This had a dramatic effect on our win...And it was also noticed by others.

My first year in cub-scouts, we didn't have the pinewood derby, we did the rubber band rocket version.

[dad911]

Weight in the back. Three wheels. Better quality graphite. Rub graphite where the hub touches the body, and on the body near the axle. Drill holes for the wheels on a drill press (or mill if you can get access to one) for a wheel alignment. Lengthen the wheel base will run straighter. Make slightly under weight at home, then add small screws to make it slightly overweight. Take out screws as necessary to compensate for official scale.

[David McLaughlin]

Here's our cars from Saturday (4/17/10) The red car placed 1st at 215mph with the white car just behind it.