The Official Pinewood Derby Thread

[T-Town Mini]

This thread is intended for all things Pinewood Derby. Post your best tips/hints/advice, etc. for constructing a Pinewood Derby car here. Feel free to post photos of examples including: derby cars, tracks, trophies, best designs, wildest creations, family & friends...whatever, as long as it's related to the Pinewood Derby theme.

 

[T-Town Mini]

One of the best tips I can think of would be to first, know the rules and regulations from your race event coordinators. Then, do some research before starting out and building the car.

Reference material is widely available especially online. Over the years I obtained many booklets offered by various sources and printed out hint sheets from other internet sources. Many will contain much of the same information but some offer unique how-to methods that'll aid in building a car that'll put your son or daughter on the podium.

Also, hold or attend Pinewood Derby workshops for kids prior to any race in order to share tools and techniques among those wanting to enter.

 

[T-Town Mini]

I enjoyed building the cars with my Son for his scout class and I also entered my own in the Open Division:

My Son's cars:

A couple of my cars:

 

[T-Town Mini]

More open division cars I made:

 

[mrpat]

I remember building these with my twin boys quite a few years ago (and for a couple of years). Those were very fun to build. Well those cars are long gone since the boys are now 26 years old, but I can remember being more fired up to build them than they were. Finished 1st and second place 2 years in a row and went on to the finals which we didn't fare so well.

I remember:
filling the wheel holes with epoxy and machining the holes
using graphite on the axles
making sure there wasn't any flashing on those axles and polishing them.
adding weight to the underside in machined pockets (not to hang below the bottom) held in place with glue.

We also made fenders out of 1/4" wood and glued them to the sides of the body to look more like a car you would find on the street.
If I can find any old pictures I will post them, but no guarantee.

Pat

 

[T-Town Mini]

I remember building these with my twin boys quite a few years ago (and for a couple of years). Those were very fun to build. Well those cars are long gone since the boys are now 26 years old, but I can remember being more fired up to build them than they were. Finished 1st and second place 2 years in a row and went on to the finals which we didn't fare so well.

I remember:
filling the wheel holes with epoxy and machining the holes
using graphite on the axles
making sure there wasn't any flashing on those axles and polishing them.
adding weight to the underside in machined pockets (not to hang below the bottom) held in place with glue.

We also made fenders out of 1/4" wood and glued them to the sides of the body to look more like a car you would find on the street.
If I can find any old pictures I will post them, but no guarantee.

Pat

Thankfully, my son saved our cars from his mom's place and brought them over to my house in a box. Luckily, his mom didn't destroy them or throw them out. They were all made many years ago and are a little dirty from being stored but, I've got them on display on a shelf in my spare bedroom. I cherish the time I spent with my son building and racing the pinewood derby and these cars are a reminder of that time.

I don't have my old pictures to show for now so, I've taken some new pics of our cars to share with everyone here.

 

[manchester1]

That is really cool. My nephew did that last year with his 2 daughters. :thumbsup:

 

[Not so mini bike]

I remember building one of these in shop,class in middle school. Granite on the axels was a must.

 

[SimpleTom]

I still have mine somewhere. I'll have to find them now. I know we used Graphite on the axles. We also mounted all the wheels on a nail and chucked it into the drill press. Then ran the drill on a slower speed and used a sand block to smooth out the excess plastic from the molding process. It made all four wheels the same. We also used the drill press to drill out a quarter sized pocket on the bottom of the car and poured melted lead into the pocket. We used a hand held drill to drill out lead to get the weight of the car correct on a scale at home, then took a drill to the track just in case our scale was wrong and we could drill out a little more if needed.

 

[SimpleTom]

Found them.

First one I built when my older brother was in Cub Scouts. I couldn't compete so it wasn't weighed in.

Next year, my first year in Cub Scouts. My brother took first and I took third. It was a photo finish and even in the Newspaper photo you could see I took second. (I'm still pissed about it to this day. LOL)

Next year. My brother took third and I took first.

My last year in Cub Scouts. It didn't place. I blame the fact that I forgot to sand the front wheels.

Four cars that never raced.

 

[MB165]

always a fun time, some of those cars look old guys. its cool dig up stuff ya made as a kid. did they make ya name them? we had, towmater, the cheesemobile and the gaspedal, my son won the pack derby three times. its funny how the design got simpler as each year he had to do more on his own......
its all about the weight, as far back and just over the axle, within 1/8", get it so there is no more than one ounce over the front wheels and the rest out back. he beat out streamlined cars with that towmater car by one car length consistently. if its legal stretch the wheelbase too.
I poured molten lead to weight the rear of the body before he drills the axles or the body gets cut. You can get tungsten too which was actually easier on the black car. they usually come out .1 oz over weight. theres a spot in the rear that can be drilled out to final weight on raceday. ill persuade him to get on here and post up more photos
lookup the boysdad design here on the web.

 

[maverick1]

My son ran pinewood for 2 years and never lost a race. The tips on good free spinning wheels is right on. Ran close to max weight which was placed itowards the front of the car.The most important thing is that the car tracks perfectly straight. We spent allot of time on that. My son is 35 now so it was many years ago. I was in the Hobby Lobby weeks back and could not believe all the gadgets they had to build pinewood cars.

 

[trinik7597]

great stuff :thumbsup: me and my sons have a couple winning cars from when they were little guys

 

[massacre]

Ran these a couple times, I remember my Dad was all over this lol.

We did the sanding of the wheels, graphite on the axles, adding lead for weight, etc.
The first year or two I raced was before the "wedge" design became popular, so there were some pretty cool designs. By the time my younger cousin was in it, the wedge had taken over.
I lent him my old P.D. Car, that was fast and went to regional finals.

To be honest, the thing that I always found to affect the outcome the most, is politics.
I hate to say it, but it was true in my experience. Now, that might be a regional thing or whatever but I found it with myself but even worse when I wasn't even racing and my cousin was racing my car.
The regionals was pretty lame, they had heard about the car, first they tried to disqualify the car every way possible. Then when they couldn't do that, they tried to make us race in some special class. We didn't budge. The car went pretty far, the finals if I remember. That is when one of their members "accidentally dropped the car" I swear this actually happened. I mean it was so obvious that our car was damaged on purpose, what is the purpose of the Scouts if cheating is OK?

So the car was broken, I think they broke a wheel or something major, obviously we lost in the finals to THE HEADMASTERS SON.
I am not even making this up, when I raced I noticed that our troop headmaster's son also used to win regularly.

I'm not saying that this represents all troops and this was back in the late 70s-early 80s so it was a different time. And we all grew up fine and had normal lives.
Just an observation, all in all I had a ton of fun building these with my Dad.

 

[JKautoFab]

yeah i was in boy scouts for two weeks.

around the time i joined, i was going to get to participate in the pinewood derby. being a car guy, this was the most exciting thing about scouts besides camping.

i didnt have molten lead, so i was stuck using coins for weights. i made my car myself.

i had never seen the track before. i was told practice was on friday, and the even was on saturday

so on friday, when im getting ready to go to do a practice run... i get a call that practice had been moved to thurs... the day before.

i was not allowed to test my car day of the race, they said thats what the practice day was for!. i explained how i had been left out of that communication until THE NEXT DAY.

they DID NOT CARE. they said OH WELL SORRY KID

they would not even let me run my car down the track alone before the race started. they said it would give me an "unfair advantage" no other kids cared one bit.

i went over to the track to dry run my car without letting it go, trying to see if my weights taped to the bottom would hit any part of the track. i knew i cleared the center bar on flat, but didnt know if it would hit in the curve.

I WAS YELLED AT FOR CHECKING MY CARS GROUND CLEARANCE.

they snatched up my car, weighed it and ran it against all the kids who had been to at least one pinewood derby... and had all been at the testing day.

my car's weights scrubbed the track enough to start tank slapping and couldnt even make it to the finish line. they laughed at me

no do overs, no hey lets fix that hanging weight and give you another try.

sorry but F*CK BOY SCOUTS

also my scout master was a drunken A hole that spent most meetings yelling at his son one of my childhood friends... for being overly participative..

 

[MB165]

There always is a bum to play the rules game, that really ticks me off reading about them. I made sure we were inside the rules 100% even emailed the chairman to clarify rules several times....we were only allowed to use the car for one season/ year then had to make a new one. did you guys have to do that? Funny part is we beat out people using illegal wheels, ours were matched out of about 30 pairs, lathe trued but still had the tread on the side



good explainaiton of the physics of keeping the weight to the rear, and how it helps propel it to the end of the curve
www.boysdad.com/archives/3306"]http://http://boysdad.com/archives/3306

 

[Havasu Dave]

Interesting to read about some of your designs. The politics were something I experienced both as a scout in the 60's, then in the 70's with helping my younger brother, then in the 80's with my own kids.

I recall some of the father's wouldn't even let their kids put their cars on the track. The politics in some circles outstripped the other aspects of the event unfortunately.

Love the photos. Good thread.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

my car's weights scrubbed the track enough to start tank slapping and couldnt even make it to the finish line. they laughed at me.

I had a similar experience when I was a scout. I feel your pain.

When my son was in scouts, I ran the races. I wanted to make sure that sort of thing never happened in our pack. I would send out numerous communications, make announcements at meetings, etc.. There was always one or two calls at the last minute or the morning of the race. We did everything we could to help. We ran every car 6 times, once in each lane of our track and averaged the times. If it didn't finish, we'd help the kid fix the problem right then and there.

 

[T-Town Mini]

Yeah, politics always seemed to find a way into the fray at one point or another. That's why I started out saying knowing the rules ahead of time is so important. I was a den leader and was given some basic rules to go by and, in my own research of scouting materials, I rewrote them and the pack adapted those set of rules for our derby races. I'll post a copy in the thread for anyone wanting to see how we did it.

I always stayed within the sprit of the rules in the open division for adults to enter. The only modification to the rules were the use of axles and wheels from outside sources. The scout classes always stayed within the guidelines of using only the contents in the official kits.

 

[T-Town Mini]

Pinewood Derby Rules


1. All cars must pass inspection to qualify for the race.

Inspection points are as follows:

a. The car must have been made during the current school year.

b. The width of the car shall not exceed 2 ¾ inches.

c. The length of the car shall not exceed 7 inches.

d. The weight of the car shall not exceed 5 ounces.

e. Axles, wheels and body shall be as provided in the official B.S.A. kit.

f. Wheel bearings, washers and bushings are prohibited.

g. All wheel modifications including beveling and hubcaps are prohibited.

h. The car shall not ride on any kind or type of springs.

i. Any details added must be within length, width and weight limits.

j. The car must be freewheeling with no starting devices.

k. No loose materials of any kind are allowed in or on the car.

l. The car must be able to straddle a guide rail which is ¼ inch tall and 1 ½ inches wide.​

2. No one is allowed to touch the cars after final check-in except for race officials.

3. Lanes will be selected at random. The starters will make sure each car tracks properly when it's placed on the racetrack.

4. Winners of each race will be as determined by judges or electronic timer if available.

5. If a car leaves the racetrack; runs out of its lane; interferes with another car; loses an axle, etc. ...the heat will be rerun. If the same car gets into trouble on the second run the car is disqualified and automatically loses the race. If, on the second run, another car is interfered with the heat will be run a third time without the disqualified car.

6. Awards will be announced shortly after the race. Scouts should be available to report to the stage for their awards as their names are called.

7. Additional rules may be applied as deemed necessary by race promoters.