Pine Wood Derby Cars

[illeagle10]

Hi All!

These are a couple of the things that have kept me away from following up on my own builds on this board.  While not actually Indycars, I guess you can call them open wheel!  LOL!  My grandsons are involved with Bible Club and one of the things they have going there is a Pinewood Derby Gran Prix.  They asked me to help them build their cars for the race which is today, April 23rd!  So I hope I didn't build them a couple of duds!! 

I really did not know all of the technical advantages that can be built into these type of cars!  When I was younger and in Boy Scouts, I just carved the block of wood they gave me and tacked on the wheels.  No wonder I never won anything!  Man, I did not realize all the things you can do to make these cars go fast!  Fortunately we have the internet to help us build fast cars!  You can do so many things, like adding graphite to the axles, toeing in the rear wheels by bending the axles(the nails that holds the wheels on), polishing the axles, only having three wheels touch the ground and toeing out the front wheel that touches the ground.  These are just a few things to make them go faster!

My oldest grandson is a Seattle Seahawks fan, I guess you couldn't tell by the paint job.  LOL!  My younger grandson loves hot rods and attends a lot of the car cruises we go to.  While not as aerodynamic, he is quite happy with the outcome, as well as my older grandson.  I will let you know how we do today.  Hopefully we'll have some good results for a bunch of rookies!

Jim

[Dan Belcher]

Those look great! A far cry from my pinewood derby car I built with my dad when I was a kid. I carved a wedge nose and a rounded rear end into the block of wood they gave us, spray painted it red, slapped some stickers and wheels on it, and that's about it. I did respectably well in the races, but definitely didn't win. We had added some weights to get it to legal max weight according to a postal scale, only to have to remove one of the weights on race day because their scale was calibrated differently than the one we checked it on and it failed inspection. Oops!

[illeagle10]

Well my guys did a great job after a long day of eliminations! It was funny watching them on edge, they are very competitive! Of 45 cars they ended up 2nd and 4th. I am glad their cars weren't a couple of duds! I know I might be a little bias, but they are a couple of great kids!


Jim

[MikeB]

Love it !!!!!

[illeagle10]

Thanks Mike, it was a lot of fun! Hopefully now I can get back to some modeling!

Jim

[illeagle10]

I can’t believe it is almost another year already! I was enlisted again by my grandsons to help them build their Pinewood Derby cars for their Bible Club Pinewood Derby Gran Prix. It came a little earlier this year compared to last year, so as always we needed to push through and “get’r done!” Last year the Bible Club Gran Prix was held in April, this year it was in February, just this past Saturday.

We’ve been on a large learning curve with building these cars this year, we've learned that the best shape for a pinewood derby car is the wedge shape. However, we could not convince my grandsons to build a wedge shaped car. I thought of the litany of wedge shaped Indycars over the years. Of course the first one that came to mind was 1968 Lotus 56B STP Turbine. However, my grandsons weren’t having any of it. To my disappointment they did not chose an Indycar! So I ended up helping my older grandson build an Alex Bowman Ally Camaro and for my younger grandson a Don “The Snake” Prudhomme Barracuda Funnycar.


After speaking with another father, he stated he had the same problem he wanted to build his son a wedge car but instead his son wanted a pickup truck and that’s what he built his son!

Well after a full morning of eliminations of 42 cars and 15 rounds of competition my oldest grandson won the whole “shebang!” My younger one ended up seventh.


I guess the whole wedge thing didn’t matter; it seemed more likely that for their age it was more how the cars are set up! For my younger grandson it seemed like his setup seemed to go away as the races went on. Unfortunately there are no “pit stops” in this competition; you are unable to adjust the cars as you go. You are not allowed to work on your cars once the race begins. When the Gran Prix was over we found out that we were right, his right axle was out of adjustment and moved back into a neutral position causing his car to weave. Lesson learned! Next year once we have the set up correct, we are going to put drop of super glue on the axle of both cars.

Of course I could not let things alone, I just had to find out if a wedge shape was better! So, I built a car for myself. A 1968 Lotus 56b STP Turbine!



After the Bible Club Gran Prix was over, we were able to run our cars down the track for fun. When testing the turbine I immediately had the same problem as my youngest grandson! I was able to adjust the right front axle and MAN! Did that car fly! My older grandson wants to build a wedge car for next year! My younger one, not so much………..go figure?

[MikeB]

This is so AWESOME!!!!

[illeagle10]

Thanks Mike! It is so much fun to do this with them! It's funny how on edge they are the night before and all the way up to the end! It's also amazing the science that goes into these things. I never won when I was in Boy Scouts, of course I hadn't realized what was needed to do to compete! I didn't have the internet back then. LOL! It's a great time for all of us, it's a shame that it only comes once a year.

Jim

[MikeB]

Feb 21, 2023 13:25:31 GMT -5 illeagle10 said:

Thanks Mike! It is so much fun to do this with them! It's funny how on edge they are the night before and all the way up to the end! It's also amazing the science that goes into these things. I never won when I was in Boy Scouts, of course I hadn't realized what was needed to do to compete! I didn't have the internet back then. LOL! It's a great time for all of us, it's a shame that it only comes once a year.

Jim

You should get together with some people and try to organize like a monthly race 

I bet it would be a ton of fun for all 

[illeagle10]

Feb 21, 2023 15:09:59 GMT -5 MikeB said:

Feb 21, 2023 13:25:31 GMT -5 illeagle10 said:

Thanks Mike! It is so much fun to do this with them! It's funny how on edge they are the night before and all the way up to the end! It's also amazing the science that goes into these things. I never won when I was in Boy Scouts, of course I hadn't realized what was needed to do to compete! I didn't have the internet back then. LOL! It's a great time for all of us, it's a shame that it only comes once a year.

Jim

You should get together with some people and try to organize like a monthly race 

I bet it would be a ton of fun for all 

I know a lot of the dad's want to start a competition for themselves!  I would just like to get back to modeling myself.  That's why I am looking for respirators for kids.  I would like to start teaching my grandsons how to spray paint! 

Jim

[tonyk]

Very cool looking cars you have there. I built a wedge car way back when but it was during that era so was the thing to do. We had a pickup theme one year so most everyone did that. My trick was a hollowed out area with bb's added and I could add or take out some when they weighed me in.

We had a parents class when I became a scout leader when my kid was in scouts and that was a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing and bringing back some memories for me.

[Chris Hale]

Jim, I had a fellow employee ask me to do a car for his sons competition so I did some research carved out a Tear Drop shaped car, painted it with House of Kolor, polished it , waxed it until it was so slippery you couldnt hold it. So he took it to the competition and it ran second all day long. When the deal was over the kid put it on the track backwards and nothing could touch it!!!!! I had told him the wide end was the front and that should have been right but I guess in that world the skinny end cuts the air better and the wide end uses the rear weight to push it down..so much for Theory!! LOL Chris Ps. I did enjoy making the little jewel for him so it was well worth it..

[illeagle10]

Mar 20, 2023 21:18:04 GMT -5 Chris Hale said:

Jim, I had a fellow employee ask me to do a car for his sons competition so I did some research carved out a Tear Drop shaped car, painted it with House of Kolor, polished it , waxed it until it was so slippery you couldnt hold it. So he took it to the competition and it ran second all day long. When the deal was over the kid put it on the track backwards and nothing could touch it!!!!! I had told him the wide end was the front and that should have been right but I guess in that world the skinny end cuts the air better and the wide end uses the rear weight to push it down..so much for Theory!! LOL Chris Ps. I did enjoy making the little jewel for him so it was well worth it..

Chris,

It is like everything else, this "sport" has become so technical from when I was a kid!  Just the work on the wheels and axles alone can make a huge difference on how the car runs.  Then add the correct weight distribution to the car and that will make a huge jump again.  Finally adding the correct aerodynamics to the car and you got one pretty slick car.  It almost sounds like the progression of Indy cars! I am now seeing air deflectors in front of the wheels to help with the air flow over the wheels.  Some pro cars are in the area of running scale speeds at 215 to 220 mph!  I don't think that we are there yet, but we are constantly learning.  I know many of the other fathers are always asking what we are doing to our cars to make them fast.  Unfortunately I can't keep a secret and makes the competition all that much harder.  However, we do like the competition!  We all enjoy the  look on the faces for the kids when they are competing!

Jim