Bravo, Evan and Scampie! How’s about a “finished” pic o the car??
That’s OUTSTANDING!!! Not only did it look great, but it was fast too. Best of luck at the regionals.
Thanks again Mark. Yepper, the “Ninjago” ran pretty good. I asked Evan for a prediction for the regionals, he said “I’m gonna win with birthday luck.” So… he’s pulling out ALL the stops. 
Well, we’re going to the regionals this AM. Leaving in about an hour. 
Evan says “Wish me luck guys!” (He was going to type this, but chickened out…)
Well, it’s over. 9 packs from the western U.P. had their top 3 from ea. level of ea. pack show up… good lord there were a bunch of kids there. The concession stand sold pop and doughnuts. 
I think the av. kids blood glucose was 650 by the time the races started.
I knew something was wrong immediately, the speed of Evans car was WAaaaaay off. Of course, I couldnt look at it, it was impounded. On the 10th his car ran an average speed of 198.0 MPH. This mornings ave. speed was 194 flat. He ended up 3rd over all for his age group. After the races he was given his car. I looked at it… yep. You guessed it! Sometime after his car was impounded on the 10th of March it was dropped. The “head” had a good sized dent and fracture in the plastic and one of the wheels was seriously Effed up.
Of course, no one knew anything about it. 
The sad thing is, Evans car WOULD have won the whole thing. The Fastest car in his class was only 196.5 MPH.
Dang, Scampi…tough ole world. Bummer Evan had to suffer from it so soon. Here’s to “next year”, and the transforming Bumblebee you promised him…
I did NOT promise him a Transformer PWD car! 
Besides, I think I’m still “on the outside looking in” for next year.
Hmmmm…guess Uncle Three will just have to subtly MENTION it to him, then…
I’m so sorry to hear that. But it was beyond your control. I know that doesn’t make it any easier to take though.
Cough Pinewood derby cough
Anyone… anyone have anything going on? Anyone? With kids?
Will be posting this years update very soon. Both terrors are in scouts now so we’re deep into TWO builds. Derby is on 1/26.
I really miss this… Enjoy!
I loved doing this with my boys, but that was some years ago now. The first one I did with my oldest son, “Don’t have a picture of the car” Won hands down and even though the weight was right where it was supposed to be, they took a drill to it and drilled out the lead I put in the bottom in a few places. They were stunned when it still won every race. Knowing how to radios and polish the wheels, shafts and lubricants really helps.
Moving up to my youngest son, his was different. It used a CO2 cartridge to propel the thing down the track. The first problem was the clips that were to be put on the bottom for the staging area and I think something else, but they would catch or get hooked up on take off. That said, it was still the fastest, but because it took flight and left the track just before the end and shot across the room, it lost. It took some damage, but we patched it back together and even though he is now 22 years of age and a little one of his own, He still has it out on display. I wasn’t there for the race since it was during school hours, I would have loved to see the thing in action.
I really like the Ford truck and the others you have built with your boy’s. I hate that when these things are left unattended in classes and they get damaged or tampered with. Quite a disappointment for the little ones, ok, us too.
That thing looks wicked but it would NEVER pass tech in our Pack. “Left the track and was disqualified…” OMG
I just put the wheels on both vehicles this evening. All that is left is to add the final weight. Both cars are TOTALLY different in design but came in at 4.36 and 4.40 oz. I took some pics but it’s getting too late to resize them right now.
Coming soon I promise.
This wasn’t your standard pinewood derby, I will have to ask my son again what some of the details were for this car. We got some of the ideas from a University class that was doing some testing with this kind of car and aerodynamics. I didn’t think it would be a bad thing to use some of their ideas. 
I would think though with a CO2 canister stuck in the back of the thing would be pretty fast.
OK, some of my memory is coming back to me now. The car was to follow a wire that ran the length of the track and an eyelet screwed to the front and back of the car on the bottom. On the last and final run the two fastest cars, my son’s and another were to run and close to the end of the track the wire slipped out of the eyelets and the car left the track shooting back and forth for a while, around the back of the room, stopping once it hit a chair and damaging the car. If the wire would have stayed put, where it was supposed to be, he would have won.
Personally, I dont think Mark is involved in “the derb.” (Thats what the COOL kids call it, the derb.)
Thats JUST the kind of reverse Pa-sycology that’ll get him to post. :looks@watch:
Tripped the scale tonight at 4.99 OZ with the one and 5.01 with the other. Hopefully their scale won’t go to the hundreths position. Wiggle room to adjust on both. Pics soon I promise. Been underwater here this week so to speak…
All right. Finally had time to catch my breath this week. So here we are. This is Junior’s. He wanted to do a stock car but we went old school with a dirt track “jalopy” style racer. The engine was taken from the truck kit we used for the body panels on last year’s Effie. We’re hoping it runs pretty good too. Won’t know until tomorrow. Also, I couldn’t resist the urge to give the shop a plug. 
This is Little Brother’s. It’s the first year we had to build two cars. Weight was the biggest battle on this build. The entire underside is hollowed out and the body is as thin as balsa wood. I really have no clue how this one is going to run. We’re hoping for the “design” award with this one for the most part.
I know there are a lot of Derbies across the country this weekend. BEST OF LUCK to all competing. Post up and let us know how you fared.
This is definitely using you imagination, This should take an award for sure, I would think.
Oh and the dirt track “jalopy” I really like that.