Pinewood Derby
- Thread starter Russe11
- Start date
Pete Whitstone
True Classic
No, but I did a top fuel dragster and an Indycar. Wish I had pictures of them. This was back when digital photography was the domain of the professional. The son I built them with turns 30 next week. :O
Pete
Pete
Brayden_connolly
True Classic
My first year of scouts I started making one... Unfortunately Mad Matt took the project over and I had to build another car. ...and we forgot to finish it.
dragonsgate
True Classic
Odie beat me to it. You could really shave the front down with the bulk of the weight in the back with the X design.
When my godson was in cub scouts I built a futuristic car for myself with the cab forward. It went down the track faster backwards than it did forward.
The one my godson built 90% by his self was faster than mine. My car was one of the slowest but none of them had cool blinking colored lights.
That happens a lot in PWD dragon. Placing the weight as far back as practical keeps it on the track's slope as long as possible. If you watch enough of the races (I have been a "track worker" on numerous occasions), you will start to notice the well made, rear weighted cars push ahead just as they exit off the slope. "Well made"as in lots of attention to detail on smoothing the nails used for axles and also de-burring the plastic wheels. I still some of my own Cub Scout PWD cars sitting around here somewhere. Here is my 1st that dad really built mostly. It was uncool in the looks department, but took 3rd IIRC. Wheels look a little banged up, but no rust!
Russe11
True Classic
Brayden, that's great. The inspiration behind it is clearly recognizable, even in unfinished state.
A conference I go to every few years has a Pine Wood Derby contest, as a fun after-hours event. They run two categories: Traditional and Unlimited. The 'Traditional' follows the scout regulations, and the 'Unlimited' just requires it to fit the track like the traditional cars, to use the same starting gate mechanism, and no open flames (i.e. model rocket engines, etc.) are allowed. Some of the entries have been pretty creative.
Honestly, I doubt I'll have time to build a car for it, but it sure would be fun to revisit that experience. If I do it, I'll style it like an X (and run in the traditional category). There may still be some PWD cars I built at my parents' house...
Thanks everyone for sharing your memories.
AKimball92
True Classic
A bit late but here is what I built, probably about the same time as this thread. I added a "Dallara" body kit to incorporate the wheels better.
