It’s Race Day People!

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 01/12/2019 at 07:51 • Filed to: pinewood derby

12

17

My daughter’s first Pine Wood Derby as a Cub Scout. In her words, “I want the big trophy”. We will see how it goes. She did a lot of the work. I cut the shape since scouts can’t use power saws, but she sanded and painted it, smoothed the axles and wheels, put in the weights and tail. I mounted the wheels to the car. My son won a couple of times as a cub, so my daughter, who is pretty competitive wants to as well.

Edit: she came in 4th out of 50. 0.021 sec behind first.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 08:03

6

i want the big trophy

you raised that one right 

Tekamul > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 08:41

1

Ah yes. This is my first year in almost a decade not doing the derby. Good luck!

E92M3 > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 09:13

2

I think a lot of cub scouts look forward to race day more than any other day. For me it was pinewood derby day, and “ shoot ing bb guns" day being a close second.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 09:23

2

Hell yeah!!! I wish her the best of luck!!!

ranwhenparked > E92M3 01/12/2019 at 09:25

2

As a former Boy Scout professional in charge of Cub Scout programming, can confirm. We could never have enough bb guns.

The sad thing though, is when you see a dad bring in a Pinewood Derby car in a foam packed Tupperware container and slap his kid's hand when the kid reaches over to take the car out. 

f86sabre > E92M3 01/12/2019 at 10:10

0

You have the order right. My daughter decided to do Cub Scouts instead of Girl Scouts based on being able to do stuff like this. 

f86sabre > ranwhenparked 01/12/2019 at 10:14

0

We’ve had a few of those. Not too many this year. We had a dad protest my son’s car a few years ago. It was fast, but clearly built by a scout. The other dad’s car looked like it spent a month in the Ferrari wind tunnel and was painted by Rolls Royce. 

shop-teacher > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 10:21

0

Awesome!

My daughter took third in the raingutter regatta in the fall in her first competition of any kind. She seems to think she'll win a medal every time now ... Sooooo ....

ranwhenparked > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 10:25

1

I remember one district I was in where one kid won every year during his entire time in Cubs. Turned out his dad was a Boeing engineer, but he wasn't really doing anything crazy, just really, really careful fine tuning that anyone could do with enough patience. Didn't stop complaints from coming in though.

Rainbow > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 10:41

1

Cute! Best I ever did was 4 th place. I got disqualified because my wheel fell off, and I was so upset because I won the semi final   race on 3 wheels, but then the car got screwed up when I was forced to fix   it.

Rainbow > ranwhenparked 01/12/2019 at 10:46

2

My dad always put graphite on my axles for me and made me keep the car in a box, but I was in charge of actually putting everything together. I remember other kids just nonchalantly saying that their dad built their car, and then I’d be like.... where’s the fun in tha t?

ttyymmnn > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 11:15

0

My ste p father, who said he was an engineer but got fired from his job for not actually being one, took over my car and did all of it. I came in last place in every race and won the Square Wheel Award. Is that still a thing?

ttyymmnn > ranwhenparked 01/12/2019 at 11:16

1

It’s my understanding that success at PWD has nothing to do with aero and everything to do with lack of friction at the wheels.

ranwhenparked > ttyymmnn 01/12/2019 at 11:17

2

That, and making sure the track is perfectly straight and the axles don't wobble around.

Grindintosecond > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 11:23

0

Loved it. That was my only reason for scouts was pinewood. Camping? When do we race the derby? B eing humanitarian? Whatever, when do we race? I was always trying to think of what next to race. But scouts was over when i had my genius plan.......

It was all Science!!

Putting front and rear wheels as far back as you can keeps it on the hill for 2 or 3 more inches of accel than anyone else. Weight on rear axle has same effect. Long nose for the win! And scouts was over before i could get my dad or anyone elses dad to cut it.

412GTI > f86sabre 01/12/2019 at 11:30

1

That’s awesome to hear your daughter wanted to do the fun things in Cub Scouts! Great bonding time for you two.

I have very fond memories of pinewood derby races. It was obviously my favorite thing in Cub Scouts since I’ve always been into cars. Our one car, a“350Z”, was the faster overall the one year and my dad and I have no idea why. We just tried to make it look like a Z and had no knowledge how to make them fast. Good times.  

oldmxer > f86sabre 01/14/2019 at 23:33

0

wind resistance does play a part, every one of the top cars in our part of the world were basically just enuf wood left to hold the weights and axles with sharp noses