Looking for some design inspiration? The Columbus Society of Communicating Arts holds a pinewood derby each year as a fundraiser. As you might expect from a group of graphic designers and other creative pros, there’s some great car designs.
For pictures from last year’s race, see the “2008 CSCA Pinewood Derby” set on Flickr.
Some military personnel held a pinewood derby in Iraq and posted the pictures from it. The track is fairly decent and some of the cars are amazing. I wonder where they got all the materials and kits?
I constantly hear from dads who remember from high school physics classes that mass doesn’t affect the rate at which something falls. If dropped in a vacuum, a bowling ball and a feather fall at exactly the same speed, so the same should be true of a Pinewood Derby car as well, right? If this logic holds up, a three ounce car should be just as fast as a five ounce car.
The problem with this logic is twofold. We’re not just testing the rate at which something falls; on most tracks, half the track is sloped and half is flat. And we aren’t running in a vacuum; there’s lots of friction involved.
It’s important to make sure your car is exactly 5 ounces on race day. But I’d suggest keeping it slightly underweight until you get to the race. It’s always easier to add weight than it is to remove it.
Last year our Scout District race was held outside on a car lot in April. Almost every car that showed up was weighing in at 5.1 ounces — a tenth of an ounce too heavy. One disgruntled father set out to prove that our scale was wrong and produced a 5 ounce brass tare weight. We put the weight on the scale and it came in at exactly 5 ounces. The scale was right, all the cars were too heavy.
Every one of these cars had raced previously in their Pack races. Were the scales at all the other races wrong? Had everyone added weight between races? Why were they coming in so heavy?
Other leaders and race organizers often ask me why a boy would need to modify the parts that come with their kit. Other than to gain an unfair advantage, why would someone lathe their wheels, change the axle slot location, or buy replacement axles? Wouldn’t it be best if everyone were using the exact same […]
I’ve seen race rules that are 3 pages long and set in small type. They cover wheel location, building materials, lubrication, sportsmanship, and even list allowable construction methods. This is madness. All this complexity is going to lead to mistakes, arguments, and more problems than you would believe. When creating complicated rule sets, people tend to create […]
Are you putting together a Pinewood Derby race? Charged with assembling a set of rules? You might be wanting to create a bunch of rules designed to ensure with absolute certainty that the kids will build the cars, not the dads. You want to prohibit springs, shaped wheels, changing axle locations, and exotic lubricants. You […]
I’ve put together a store of Pinewood Derby supplies, tools, and resources using Amazon.com. I haven’t tried everything in the store, but I’m carefully adding things that get good reviews or have great specs. When I’ve tried an item, I’ll write a short review in the product description. When you buy one of the items […]
I’ve seen cars shaped like pencils before, but this is the best one I’ve seen so far. (From a mom blogger) I love the shiny metal band and the use of the number sticker from the BSA kit to add the #2 to the pencil. The way the wheels are attached and the rough carving at […]