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 […]

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 […]

So you’ve got the car shaped, sanded, and painted and you’re getting ready to install the wheels. You know they need to go straight. You know they need to be able to turn freely. But did you know that you should install one of them differently than the others? Your car will be faster if one […]

Stan Pope has put together a great way to test different wheel and axle configurations without the need for a track or even a car. Got an idea for a new lube you’d like to test? Or wonder what would happen if you installed the wheels at an angle? This rig will do it accurately. Wheels […]

It sounds like common sense, but every year I see cars that don’t fit on the track. In order for your car to race, it needs to be able to roll down the track. If there isn’t enough ground clearance between the guide rail and your car, your car will scrape the rail and slow […]

When you build your car, make sure there’s enough clearance between the wheels and the body that the wheels can freely spin. If you tighten the axles too much, your wheels won’t be able to spin without making contact with both the car body and the axle hub. Don’t make those wheels too loose, though. If […]

If you’ve read the tips here and elsewhere you know if your weight should go in the front or the back. You know you should keep the weight low. But I’ve seen plenty of cars that meet these criteria but still don’t have the best weight placement. Lots of people weight their cars with those non-lead […]

One easy way to reduce friction between the car body and the wheels is to give the car body a slick, glassy finish on that area. I do this by adding a couple of coats of clear nail polish around each axle hole and then polishing it with my polishing compound.