Mysteries of the Pinewood Derby
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 04:54PM 
My son has competed in three Pinewood Derby’s and I can’t figure out how to win. The first year we gave it a good effort. We probably invested 10 hours worth of work and $10 in paint and graphite.
In the second year, I was given some tips from the prior year’s champion. We visited a website dealing with building a championship car. I bought 4 blank cars so we could afford to make a mistake or two.My thoughts were to build a car with my son using my car as the example. I would draw and cut my car.Then I would let him draw his car and let him cut. I would drill holes for weights, and then he would drill holes for weight. You get the picture.
Not only did we buy 4 blank cars, but I learned that the kitchen scale is highly inaccurate. We had to do some heavy adjustments the night before in the first year. That was not going to happen again so I bought the recommended scale from the Boy Scout Store. I think it was about $70, but it was precise. I had learned the importance of filing / sanding the axles. This is sanding down to 3000 grit sandpaper. I learned to use tungsten weights, which I believe were developed by the Department of Defense. Very expensive compared to year one with lead plates weglued on to the car. Then we primed the car and put about 5 coats of paint topped by a coat of clear gloss.
The car was weighed constantly to ensure that we would not exceed the legal limit. After building the body, drilling and inserting the weights, sanding the axels, and tire hubs, we were ready to assemble. We put the car together and did our best to align the wheels, apply decals, and weigh the car again. We almost considered taking it to Lockheed to use the wind tunnel.
We had about $150 worth of gear which included: 4 blank bodies, a scale which was REALLY expensive, special sandpaper for the axles, which was very expensive as well. Tungsten weights are calculated by the gold standards, I think. We had enough graphite to build the next space shuttle. Axle kits, tire alignment tools, paint, gloss, decals etc… We looked like a NASCAR pit crew with all the tools. We had about 10-15 hours of labor combined with $150 dollars worth of gear, and we were ready to win.
Our car failed miserably…we had major alignment issues.
This year we built 2 cars. We also had a left over body from the prior year, so we used that as our practice car. It was ugly.We practiced our drilling and sanding on the “Duke Blue Devil” car. We never used any glue and we pushed the wheels in with nails. It had no decals except for a white # 7. On qualify night we weighed in our two cars and brought the “Duke Blue Devil” car along because we did use it as a test car. I let my son weigh and test all 3 cars.He chose the “Duke Blue Devil” car.I asked him if he was sure about his decision. He confirmed it.
A car with nothing fancy, glued on plates, pushed in axles and wheels (no glue) WON THE FASTEST WEBELO CAR along with 2nd Fastest in the pack! At scale, the car averaged 166 mph! I still can’t figure out how the “test car” won…. regardless, it won. Dads, try not to get to crazy….. Enjoy the time with your son and remember some kid is going to show up with a “Duke Blue Devil” car, and beat your NASA Engineered and approved Pinewood Derby Car.
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