Chevy & GMC Vans

OK, technically it was my daughter's first Pine Wood Derby... with her Girl Scout Troop.

My wife had the car kit for a couple of weeks, but I didn't open the box until last Wednesday. Hmm, a 7" block of wood, four plastic tires and four nails for axles.

Thursday I got to work... as weigh-in was Friday night from 6-8pm. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! I traced out a profile design and waited until my daughter got home to approve it. She did, so I cut it out using a Dremel table-mounted scroll saw. I then fired up my table saw and sliced off a 1/4 of scrap material to make a fin. Wood glue in hand, I attached the fin to the body and allowed it to dry overnight.

On Friday I had a lot of rounding and sanding to do. Then I had to drill some holes in the bottom to add weight. (I used screws with washers, allowing me to fine-tune by adding/removing washters.) Of course I had other things to do too and didn't really get it ready for paint until around 3pm. A few coats of primer and some time in the oven to dry it... followed by a couple of coats of paint and more time in the oven. I was pounding the axles in at 6pm.







We went to the Selah Civic Center to weigh-in at about 7:30pm. No sweat on the weigh-in... well, we were way under weight. The max weight... and target... is 5 oz. We came in at 4.3 oz. I had bought a cheap kitchen scale and found (online) that 5 quarters weigh 1 oz. So using 25 quarters, I calibrated the scale. But because I didn't trust it, and didn't know how much weight the paint might add, and maybe most importantly being rushed, I decided to err on the light side. The car was then 'impounded' until the race on Sunday at 4pm.

We arrived on Sunday for the race and discovered there were 60 entries. All girls! (After the girls finished up, there was an 'open' class for siblings and parents.) Racing started about 4:10pm and didn't finish up until 5:20 or so when trophies were handed out.

How'd I... err... my daughter do? Nothing to brag about. Every car raced 4 times and the field was cut down to the fastest 20 or so cars. We did get into that group. I never figured out what our final standing was, but I may be able to later. In the heat races, we never came in better than 3rd. We had a couple of 4th finishes too. (Standing was determined by averaging times and not placing.) But considering the amount of time put into this car, I thought we did all right. Next year we'll have a car that weights exactly 5 oz and I'll follow some of the tricks I found while researching on the internet. I'm thinking the design will be along the lines of a 60s Indy racer...

Lining up for one of the heat races.


The purple blur at the finish line is Ryan's coming in 3rd.


They had a small run out to stop on. The kid picking up cars was so quick I usually didn't get a pic before Ryan's was gone!


The car owner's info and results were projected up on the wall. Pretty professional set-up.


Click the pic for a little live action!

Wow, The Flashback memories...

Thanks Matt

Jim

Very cool, all kids should get to do this stuff

I remember those cars. We never had a weight limit when I was a scout so we filled the car with molten lead. The car was slow off the line but had huge speed at the end. Unfortunatly my car had so much momentum it blew off the end of the track and smashed the wheels on landing.

Is there a size limit on how small the body can be? I would shave it as low as possible and then lead weight the heck out of it to get up to max weight.

Very cool, Matt. My sons did the pine wood and now my grandson does it.

Kidhauler wrote: Is there a size limit on how small the body can be? I would shave it as low as possible and then lead weight the heck out of it to get up to max weight.

I'm sure there are some experts out there... and I'm not one... but from watching the cars that raced, there doesn't seem to be a minimum height or width and the length has to be 7". There is a max width and a max wheel width. (Since I wasn't 100% sure on how small I could go, I made sure that I maintained the length, height and width of the stock block at some points on the body.)

The fastest/winner was very flat looking and ony about 1/2" tall. While that may be within the rules and the fastest, it lacks character and I would never build anything like that. Gotta have some style.

pinewood derby was a blast. I still have all my pinewood derby cars, as well as my dad's. my cars always placed mid pack but looked so cool doing it. my cars placed in the top 3 in either craftsmanship or design 3 of the 5 years I did pinewood derby.
btw if you shave the wheels so they ride on the inside edge of the tire, the car goes faster.