Pinewood Derby/AWANA Grand Prix pics needed.

In the 3rd year of Pinewood Derby we finally won in our local area. We bought a kit that came with 'lead worms' to get the weight (use an accurate scale). Used a wedge shape, drilled holes in the back for the lead (majority of weight over the rear wheels). My son spent hours at the drill press polishing the axels. We tapered the wheels to the minimum contact surface you could run. One front axel was raised so only 3 wheels contacted the track for less resistance (play with front axel to get it to go straight on 3 wheels - good straight no toe in or out rear wheel alignment too). They used to allow hubcaps and we filled the back side of the caps with a special graphite lube that came in the kit. We had it down pretty good the second year too but somebody brought a track with some raised areas (hills) on the track and the car jumped the track, hit a steel folding chair and broke the front wheels (boo hoo). Now my son is 28, a petroleum engineer in LA making more money than the old man (but he can't afford a house).

 

ones, my daughter and i made for the Hells Belles pinewood derby race last summer in SF. It was a blast and we'll do it again next summer!

too much fun

 

Definately polish the axles...mirror finish works quite well. We also used to sand the tires and then polish them too. Also do not try to raise the axles and lower the car to the track surface.....we tried it one year and the damn car dragged the track halfway down...it was the only race we lost in 2 years! (they allowed us to reposition the wheels after it drug)

 

My daughter's AWANA winner. She designed the shape and applied the paint- she likes purple.

 

This is too funny - I just found my old cars and gave them to my kids to play with - they look like ass in comparison to yours, so no pics - but GREAT timing!

 

Here's one I built about 4 years ago. I modeled it after the Hilborn streamliner.

 

heres mine

 

This was built for the parent's races/exhibition so I built it for fun. They threw out the rules in that class so anything was allowed. I chucked the wheels in my cordless drill and 'lathed' them down with a file and chisel.

I took photocopies of the Hilborn streamliner from a Rodder's Journal article and scaled them to match the actual size of the wheels from the pinewood kit. Then I cut out the copies, made some side and front view templates and cut the block to shape. The wheelbase is scaled to the pictures of the Hilborn car so it was cut down from the pinewood standard wheelbase. The exhaust pipes are some heavy wire rod I had bent to shape, sanded down to 1500 grit and clear lacquered.

I lost all the races but it was one of the best looking cars in the class. I was pleased with the way it came out and it's on a shelf in my office.

 

I think I've posted these before, but here they are anyway. The purple full bodied FED and the streamliner (one wheel is broken off) were my dads. The the grouped together were mine. The last year I was in scouts we both did sprint cars. Dad's is the yellow one, mine is the red.

 

Awesome !!! That is gonna be soo cool.

 

We had our race tonight

We absolutely smoked everyone so badly, I felt kind of guilty.

My son's car ran in 8 heats, 2 finals and the championship.

It's a 4 lane track and he came in first every single time.

The other decent cars were running 3.20-3.25 slower cars were just under 4.00
My son's car was doing 3.08-3.10's That's about 2 feet at the end of the track

Last year we also won the district wide championship.

I'll post some pictures in a few days, but let me know if you want any speed tips.