Recent content by firestone

Ugh... I'm thinking I may have screwed up the return shipping label... When I printed a shipping label to mail out the car, I just added another label to my USPS online order for the return but it has a ship date of 5/22, the latest possible date it would let me choose. Then I read something...

How do you pay to enter? I didn't see an online payment option. Just put a $10 bill in the box with the car?

If I recall correctly, the World Championship event in NYC has a similar rule, nail heads must be visible. I can't confirm because it seems all event info is gone from the GNYC Council website. But all it takes is a little hole drilled in the body to expose the tip of the nail. For districts...

My kid hates doing wheels and axles. But he likes winning so he does it. :D My mantra for PWD has always been that to win you need to put in the work, so he accepts that it's worth it to go through the hassle of doing some of the tasks that aren't his favorites. Our compromise is I hold the...

Quick question, probably an easy one: When I look at photos of ladder cars and cube weights, it seems that the weight is arranged so a little more is on one side of the car. I'm assuming this is to help steer into the rail, is that right? And is the idea that a little more weight on one side...

My Pack has a similar rule about using the pre-cut slots, but they allow us to fill the slots and re-drill them as long as the holes are in the slot locations. So technically the nails are in the slots, they're just positioned within the slots at an angle based on re-drilling. We also have a...

The thing I keep reading about is this fear that too much weight towards the back of the car could actually flip it or raise up the front wheels off the track. Seems highly unlikely to me, even if you went out of your way to get weight all the way to the back edge of the car. Has this actually...

Nice work. My 9 y/o will be attempting a similar style and technique starting this week, also using a Dremel as router. Good to see an example of it working out well.

We had the exact same problem. I didn't read the rules closely enough to even realize that it was a violation. It was surprising to me, considering that you can legally lathe the wheel tread, sand/smooth/polish the wheel tread, cant them so they don't ride flat, but if the edge of the wheel gets...

I'm noticing that many parents greatly underestimate what Cub-age kids can understand about physics and aerodynamics. Or that they can be taught anything related to physics at this age and actually retain it or use it. But just ask any kid who can build a good car how they did it. If they were...

Last heat. I didn't even think about whether there's a third kid in that family. At least if there is, they are probably a different age/rank, otherwise it would have been a 1-2-3 sweep this year. :)

The funny thing is that around here, everyone knows about and talks about the Rober video. Like at our derby check-in inspection night, you can literally walk around the room and hear people chatting about it. There really aren't any information secrets. And one of the parents complaining...

We were in NYC as well, same division, same rank. Some tough competition in spots #1 and #2, not sure that brother/sister duo can be beat. I've actually been debating whether I'd advise my son to switch to Pro Stock if he makes it back next year. Those stock winners actually would have beat the...

I think this is the crux of it, and why it's difficult for me to figure out the most diplomatic things to say in response to these complaints. Because an honest answer would be, "We're not changing the rules so you and your kid can be lazy and not put in any real time or effort and still have a...

We're hearing grumblings around our Pack of parents bothered by scouts who "win too much". In one den we have a scout who has won his den 3 years straight, another 2 years, etc. The comments we get aren't exactly complaints directly, but thinly veiled "suggestions" aimed at making things "more...