2017 World Championship Pinewood Derby, Times Square, New York City
- Thread starter Gso125 Racing
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- new york city
My wolf and I will be there! Good luck!
From upstate NY, so it's a pretty easy trip. We just set the steering tonight. Car's officially done! Pic attached.
First year in scouts, but my son had so much interest and fun with Pinewood Derby that we're hoping to get into mid-america racing next.
For the NYC build, we used all the DD4H gear and tips from this board, so I'm hoping that we're competitive there. First time using fenders, routed-out body, tungsten cubes, vinyl...learned a lot.
From upstate NY, so it's a pretty easy trip. We just set the steering tonight. Car's officially done! Pic attached.
First year in scouts, but my son had so much interest and fun with Pinewood Derby that we're hoping to get into mid-america racing next.
For the NYC build, we used all the DD4H gear and tips from this board, so I'm hoping that we're competitive there. First time using fenders, routed-out body, tungsten cubes, vinyl...learned a lot.
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We built 3 cars this year. Pics attached.
"Soccer ball" car won the local pack, den and overall. Straight axles and drilled axle holes, canopy weight.
"Wolf" car won wolf den at districts. First attempt to cant the rears with bent axles...won't do that again. 2nd place overall in district. Lost in a single-run championship race, by half an inch (times weren't posted).
"50 Stars" car (yes...we punched out and stuck-on 50 of those little buggers) will be the NYC car. SB jig for canting, awesome tool.
In full disclosure, we raced outside of Scouts for the last 5 years. Derby enthusiast brought a BestTrack to an overseas engineering camp. Perfect storm of engineering geekiness, spare time, plenty of resources, and a tight-knit community. It got real competitive, real quick. Great time.
"Soccer ball" car won the local pack, den and overall. Straight axles and drilled axle holes, canopy weight.
"Wolf" car won wolf den at districts. First attempt to cant the rears with bent axles...won't do that again. 2nd place overall in district. Lost in a single-run championship race, by half an inch (times weren't posted).
"50 Stars" car (yes...we punched out and stuck-on 50 of those little buggers) will be the NYC car. SB jig for canting, awesome tool.
In full disclosure, we raced outside of Scouts for the last 5 years. Derby enthusiast brought a BestTrack to an overseas engineering camp. Perfect storm of engineering geekiness, spare time, plenty of resources, and a tight-knit community. It got real competitive, real quick. Great time.
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If they would just fix the rule issues it could be a great event. I would love to come one year.
The wheel rules can cause confusion. Says they are legal one way then later changes under each classification. 4 wheel touching rule will ALWAYS be an issue. Too much room for tech in shenanigans.
I'm using the "Pro Stock Division" rules and their wheel spec diagram...hopefully this trumps anything else. I'd change a few lines.
https://www.bsa-gnyc.org/files/1576/Official-Rules
The "Stock Car Division" rules aren't as clean, with the 4-on-the-floor stuff. I could see some interpretation issues here during check-in.
https://www.bsa-gnyc.org/files/1576/Official-Rules
The "Stock Car Division" rules aren't as clean, with the 4-on-the-floor stuff. I could see some interpretation issues here during check-in.
That wheel diagram actually provides more info than the text. I agree the rules could have been written a bit more clearly, however they are more detailed and strict than last years. More important it will be to see how far they enforce those rules.
Esp the graphite only rule, running on oil would give a big advantage esp with 8 runs, and if they hold it outside, I cannot imagine the high humidity being kind to graphite. Did anyone drill those peek holes to check for the axle heads? We don't have them since drilling those would risk weakening our car quite a bit.
By the way, those are some very nice looking cars, we never go for white since we never keep them that clean when applying the graphite, even when we use a needle applicator (we have one that fits on the DD4H graphite bottle).
The axle peek holes are a pain in the rear (pun intended!). We put them in. First time, not thrilled about 'em.
I'd be pretty bummed if they don't enforce that rule. But I'm sure people will show up on race day without them, and it would be really hard for someone to try and create axle viewing holes on their car in the middle of Times Square...
The vinyl skin is really pretty nice to just wipe down after applying graphite. Q-tip for the tight spots. We couldn't really get all the graphite off the fenders, so we ended up using vinyl to cover the trailing fenders. Close enough.
I'd be pretty bummed if they don't enforce that rule. But I'm sure people will show up on race day without them, and it would be really hard for someone to try and create axle viewing holes on their car in the middle of Times Square...
The vinyl skin is really pretty nice to just wipe down after applying graphite. Q-tip for the tight spots. We couldn't really get all the graphite off the fenders, so we ended up using vinyl to cover the trailing fenders. Close enough.
Yeah we don't have the holes (sorry about that) if they want I will pull an axle. I just found at about this race 2 weeks ago and I just didn't want to destroy our car for these holes. I was also a bit surprised by this rule. I interpreted the 'should' in the rule as an advice and not a must. I am actually wondering how I would put in a solid axle with canted wheels.
Yes a vinyl wrap sounds nice, better than messing with all the paint. Maybe next year we will go this way.
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All good! We have to get DD4H to invent a "canted solid axle"...he'd figure it out!
That's hilarious, I've been PM'ing with another guy and I said that I'd like them to remove the "should" verbiage from the rules completely. I thought I was the only one to notice. "Shall" or "must" are the only terms that I usually equate with rules. "Should" and similar terms are considered to be guidelines!
That's hilarious, I've been PM'ing with another guy and I said that I'd like them to remove the "should" verbiage from the rules completely. I thought I was the only one to notice. "Shall" or "must" are the only terms that I usually equate with rules. "Should" and similar terms are considered to be guidelines!
Lucky the other specifications are less unambiguous, for the pro stock division that is.
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