Building a scout car outside of the Northern Star Council

[Crash Enburn]

Yeah. What K said.

From what you wrote of your plans, and what the rules said, I don't see any cause for DQ. What was the claim?

 

[CivilWarTalk]

It's probably one of the gray areas like cutting the rear and adding it to the front. I would be very upset if our council had post race inspections, they should be catching these issues before the race. Isn't that the point of the pre-race inspection?

Frustration-tastic, I've got similar issues at my District, I have inspection tomorrow for our district race, the rules specifically state you can't use parts from more than one PWD kit, so I emailed the chairman of the committee to ask if I can get a waiver to use a 2nd set of wheels to create my sons 8 wheel tank car. He approved that waiver, but I still have to sit through inspection on Friday night and pray they accept it.

It's like they created an unenforceable rule to stop racers from finding blocks with straight slots, and straight axles, and the rule stomps on my kids creativity. Let the kids race dangit!

It's too bad the National BSA can't issue guidelines to the Councils to issue PWD rules a certain way nationally, but I'm sure whatever they came up with would be a travesty of gray areas too....

Maybe the League should write up a petition to send to the National Council to use the Mid-America Rules as a National Gold Standard for PWD, and force these Councils to get with the program.

 

[B_Regal Racing]

Allow box stock rules, at minimum.

 

[LightninBoy]

It's probably one of the gray areas like cutting the rear and adding it to the front. I would be very upset if our council had post race inspections, they should be catching these issues before the race. Isn't that the point of the pre-race inspection?

Yeah, I was NOT happy. I wasn't there, so I couldn't argue the case.

There were two issues. One was pretty objective and we had a plan for that. The other was a result of a completely subjective rule.

The objective issue was that I bent the DFW axle. The rule's state that the axles could be polished, but no other mods were allowed. However, their rules linked to a video that talked about bending axles and setting steer ... so I thought I'd bend them but have a straight axle to swap in if it was flagged during check in. As it turns out, they were not flagged during check in and the cars raced with the bent axles.

The other issues all related to this rule:

All cars must be built using the kit provided, this includes the Pinewood block, axles, and wheels. With the exception of decorative and construction items (weights, glue, lubricants, finishing materials, artistic additions), only materials from the official kit may be used!

This rule, though very subjective, was strictly enforced. So, for example, I cut out the pine body and filled in with balsa. The balsa was flagged (after the race), because it wasn't in the kit. I would've argued its a construction item, but again, I wasn't there to argue and point out how ridiculous subjective these terms are.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Yeah, I was NOT happy. I wasn't there, so I couldn't argue the case.

There were two issues. One was pretty objective and we had a plan for that. The other was a result of a completely subjective rule.

The objective issue was that I bent the DFW axle. The rule's state that the axles could be polished, but no other mods were allowed. However, their rules linked to a video that talked about bending axles and setting steer ... so I thought I'd bend them but have a straight axle to swap in if it was flagged during check in. As it turns out, they were not flagged during check in and the cars raced with the bent axles.

The other issues all related to this rule:

All cars must be built using the kit provided, this includes the Pinewood block, axles, and wheels. With the exception of decorative and construction items (weights, glue, lubricants, finishing materials, artistic additions), only materials from the official kit may be used!

This rule, though very subjective, was strictly enforced. So, for example, I cut out the pine body and filled in with balsa. The balsa was flagged (after the race), because it wasn't in the kit. I would've argued its a construction item, but again, I wasn't there to argue and point out how ridiculous subjective these terms are.

OMG! I can't believe that! If both of those issues were not discovered in pre race inspection it's on them that you made it on track and won...

Thank goodness for league racing.

 

[LightninBoy]

OMG! I can't believe that! If both of those issues were not discovered in pre race inspection it's on them that you made it on track and won... Thank goodness for league racing.

And thank goodness for the Northern Star Council rules.

 

[Crash Enburn]

OMG! I can't believe that! If both of those issues were not discovered in pre race inspection it's on them that you made it on track and won... Thank goodness for league racing.

Meh. I agree with that statement as regards the balsa. Really, as long as the chassis is made of wood, should we really care?

The axles, however, were clearly in violation of the rules, regardless of the fact that they referenced a video in which bending axles was shown.

 

[LightninBoy]

Meh. I agree with that statement as regards the balsa. Really, as long as the chassis is made of wood, should we really care?

The axles, however, were clearly in violation of the rules, regardless of the fact that they referenced a video in which bending axles was shown.

My only gripe about the axles is that they should have been flagged during pre-inspection. The rules spoke of a thorough check in and inspection process. I wasn't trying to sneak anything in. Had I been there I probably would have pointed it out. I suspected that the axle rule was intended to prevent grooves and hadn't been updated for bending. And I suspected that rule was never enforced against bent axles and there would be several cars running with bent axles. If my suspicions were wrong (turns out I was wrong), we had straight polished axles ready to swap in.

As it was, my sister pointed out several other things (like moving the wheelbase, using only 3 wheels and a peg) during inspection.

Anyways, I learned a tough lesson that the "if it passes inspection its good to race" ethos is not universal. And not to depend on pre-inspections as much as I did.

 

[microbrush]

Do they rip the trophies out of the kids hands and give them to the next inline, or do they get together before the awards are presented and determine the cars that passed the inspection are now illegal?

We run NSC rules and every year some car shows up with PineCar wheels or some variation. I know that they just don't read the rules and don't say anything. We are not that strict. If they ended up winning I would never take the trophy away.