Gizmodo Takes on Pinewood Racing

Pretty sure he got that free or to try out. Free publicity for the company, especially coming from Gizmodo. Soon that vid will likely be high on the search engine list when people search for how to build a good scout car.

3phase said:
For the price of the axle bender, I purchased the silver bullet,wheels,and axles. What is the possibility he was paid to do it the DW way? (Or given free stuff)
 
IAE Racing said:
LOL I bat he's got the cubbies covered. I bet he'd make at least 3.01

Not that car, if he built one for league. And didn't bend his rear axles.

Could have been a GREAT video. That car at best would run 3.06.

+1

Did anyone else see IAE in the red blocks??
hmmm

Ya, but never met the guy. LOL

What is the possibility he was paid to do it the DW way? (Or given free stuff)

Very high.
 
I agree with 5 kids on the grooved axle. Take a perfectly round rod and place it on an uneven surface and it is not stable, now place a small block under each end and now the rod is stable. Kinda like a 3 legged chair vs a 4 legged chair, on uneven surfaces the 3 legged chair is stable.
 
3phase said:
For the price of the axle bender, I purchased the silver bullet,wheels,and axles. What is the possibility he was paid to do it the DW way? (Or given free stuff)

An axle bender for the DFW could still be a good investment if you're not a sure hand with a hammer and wedge like my son /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif
 
W&K Creations said:
actually after watching it, all those concepts he talked about are pretty correct from my experience....although I totally agree that his methods of accomplishing those concepts are very rough around the edge, but still its in the right direction...and for the cub scout level for parents and their kids who have never built a car before, it would help even now considering what I see at our own races...of course they could just join our forums and get it right out of the top racers at the NPWDRL!

I don't know if I agree with the groove axels not adding speed though....I know the physics and that equation and why mathematically it shouldn't have an effect but having run both, on the track in a real race, I do think grooves are faster for whatever reason, physics or other....

The graph showing wheel speed as represented by how long a wheel spins however we all know isn't the best measure...and doesn't reflect the true advantage of oil over graphite....but he never talked about oil so.

All in all it was actually fun to watch and I think was fine..again, just rough around the edges so to speak....and I did actually like the way he used the blocks to explain energy and friction! Having lectured to kids ranging from second grade to middle school on these cars, believe me....ANY visual cues you can give them to help grasp a concept is 10 times better than just words....

of course all of this is just my opinion at least....LOL

Agree. Overall I think the video is great. In our quite competitive district/council these techniques would produce a car that would get you to the council race and maybe even place top 10 in rank at council. I know because we built cars like that and that's what they did.
 
It's too bad that he didn't share his times so that we could see if his car was truly fast in the broader sense. With that said, a little CSI sleuthing tells me that his car ran about a 2.62 on what looks like a 35 ft BestTrack. I asked for some help from a fellow board member to convert that time to a "best guess" on a 42 ft track, and he came back with approximately 3.16 seconds. Anybody can look like a 7 foot giant if you're using a short yardstick.
 
The assistant cubmaster in my sons pack just posted this video on the pack Facebook page for every boy to see. We will see who's techniques prevail at our upcoming race in May.
 
Yes I did spend a good amount of time on the phone with him. He made some glaring errors.

1. He said you don't need to drill the holes canted.
2. No difference in grooved or non grooved.
3. No difference in different types of graphite.
4. All winning cars are rail riders. (Sorry, no rail riders win! Rail RUNNERS do!)

There were more but it is obvious he got free stuff to try out. He bought the axles pre bent. I don't generally appeal to guys like this because they do not connect with my methods. I am not scientific enough. You hurt more people telling them to bend rear axles than you help. Once again another victim to the pinewood derby vortex.

Once he races a real car he might want to revisit his video. I would think a guy like this would make certain of his info before putting it out there to keep his credibility. Que Sara Sara
 
Yeah it is too bad since he actually find and contact you about how the fastest pinewood derby cars are built then proceeded to ignore it. I bet he talked to a derby worx vendor as well and got an ear full from them about being easier to just bend the axles then drilling them canted. Although he did have a few errors in his video I think it will help more scouts then hurt. If they still get beat after putting in a lot of hard work and want to get faster they will eventually find this site.

I think you should really try to put out some videos on youtube showing the difference between rail riding and rail running and why running is better. TBH I think you'd get more traffic if you put out more content, dangle a few more carrots.
 
Good video, but one thing I find way out of whack is a car with graphite will beat a car with no graphite by less than one car length???? I find this hard to believe.
2 years ago at my kids' school, one dad entered a couple cars, they did not have graphite and they came up about 5 feet short of the finish line. Half way through the races when we were on lunch break, I put graphite in the bores for him. Let me tell you, those cars not only finished after that, they were actually some of the faster cars.