Preventing a 3-peat?

[embyday1]

My son and I won our pack derby last 2 years by wide margin. I am worried about winning 3rd year. Should I try to sabatoge his car without him knowing it? Is that ethical?

This year I didn't touch his car, but he knows how to make it fast from the past 2 years work. What does it mean to build with your kid? I still helped him with explaining physics and with setting up the tools and ensuring safety. I can tell its going to be fast. Realize there is an element of luck but thats what I thought last year and he still won.

 

[TRE]

Why would you want to do that

 

[embyday1]

We won twice already. Feel like we should spread the joy around. Plus all the other dads think we cheat or that I do all the work. Its tiring.

 

[TRE]

i would go spank them again

 

[derbychip]

Share your knowledge, and if they don't want to put in the effort that's what they get.....you and your boy knows you don't cheat and I suspect your son is involved with the process and you guys know that... Go out there and put your best efforts on the track and make sure your boy has fun

 

[TRE]

you dont need to fill bad because they dont want to put the work in

 

[embyday1]

I just don't get some of the cars. I tell my son, every year somone is going to pin a hot dog to a block of wood and call it a car. I'm never dissapointed.

The second place dad last year was asking me tons of questions. He didn't believe me when I told him pre-80s pennies are all we used for weight... I am happy to share knowledge. People ask to use my tools. We have a drill press but thats really the only "tool" we use. First year we used a hand drill, coping saw and sandpaper. The other dads want to believe there is some magic to making a fast car.

 

[TRE]

The only magic is work

 

[Ballistic Racing]

Host a derby workshop & show them first hand what it takes to go fast. Turn this into a friendly competition

 

[TWarwick07]

no need to sabatoge the car especially if he built it himself this year, that would make the victory more satisfying.

 

[Thinkin'Bout Racin]

Host a derby workshop & show them first hand what it takes to go fast. Turn this into a friendly competition

Do this!!!! We had not even won a den or a pack race last year, but had been doing ok. we decided to host a workshop & tune session last year while my son was still a Cub. It was very rewarding to see him share his knowledge with all of the other Cub Scouts. All who attended finished 1st in their pack or directly behind one of the other Cubs that attended the session.

This year my Boy Scout and I held 4 workshops for the Cub Scouts. The attendees finished top of their dens and 1st, Second, and third overall in the pack. Again it was fun to share our knowledge both to the cubs and to the parents. It was interesting to see some of the reactions while explaining the physics behind Pinewood Derby.

 

[Pacfanweb]

We won twice already. Feel like we should spread the joy around. Plus all the other dads think we cheat or that I do all the work. Its tiring.

Who cares what they think?
Look at the cars that win Craftsmanship. Does anyone care that the kids almost never do any of those?

Them thinking you cheat or do all the work is all the more reason for him to win it again.

I'll be honest: I kind of felt the same way a couple of years. My son won his Pack every year. But I offered to help every year. Told others how to build one fast. And invariably they'd all wait until the last 3 days to even start building a car, and they didn't win.
I finally thought "They have access to the exact same internet that I do. Not my fault they don't care enough to spend 30 minutes reading these sites with the tips". So they got what they put into it. Not much. Not my problem. I was there to help anytime anyone wanted it, and my conscience is clear.

It's just like anything else: Racing doesn't appeal to everyone. Working with tools doesn't appeal to everyone. But it DOES appeal to some. Camping doesn't appeal to everyone. Music doesn't. But those that do like those things tend to put more effort into getting better.

Derby is no different. That's the way to look at it.

 

[embyday1]

Thanks, that helps. We certainly love racing.

little over a week to go. Car is looking good. Wood is cut, sanded and sprayed. All the wheel prep is done. weights are in. he still needs some finishing paint and final weight tweaking.

 

[FDM]

Good luck with the race, we are up shortly too.

I had the same 'problem' We won the last 2 pack races by some margin (maybe 2 cars came close). And you always hear those people oh that must be a dad build car, or they are cheating. The fact is that we don't cheat, and he normally does a good amount of work on the car, although I do help him. This year we decided that he should build most of the car himself. Now I wanted to make sure he could cut out the body without messing things up to much so we decided to go for weight pockets which allowed 5 cubes in a row instead of the 6 we ran last year, this gave him a bit of a larger margin of error while cutting with a cooping saw ( I helped with the 6 cube wide pocket last time) So not only did he do more work himself, we also have a car that will probably will be a bit slower due to the fact the weight will be more forward on the car since we have 5 cubes in a row (10 behind axle and 13ish in front) instead of the 6 in a row (12 cubes behind and 11ish in front) we ran last year. This way more scouts can be competitive and have a shot at taking home the trophy. However with the race getting closer I am thinking that we should have gone 6 wide (he might have been able to cut the body, even after a couple of tries) and just build a car as fast as last years. Well to late for this race, if we do well enough to make districts we can always see what we can do for that car.

 

[embyday1]

I had my son do 2 very simple straight cuts on the table saw. Easy safe and accurate (fingers nowwhere near any blades) with my supervision. Then he drilled a penny sized hole across the back of the top piece. He then could adjust the weight and the balance himself. He will expoxy the top onto the bottom when he is satisfied.

 

[SuperSlow]

We always build our cars as fast as possible and to the best of our ability. Although we dont scout race my son is 10 and familiar enough with the tools we use and the cars to do his own with little help. I look at it like this, last race was last race and this race you never know who will show up with what and conservative goes out the window. If you were racing someone from here or your competitors stumbled across this forum you may have your hands full. Foot to the floor ALWAYS. Lol

 

[FDM]

We always build our cars as fast as possible and to the best of our ability. Although we dont scout race my son is 10 and familiar enough with the tools we use and the cars to do his own with little help. I look at it like this, last race was last race and this race you never know who will show up with what and conservative goes out the window. If you were racing someone from here or your competitors stumbled across this forum you may have your hands full. Foot to the floor ALWAYS. Lol

I do agree, and this year we handed out quite a bit of speed tips so the competition might get stronger. Normally our pack is not super competitive but since we won 2 in a row we might get some people to step up their game. Personally I would hope so, more kids and parents looking into how to build a fast pinewood derby car is always good.

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

I can't believe this was ever considered as an option. The scout motto doesn't state to do a mediocre job. It says to do your best. Let your son do more of the build on his own. Never sabotage a car or your son's efforts!

If you feel your cars are too fast for scout racing you can always try league racing with us....

 

[FDM]

I can't believe this was ever considered as an option. The scout motto doesn't state to do a mediocre job. It says to do your best. Let your son do more of the build on his own. Never sabotage a car or your son's efforts!

If you feel your cars are too fast for scout racing you can always try league racing with us....

I agree, and I think my son did his best on the car, we will see soon how well it does. For the next car we will get some more weight behind the rear wheels the next car (We have some TxW tungsten bars waiting to be used) . On question though, we build the car body as light as possible just to realize that when putting 12 cubes behind and directly before the axle creates a COM of about 0.5 or even smaller (esp using that Tungsten bar). To compensate we have to move the weight in front of the axle forward, basically moving more weight away from the preferred position to create a COM of around 0.6-0.65. However on this site I see enough people putting 12 cubes right in front in right behind the rear axle. How do they get away with that, esp with a non extended wheel base car? I feel we are missing something.

 

[Mojo Racing]

league tracks and cub tracks are different. While they are the same manufacturer most of the time, the amount of polishing that goes into a league track is incredible. Not the case for a cub pack track, generally.

The polishing and care taken for a league track allows for a smaller COM because there is less disturbance on the track... the transition is all that most people worry about. On a pack track, the racer has to worry about each seam in the track, along with the transition