Scout Dad's

[Resophonic Racing]

Its Derby Season once again....

If you are a Scout Dad looking to survive your first race or improve over last year, this is the right place for advice and products. I was once in your shoes a new Scout Dad trying to survive my first Pack Race. I spent way too much money on gimmicks before I learned what works and does not work. If you have any questions on how to survive your first race as well as have a fun experience with your Scout ask away. Scout race rules vary pack to pack so let us know what you need and we (NPWDRL) will get you headed in the right direction. Please don't be afraid to ask questions.

 

[Ryanh]

X2. I sure wish I had this site when my son and I started, wouldn't have a bunch of useless tools laying around and definitely would have had a better outcome!

 

[JAG Racing]

For the scout races, should I smooth and polish the tread part of the wheels? Also, with the fenders I see on this site, how do they not rub the rail if the backend does happen to slide over against the rail? It seems they sit so low to the ground, I could see it happening if the rear doesn't straddle perfectly. Or are they trimmed on the inside to avoid that?

 

[Quicktimederby]

For me on the polishing of the wheels the main areas to focus on are the contact area's. With that being said usually by the time I'm done the whole wheel is polished. On the fenders, the bottom side of the car the fenders will need to be tapered, cut out, or indexed just to the point were they don't contact the rail.

For the scout races, should I smooth and polish the tread part of the wheels? Also, with the fenders I see on this site, how do they not rub the rail if the backend does happen to slide over against the rail? It seems they sit so low to the ground, I could see it happening if the rear doesn't straddle perfectly. Or are they trimmed on the inside to avoid that?

 

[JAG Racing]

Awesome thanks!

 

[JAG Racing]

I just tried out the silver bullet on a block. I quickly polished up some axles, and wheels (not perfect, just for testing) and put them in the block. The silver bullet worked great! Thanks everybody for the info! Now on to the weight pockets and the car shape!

 

[Resophonic Racing]

Looks like you are on the right track HC! Keep us posted on how you are progressing.

 

[mattkreps]

I wish we had found this earlier. I was cobbling together info from all over. I got lucky and sorted out most of the better ideas from the less good. We buolt over about 4 weks off and on, so that also helped. plenty of time to fix mistakes. We ran two Cub Legal cars on graphite with 4 flat, extended wheels, BSA plastic and BSA axles reqd.

My sons car hit 3.12 avg across 5 runs in the championship and they computed 229 mph avg. It is not using tungsten and was about 4.9 oz so we left some heat on the table but still good enough to win the pack. He is 7 but did all the work right beside me, then I would do touch up.

My "control car" that I built thinking his would not do as well was a touch faster using tungsten dome plus two cylindricals under the dome sides to get 5.0 oz. Well it ran only a fraction faster at 3.10! We ran it under my 4yo in the sibling race and he was over the moon since he helped daddy build it. COM on both was probably 1 inch plus a bit.

We also ran a model of the Mystery Machine for fun that is scaled. 12.5 oz but it looks darn good on the track.

I need to rework the graphite ahead of district but not sure what else we can really change. Any other ideas? I have until end of March. Oh, and I think the district track will be wood, instead of metal like the pack. Crud.

I'll be looking at pre drilled blocks from the site for some fun cars next year, and wondering if we can break the 3.0 mark on Cub legal rules. I will say our Pack put on a class act derby start to finish.

 

[MBL Racing]

I'm really looking forward to this years pack race since last year I didn't have a clue and was so disappointed as was my 10 yr old son after spending allot of time hand sanding the kit block only to have dummy dad seize up one our axles the morning of the race when I kept adding superglue to get the axle to stay in the slot. whew!

Now almost a year later after spending allot of time on this site as well as asking many questions and racing in the Cabin Fever Classic last March I'm feeling very confidant about our chances. MWD (Mike) has helped me immensely as well as DG13, John (DD4H) and so many guys on this board that are willing to share some of their experiences.

I'm also looking forward to winning the "Old Farts" race and bringing home a trophy myself /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif

Mattkreps if you haven't read the thumb nailed thread "Keys to win from the pinewood derby king" by Kinser it's a great start. It will answer allot of questions.

 

[Guest]

Leave no doubt, this is the place to be if you want to be in the lead; These guys (NPWDRL) members are the the best and brightest when it comes to PWD. The information I learned over the past year and from 2 races I entered and a couple products from DD4H equaled a very happy son. Ask questions lots of them, no other site comes close to this one. Last year my son barely won, one year later and a whole lot more knowledge from this awesome group and he not only won it wasn't even close 17 straight heats and not a single car within 1 car length of him. Let's just say my wife was not happy, she thought we were cheating/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif Average Speed:225.9 Average time: 2.6405 fastest 2.6329 on a 35ft best track. Ya, no cheating just extremely educated by the best of the best right here. Good Luck and welcome/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif