I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for sharing their vast knowledge on this forum.
Last Sunday my daughter and I entered the car we build in her first Power Puff Derby. There was a field of about 90 Girl Scout cars, the Cub Scouts raced earlier that same day. The place was packed. Before the races started they announced that the winner of the Power Puff Derby would race the winner of the Cub Scouts from earlier in the day.
One of the local Boy Scout troops set their track up for the races, aluminum track, looked to be pretty nice. Not sure of the length, but it seemed long, maybe just a perception thing because I have not seen one up close and in person before. About the 3rd round I took a closer look at the track setup. It could have have been much better, if you looked up the length of the track from the finish to the start you could see that it was not straight and true and had a few slight bends which appeared to be at the seam joints, I assume this could be corrected if better care was taken during setup. Going to have to volunteer next year to "help out" to get that fixed. /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif
After reviewing the rules one last time I bought some new axles from DD4H on the Thursday before the race hoping to get them on Friday. No such luck. John did his part and got the out the door, however USPS delayed the shipment until Saturday. We hit the post office to pick them up in route to the race. We were running short on time so I only swapped the rears when we arrived. No time to break them in, little bit of go fast dust and it was off to check the car in. They allowed up to 5.1 oz. on race day. We added .1 oz to top it off. I am not sure how the graphite is supposed to stay in the hub with the way they handles the cars, my goodness.
Finally the races start. 1st race is mid-heat of round one, time to see what she will do and if all of the hard work will pay off. At the bottom of the track we clock in at 3.590 and will our 1st race. My daughter is super excited. What a great feeling. I honestly thought it would be faster, but I am not complaining. 2nd race I think check in at 3.633 and another win. I started paying attention to how they were putting the cars on the track, not really setting them up, basically just sitting them down, with the exception of one car who I could only assume was the racers father who pulled the wheels out to the axles heads on their car. 3rd race another win and time of 3.605. 4th and final race was 3.635 I think and another heat win. Races are over and they start running the numbers. About 10-15 minutes later we are awarded with fastest overall! Only car to post a faster time was dummy car they used for some races and it was only a few hundredths faster.
Now it is time to race the fastest cub scout car... We were told the time that car ran before we started the races that day, fastest time was 3.6543 so we were feeling pretty good, but still a little nervous. They line the cars up and the all the girl scouts are cheering for my daughter and her car. It seemed like it was just going to be just one run down the track. That is of course until our car beat the cub scout car. /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif So they proceed to take them back to the top and now decide to run 3 more races so each car runs in each lane. We end up winning 3 of the 4 final races, they did not display the race time of those last 4 races for one reason or another. All the girl scouts go crazy! A few minutes after it is all said and done one of the dads who was helping out and did not have a very happy look on his face gets on the PA system and proceeds to tell everyone the time differences between what I am only assuming is his sons car (which I will guess he and his son worked very hard on) and our car, stating it was only a few hundredths of a second. Nothing like sportsmanship at a kids event...
So once again, thank you all very much for sharing your knowledge on this fascinating subject and probably my next hobby.
check out the tuning table I whipped together in about 25 minutes on race day morning... /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif
Last Sunday my daughter and I entered the car we build in her first Power Puff Derby. There was a field of about 90 Girl Scout cars, the Cub Scouts raced earlier that same day. The place was packed. Before the races started they announced that the winner of the Power Puff Derby would race the winner of the Cub Scouts from earlier in the day.
One of the local Boy Scout troops set their track up for the races, aluminum track, looked to be pretty nice. Not sure of the length, but it seemed long, maybe just a perception thing because I have not seen one up close and in person before. About the 3rd round I took a closer look at the track setup. It could have have been much better, if you looked up the length of the track from the finish to the start you could see that it was not straight and true and had a few slight bends which appeared to be at the seam joints, I assume this could be corrected if better care was taken during setup. Going to have to volunteer next year to "help out" to get that fixed. /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif
After reviewing the rules one last time I bought some new axles from DD4H on the Thursday before the race hoping to get them on Friday. No such luck. John did his part and got the out the door, however USPS delayed the shipment until Saturday. We hit the post office to pick them up in route to the race. We were running short on time so I only swapped the rears when we arrived. No time to break them in, little bit of go fast dust and it was off to check the car in. They allowed up to 5.1 oz. on race day. We added .1 oz to top it off. I am not sure how the graphite is supposed to stay in the hub with the way they handles the cars, my goodness.
Finally the races start. 1st race is mid-heat of round one, time to see what she will do and if all of the hard work will pay off. At the bottom of the track we clock in at 3.590 and will our 1st race. My daughter is super excited. What a great feeling. I honestly thought it would be faster, but I am not complaining. 2nd race I think check in at 3.633 and another win. I started paying attention to how they were putting the cars on the track, not really setting them up, basically just sitting them down, with the exception of one car who I could only assume was the racers father who pulled the wheels out to the axles heads on their car. 3rd race another win and time of 3.605. 4th and final race was 3.635 I think and another heat win. Races are over and they start running the numbers. About 10-15 minutes later we are awarded with fastest overall! Only car to post a faster time was dummy car they used for some races and it was only a few hundredths faster.
Now it is time to race the fastest cub scout car... We were told the time that car ran before we started the races that day, fastest time was 3.6543 so we were feeling pretty good, but still a little nervous. They line the cars up and the all the girl scouts are cheering for my daughter and her car. It seemed like it was just going to be just one run down the track. That is of course until our car beat the cub scout car. /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif So they proceed to take them back to the top and now decide to run 3 more races so each car runs in each lane. We end up winning 3 of the 4 final races, they did not display the race time of those last 4 races for one reason or another. All the girl scouts go crazy! A few minutes after it is all said and done one of the dads who was helping out and did not have a very happy look on his face gets on the PA system and proceeds to tell everyone the time differences between what I am only assuming is his sons car (which I will guess he and his son worked very hard on) and our car, stating it was only a few hundredths of a second. Nothing like sportsmanship at a kids event...
So once again, thank you all very much for sharing your knowledge on this fascinating subject and probably my next hobby.
check out the tuning table I whipped together in about 25 minutes on race day morning... /images/boards/smilies/wink.gif
