Why would you spend so much time on a Pinewood Derby car?

[CH3NO2]

I had a coworker ask me this today.
I didn't quite know what words to use to explain it just the right way, so I just showed him this picture of my middle son at Districts. I told him if I can make my son feel that much shear joy even though he didn't take First place it was worth more than anything. He just walked away with nothing to say.

I couldn't of done it without DerbyDad and the Pro's on this forum.

CH3NO2

 

[DerbyDad4Hire]

That is a classic picture!

 

[BigKat]

I love teaching my boy the science and physics of it all as well. Hearing him explain Center of Mass and friction points to another adult is priceless!

 

[jatofau1]

Amen brother. All boys love pinewood derby and enjoy just participating.

Let me tell you my story. My kids have taken first place for the past three year at the pack level. This year my younger son joined cub scouts and he took second. I did spend a lot of time working on the cars learning to build jigs, how to build lite weight bodies and properly drill them. In addition, to learning new axle and wheel prep methods. My wife was not happy that I spent so much time building the cars. She was giving me crap because some dad's spent 30 minutes on their cars and ran relative good times. Note our pack is very competitive so there are some pretty decent cars. My only comment to my wife was "Did those thirty minute cars win?!!!!!!"

I am in a no win situation. God forbid if my kids l kids ever loose at the pack level. My wife would be so mad at me for not building fast cars for the kids. Next year I hope my older son can start building his own car.

Anyway, the cars this year were much faster than last year. Thanks to all the help from the board members. In my pack if you don't gert faster every year, you will not win. I look forward to sending some cars in to race soon. If only my wife would give me a little more spare time assemble them.

 

[CH3NO2]

Amen brother. All boys love pinewood derby and enjoy just participating.

Let me tell you my story. My kids have taken first place for the past three year at the pack level. This year my younger son joined cub scouts and he took second. I did spend a lot of time working on the cars learning to build jigs, how to build lite weight bodies and properly drill them. In addition, to learning new axle and wheel prep methods. My wife was not happy that I spent so much time building the cars. She was giving me crap because some dad's spent 30 minutes on their cars and ran relative good times. Note our pack is very competitive so there are some pretty decent cars. My only comment to my wife was "Did those thirty minute cars win?!!!!!!"

I am in a no win situation. God forbid if my kids l kids ever loose at the pack level. My wife would be so mad at me for not building fast cars for the kids. Next year I hope my older son can start building his own car.

Anyway, the cars this year were much faster than last year. Thanks to all the help from the board members. In my pack if you don't gert faster every year, you will not win. I look forward to sending some cars in to race soon. If only my wife would give me a little more spare time assemble them.

I totally understand your dilemma, my wife thinks I am obsessed with this. I tell her that it a lot cheaper than racing a Nitro dragster, but she just laughs. But if we would lose at the pack level she would flip out I bet. We have taken the the top spots at pack the past couple of years but our New Horizon Districts is ultra competitive. We have a couple of league racing dads on here with amazing skills passing the knowledge down to the kiddos and by no means am I saying that it is unfair, it is just forcing us to try harder and I respect that. Last year we won 5th and the winner beat us by .075 it was fun and I tip my hat to the better racers, they just worked harder and smarter than us! I would love to start sending cars to league race but I never want anyone to ever think I ran Oil at a Scout race, so two more years of graphite and than we are going oil and to the leagues.

 

[jatofau1]

Man, you have seriuos competition in your pack. Out here we don't have serious racers yet. I only have Ballistic Bob out here but he is in another pack thank god becuase Bob and his son build really fast cars. I would be a second place finisher if little Bobby was in my pack. But some dad's in my pack have gotten the bug and have served me notice that they a in it to win it next year. So I have got to get faaster.

 

[CH3NO2]

Man, you have seriuos competition in your pack. Out here we don't have serious racers yet. I only have Ballistic Bob out here but he is in another pack thank god becuase Bob and his son build really fast cars. I would be a second place finisher if little Bobby was in my pack. But some dad's in my pack have gotten the bug and have served me notice that they a in it to win it next year. So I have got to get faaster.

I believe we have been racing against the likes of Maglev and Bracketracer, and they are no joke. They smoke us, but also will give a helping hand on this forum.

 

[jatofau1]

All of the guys on this forum are super helpful. Bob comes over and helps me tune my cars and runs his cars against my cars so I can figure out how to get more speed. It's nice to have local race friend to colloborate with. It makes it more fun and you also figure out how to go faster.

 

[bracketracer]

I believe we have been racing against the likes of Maglev and Bracketracer, and they are no joke. They smoke us, but also will give a helping hand on this forum.

Thanks for the compliment but my boys race in a different district. Maglev's boys did race in New Horizons before they aged out, as did Spirit Racing's and Blue Lightning's boys before both families moved away.

 

[CH3NO2]

Thanks for the compliment but my boys race in a different district. Maglev's boys did race in New Horizons before they aged out, as did Spirit Racing's and Blue Lightning's boys before both families moved away.

Lucky for us you are in a different district than us, I knew Maglev was in NH because his car was on the district passes last year. Blue Lightning was in our pack before they moved away and they are a great scout family and missed by all of us. They dominated the pack races and our wives still talk from time to time.

 

[Maglev]

Lucky for us you are in a different district than us, I knew Maglev was in NH because his car was on the district passes last year. Blue Lightning was in our pack before they moved away and they are a great scout family and missed by all of us. They dominated the pack races and our wives still talk from time to time.

Thanks for the kind words louisnolfo. Glad to know you found my posts helpful. As Bracketracer mentioned Iam glad my boys are done with racing graphite cars. What a mess!

Good luck at the NH districts race. Then come race with us at NPWDRL. Oil cars only at the Pro level as they are so much faster and cleaner to build than graphite cars. See John's DVD or videos in the premium section to learn the oil process. It's much easier than the graphite burnishing .... what a mess that was!! Beware inhaling graphite dust is harmful for your health!!

 

[GravityX]

CH3NO2

Nitromethane?

 

[CH3NO2]

The fun stuff, used when you want to go faster and louder.

 

[davet]

Awesome pic. That should show up at his Groom's Dinner on a big screen.