Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cub Scouts/Pinewood Derby tips!

My son called last night. His son got his pinewood derby kit. We hashed over the memories of his pinewood car. Are there any basic tips that could get my grandson a little closer to the winner"s circle than my son did?

my derby car did pretty good...
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<br>i hollowed out the underside of the car and epoxied in as many bb's as i needed to get it up to max weight limit (at the race, i was actually a little underwight, so i taped a couple quarters on to get it up). also used spray graphite generously on axles/wheels.
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<br>my car looked like an indy car/skunk cross (black paint, white stripe down the middle on an indy car shape)...
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<br>trying to think if there was anything else, but can't remember... it was a long time ago...but the big thing was the weight, and reducing the rolling resistance (graphite)...
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Alignment... alignment... alignment
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<br>Typically our winners worry mostly about proper alignment of wheels and minimizing rolling resistance. If you cant the wheels properly (especially the front), you cut down on the wheel friction and eliminate that costly wobble as the car runs down the track. This includes polishing of the axels (nails) and removing any burrs from the wheel/axel pair. The past several year's winners in our pack worry about alignment, friction, and maximizing weight of the car. Just as an aside, normally the "rail" design tends to do well.

I drilled out the top front of the car and stood, upright, four 240 grain, 44 caliber bullets or 357 caliber bullets as if they were carberators for the engine. Looked cool.

Grind the axels down like an hour glass where the wheel rides on them. You want as little of the actual axel touching the hub of the wheel as possible. Next, trim the width of the hub of the wheel so that very little of the plastic hub is riding on the axel. Use GOOD lithium dry lube. Deburr and polish wheel hubs and axels to a mirror shine. One last thing is to have the car ride on 3 of the 4 wheels. Raise one of the back wheels (since the weight will be on the front wheels) about 1/16 off the ground. This little trick will also reduce wheel friction. Three wheels turning is better than 4. Flick each wheel and make sure they don't wobble and that they spin freely for several seconds. Make the car low profile and put the weight over the front axels of the car, since the weight will be the first over the hill on the track. These tips should make a winner. Let us know how you do. Flinch

I have found that you want to have as little wood and as much lead so that your right at 5oz's. Don't worry what it looks like, cuz looks don't win races, speed does. Also Johnson's furniture spray wax in the yellow bottle as a lube lasts the longest. Some derbys will not let you lube between heats. I took my boys car to the post office and had it weighed there so it was all set to go on race day. Do the things mentioned in the above posts also and you will be bringing home the trophy's!
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Great Ideas guys my son just got his derby car and we were trying to figgure out ways to make it go fast and true.
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<br>Bullwnkl.

This is just to funny .........this is not a race for the boys , its a race for the Dads as well as a contest to see who can get the closest to breaking the rules and not get caught... I know my Dad did it for me when I was a scout too. Lube the wheels, cut the nose down and hollow it out melt lead sinkers and pour them into the hole in the front of the car.Good luck to all you Dads.

Flinch is right on the money for a winner. The offical rules say NO liquid lub so go with the good, fine, graphite. Cut a groove in the axle and polish it to a shine, pack it tight with graphite, add weight until you are just a bit over weight (offically you can take off weight but you can't add it) run on 3 wheels, make double sure the car runs straight, it won't be fast if it is fighting its self down the runway! Aerodynamics aren't a factor until you reach about 38mph so what ever design the boy wants should be ok. Unless you're running on one of the new metal tracks, one lane or another WILL be faster than the others, try to figure out the fastest lane and stay on it if you can. If you have time there are booklets you can order from the back of the "BOYS LIFE" magazine that will spell everything out.Best of luck, my boys brought home a pile of trophys over the years.

We have had our share of fast cars with my boys and I have learned a lot over the years. I will add a few pointers that weren't mentioned: I prep the axles with a spray or paint on moly BEFORE assembly. Sentry, Brownells or similar 2-part lubes are great. Then use XTRA fine powdered graphite with moly and pack it in from the outside. Then spin the wheels until they become smooth. DONT try to race it without spinning the excess powder out to the gap. One lube will usually last 4-5 trips down the track. DONT put all your weight up front unless you really know what you are doing as it burdens the front axles too much. I made a test car with a rod that I could slide the weight fore-aft. About center is best. If you lift a rear wheel off you can slide the weight a little further forward.
If you think you can get away with it- make new axles out of drill rod or similar so that they aren't too undersized. Otherwise be careful how much grinding you do on the existing axles. I also miked the slots to make sure that I got a blank with axle slots that were parallel. It makes a difference.

Gee this makes me feel young again...
Dennis <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

thanx

Do like everyone else, bend the rules just a little, and cheat at every chance. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> -- no