I have just started helping my son build this year's pinewood derby car. I was looking to show my son some of the hamber's old derby cars, so if you have some post 'em up..or if you are currently building a car for this year's races post them too! I will post our progerss pics here..so check back. THANKS!!!
Wow, Pinewood Derby, that's a trip. I do have some of my old cars from when I was a kid, I'll see if I can dig them out and shoot you some pics. I won once for design and once for fastest car. The key was we used wheel weights mounted inside the car to make them exactly the maximum weight, then line up the wheel so they're nice and straight and grease the crap out of them. Hopefully pics later.
we would drill a few holes in the body, stuff'em with fishing sinkers, bondo the holes and finish with a cool paint job. the ones i paint here lately are the ones powered with co2.
Here's one I built a couple of years ago while my son built his. (I can't find the boy's car as it's somewhere in his room and I don't have a machete and a native guide to get me in there.) I took photos of the Hilborn streamliner and enlarged them until the wheels in the picture matched the kit's wheels in size, cut out the pics and used them as a guide. About 8 hours later this is what I had. It won a "Best Looking Parent Entry" award. The only car show I ever won or really care to win. My son's car got "Best Aerodynamics" and if he can find it I'll post those pictures too.
I built mine about 1971-72 if i remember right. My Dads uncle Bob Trosel from Des Moines,Iowa built dirt track race cars back then and he showed up at our house with one the year i was building my Pinewood Derby car. I loved the roll cage on it so i told Dad i wanted one in my Derby car so we tryed to make it look like a race car. I think it was slower then shit but i know i had the best looking car there that day. I still have it after all these years.
I forgot I even had this until I saw this thread, so I dug it up. I did it when I was young, but it's not that old. I always thought it was pretty cool. It's got lead screwed to the bottom.
Don't have a pix, but my son's last one was called "Holey Roller" Yep, he just used a set of drill bits and drilled one of every size hole in it. (He was a Den Chief and the Cubs thought he was nuts bu they loved him anyway
Well here's some that my dad built when he was in scouts: Some that I built: and some that my son built:
Still have the black sprint car I built in Cub Scouts in the early 1960's. Built the Miller Front Drive when some "Adults" desided to build some again in the late 1970's
Keep 'em comin'! This is great inspiration. My son and I will be building one this weekend also. Guess I need to check out the rules, it's been 30 years since I built mine. Wonder which box its in.
Here are a couple that I built for an adult pinewood competition. The red one was built to strict Cub Scout rules; the one with green wheels was for an unlimited class. Both made pretty leisurely speed runs, but the unlimited one won a prize for the best-looking car. Although I thought the hood ornament was Buick, I've never seen another like it. The rear of the base is tapered to a point rather than transitioning to a stainless hood strip.
The two that my dad helped me built in the early 80s were a basic wedge and a slightly more coke-bottle shaped one. Epoxied lead sinkers in the belly. These kids with their pre-fab weights, I tell ya! Anyway, you'll gain more potential energy by putting more of the weight in the rear, since it'll shift the CG toward the beginning of the track/higher. My uncle was a scout leader and my dad built his troop a photogate timing thing for the finish line. Well, it didn't give times, it just showed you who came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd. My dad built that from scratch, electronics and all. He still amazes me. I wouldn't know an electron if it bit me in the ass. These "adult entries" are amazing!
My sons and I built quite a few. Not much to look at, but did really well in competition. We built them long end to the front and biased the weight to the rear some to try to keep the weight on the incline as long as possible. Weight was at the max. Ours were really low and slippery. Worked like mad to get the alignment right and the wheels level - didn't want them to turn into the centering strip. My sons carefully staged them in the center so they didn't rub against the centering strip. Shoot! Here I am giving away all my secrets. What if I ever get grandkids?
Here's one I painted for a friend of mine's son before all the hardware was attached.Mystic Black with red,orange,and yellow art.
Everyone in the scout troop is gunning for my son and I this year in the Unlimited class. Legal weight is 5oz. For the Unlimited class, we hollow out the cars and melt a cake of plumber's lead in them. Last year our cars weighed 1pound 5 oz. Yeah, they were fast. -Brad
i collect vintage pinewood derby cars. does anyone out there want to sell one that will be appreciated? thanks [email protected]
Here's my roadster from 56 and my son's pick up from 01 Notice the "rivets" and sand scratches on the roadster. We drilled a hole in the bottom and the plumber next door melted some lead into it for weight. First time I used lead. My son and I salveged the chopped top from an old AMT 36 ford kit and molded it on his car. We then drenched it with Centari. His race was held one week after Dale E was killed. Our red car lost out for best paint to a a rather crude flat black E tribute car covered with decals. My son wasen't happy and I was honestly pissed but since I was one of the scout leaders at the time I had to turn it into a life lesson. Nuf said.
I'm going to have to see if I can find mine from 50+ years ago. It was a big winner. We took the nails for the axles and put them in a drill and spun them on a file to polish them up. We cut the top off an old door stop and mounted it in the hood in the front. It only lost one race cause there was a nail sticking up at the end of the ramp and it knocked loose one front axle which caused it to not run straight for the final of the distance race. but it wiped up on all the other races. I know I have it so I'll try to find it.
http://www.derbyworx.com/ Pinewood Derby Racing to the illogical extreme. I love it. $40 for a modified set of wheels?
Here's mine from 1979 though it wasn't technically a pinewood derby car as I was never a boyscout. My school had a CO2 powered car contest every year for the 7th grade wood working class. Powered by a CO2 cartridge and guided by fishing line the length of the basket ball court. Here's where I learned about power to weight ratio. Mine finished top ten but the kid who won was almost twice as fast as the rest of the field. He remove all wood except what was required by the rules and no finish on it. It looked like crap but blew ours away. [/URL][/IMG] Can't get the image working so I'm adding it as an attachment.
I love the lines to those cars for some reason they're more creative. Do you have more info on the ones that run on compressed air?? I'm starting a small collection starting with both of my survivors and a few I got for cheap at a swap meet. I had forgotten how neat they were. So, if you've got one laying around collecting dust, make me an offer. But in the meantime, the historical lesson would help me greatly, Thanks Eric
Hi Here's my little collection of CO2 powered cars and pinewood derby cars. I also have about 6 more that are in the box to be sold on ebay, which I can't find right now. They're not too fancy, just wedge variations if I remember right. All of the pinewood derby cars are for sale, excepting the silver one and white one with blue and red stripes, which were my own from Cub Scouts. I am looking for more CO2 powered cars, mainly the ones from wood shop class, but I like some of the mass-produced ones as well. Hope you like. http://img693.imageshack.us/i/p1040380l.jpg/ http://img144.imageshack.us/i/p1040381.jpg/ http://img52.imageshack.us/i/p1040382o.jpg/
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