Hello All,
I'm so proud and happy for my 4 year old son. We had entered the Pinewood Derby race at our church tonight and he not only placed, but got 1st place!!! That was out of 8 cars in his division. I'm so proud and excited for him. We had a blast designing, building, and racing it. It is designed after my 1978 Ford F150. He chose the body style and the green color. We actually built it together. I got to teach him how to use power tools, including a drill and saber saw. I really had him hold the drill, saw and dremel press. And of course got to teach him the importance of shop safety and always use goggles. We got that on video too. I got all his races on video too. It came down to the wire and he was racing against a girl that had a completely flat car. They battled for 1st and 2nd place. They raced three tracks. She won the first race. Then Blake won the second race. Man, I was really excited for him and barely able to hold the camera still as I recorded the third race and Blake won!!!! So he got a 1st place trophy for his first pinewood derby car. It was a blast for all involved. He's very proud of his trophy and truck, as you can see by the pics. It weighed in at exactly 4.9/5.0ozs and the majority of weight was in the carved out bed on the axle using a bolt, plate, and some magnets with a hole in the middle. Not too shabby for our first attempt. I think I'm hooked. I'll have to make one for me next year.

 

Cool, you even chopped the top

 

wow! 1st! thats great! it reminded me of when i had my first pinewood derby race, we shaped it like a 1970's series corvette, unfortuntly i didn't place, but was fun!

 

I remember my Pinewood Derby races. Back about 35 years ago. I remember my car finished second. I still have the little trophy some place.
My son did the RA Derby thing at church several years back. We had fun. He won some ribbons and I think a trophy.
Strange, it seems more fun looking back on it than it did at the time.
But, I guess that's true with many things in life.

Congrats to you and your boy!

I never really checked, but I hear there is a big "to-do" online about these things. Getting science applied to them and taking it REAL serious.
Google to the rescue!

 

That truck is sweet lookin. nice to hear your boy won first. y'all had fun doin I which is the important part, winning is just a bonus to me. I love the look of the truck too, if the wood piece the pinewood derby cars use were taller, the cab would probably look more correct. oh well, still looks great.

 

Congratulations! Now let your son build his own completely with just safety supervision next year. The kids have a great time doing this.

Let me get this straight. How was a girl racing in a Pinewood derby? Was it a combined girl scout - cub scout race?

 

Waaay kewl!

 

My sentiments exactly.... Last time I look cub scouts was for only boys..

I was a Cubmaster for 11 years and the pinewood derby was a fun part of scouting.

My sons each won 1st place and also won 1st at the council races.

Next year what you have to do is smooth the tires and axles.. There is a polishing kit you can buy to help. This is more important than the placement of the weights..

1 Thing we used to do is have a Race for the fathers with a 10oz. weight limit. This way the kids can get to build their own car and the fathers get bragging rights.. It worked out well..

The most important part is you and your son had fun and spent a little quality time together.. Even after all these years the thing that sticks out in every boy/man's mind is the Pinewood derby.

Congratulations to you and your son.. You can keep the BSEG a little longer, we'll let you..

 

Congrats to you and your son, Ron! Sounds like you had a great time together.

 

Congrats to you and your son.

[QUOTE=donjamer]
1 Thing we used to do is have a Race for the fathers with a 10oz. weight limit. This way the kids can get to build their own car and the fathers get bragging rights.. It worked out well..
QUOTE]

We did the same thing years ago and it was fun. Besides helping their sons with the kid's car, some of these fathers knocked themselves out building beautiful race cars. There were sports cars and race cars with beautiful sculpted and whittled bodys and super high gloss paint jobs. It was obvious that some of them were crafted by tool & die makers and probably took endless hours to make. A few were made by engineer-types and exhibited their own 'go fast' theories.
When it came time for the fathers to race, the leader said..."OK, now we'll race the fathers' cars...only they will have to race backwards". So much for the aerodynamics and weight location theories. My car was a very unconventional design, and it won. My son placed mid-pack somewhere...we were both proud of each other.

MR

 

Family
Oriented
Race
Division

Great job all the way around, cigarxtc!!! Congrats to the Family Team!!!!

 

Thanks All. We appreciate it. It wasn't for Boy Scouts. We had an open division pinewood derby meet at our church as a form of community outreach. So we had the divisions seperated by child age and we even had the adult category. Man, ya'll ain't kiddin. Some of those trucks/cars were like scientific marvels. I was impressed. Our truck was chopped because the block of wood in the kit was pre-cut to that height. Apparently each state has different rules for building and racing these things. The best thing we did was to debur and polish the axles and inside wheel hubs. The dry graphite powder seemed to make more difference in the first couple heats. At the end I put our truck against the fastest big kid car and lost by a nose. The important thing was it was all fun and the kids faces lighting up made it all worthwhile. There was even a little toddler with a schoolbus dragster. That thing looked like a twinkie on wheels but was amazingly fast. It reminded me of that schoolbus dragster that hits the 1/4 mile tracks every year. Very cool. Wouldn't it be cool if we had FTE pinewood derby races?



(Edit:added the following)
Here's a pic of the rear before we finished putting the axles in.

 

Pinewood derby. That's a fun time where Dads build a car that their son gets to race. I'm just as guilty. My car, which my son watched me build and actually dabbed some paint on, won first place. There were a few kid-built cars there, but they didn't have a prayer to win.
Dono

 

Congrats on the pinewood derby win! I won best design twice at our local church when I was racing at the derby. One of mine looked like a soapbox derby car and the other a Ferrari.

I think that pinewood derby races are great because it makes perfect times for fathers and sons to bond. Its great that you had a great time with your son and you sound really proud. Plus sweet looking truck.

 

Hey Ron! Congrats to you and your son on the big win!!!!

I did this with my kids last year. My son took 2nd in his group and my daughter took 5th in hers. We went with a Nascar theme on both cars and the kids had a blast!

You should be very proud of your son and yourself. Starting him early will be a big help when you get back to your project truck!

Tell him congrats from me.

Tim