Pinewood Racing 27 Years Later

27 years ago, or so, I built the white car shown in the pictures with my Grandfather to race in my Cub Scout pack. I am not sure if it was my first Pinewood Derby car or not however of the two that I saved this is the one that I like the most. I have also given it to KZ for him to enjoy and play with it.

Now one thing that I think that you will notice is the difference in design after 27 years. You start out with a block of wood and some wheels. What it looks like after you are done is up to the Scout and what his Dad is capable of.

My recollection is that I never once won a race in my years as a Cub Scout. As a Dad and all around general guy, I am very competitive and I hate to lose. So with that in mind I had to come up with some way to design a car that might have a fighting chance, not like the aerodynamic beast that I built. I still think it looks good though.

So I went out and bought a book that talks about how to design a car that will win. Many of the tips we did not use for two reasons. 1) KZ did not want to do them, and it is his car, I did not push him if he did not want to do something. 2) Some of the tips would have violated the rules of the pack race. So we went and used one of the plans in the book. First thing you will notice is that KZ's car is much more aerodynamic. We should be better off just because of that.

The book is full of scientific ways to make your car go faster. Needless to say science was not my strong suit. Now I was never any great student in school, but there were some classes that I did really well at. The classes that I got to play with something and get my hands on ie. photography and computer science. So if I get to play with some sort of tool and I need to read a book to get the outcome that I want, the motivation is much greater to read the book and follow the instructions.

So we have a little more tweaking to get the car the exact way that we would like and be ready. But for the most part you are seeing the final version of the car "The Dragon Claw". There is another devision that I could have raced a car that I built on race day. This division has no rules and the cars can be built in any fashion with any tricks you want to try. I am looking forward to next year and I will build my own car and pick up my boyhood dreams of racing and winning.

Mrs. Clean is probably cringing at this already, for she knows my competitive nature and how much it can COST!!!!