Pinewood Derby Hop-Ups?

[scr8p]

i never did that great with the pinewood derby cars. but, there was no one that could touch me in the space derby.

[civilguy]

While I'm looking for my stickered closet door at my parents I will look for my dad's old pinewood derby cars. I have mine here somewhere in a box, but his are bananas. This was all done before they had all the strict rules-- one of his cars he melted weight into the tires and then balanced them all on a r/c prop balancer. It didn't help but it was cool. We used to sand the tires rounded too so just a small ridge in the center touched the track. I've been informed by my nephew that we were cheats....

[highwayracer]

BITD, there was a local (Chicago suburbs) company called TNT that sold only pinecar stuff. I've spoken with the owner on several occasions and the things he did to his cars were impressive. They did everything from a carbon fiber bearing in the wheels (you couldn't see them), macined/polished axles, specially molded weights, etc. Again, very, very impressive.

I wish I had pictures of his cars...

[Halgar]

Well, how did Team Monster Pinewood Derby Sports and Entertainment do?

[MONSTER]

I expected it to be small, but I had no idea!!! There were only ELEVEN CARS!!! We are the smallest Pack in our area, and dont have too many Boys/Parents that are "consistant" about meetings, much the less extra stuff.

Anyway, I was SURPRISED to find out that our small Pack, actually OWNS the Track we used. It was NICE, about 25-30 ft long, with a Finish Gate that instantly showed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Places, all connected to a Computer, that was hooked up to a Projector, that shown on a HUGE 10 X 10 ft Screen. Within a few seconds, it showed Places, Run Time, and Speed (scale, of course). I was VERY impressed with the SetUp, with the participation/attendance, not so much .

With only 11 Cars, you can imagine, there were at least 2 Dens with only ONE Entry, and Yep, we (Wolves) were one of them.....FIRST PLACE!!! I kept "Records" for a few Races, but as things went on, and I found out about the Single Entries, and saw the BLISTERING Speeds of a couple Kids cars that have attention spans as short as a AE Axle Shim is thin, watched Kids playin (banging) with other Kids Cars, and no one but me trying to stop them........ All I can remember is, We had a Top Speed of just over 148.??, Low Speed of just over 142.??, 3 First Places, 2 Fourth Places, only Jumped Track twice (others did it more, but may have been the Tracks fault), and the Fastest Car for the Day was 159.4 (i think).

I'll post some pics of the Car soon, and tell you what we did to it. After reading some of the stuff posted here, after I was able to get back to check it, I think I know what, or at least one thing that, held us back.

Will just shoot for OVERALL Winner next year!!!!

[Halgar]

Just think, after you port and polish those axles, true and balance the tires, set the camber and caster, redistribute and optimize the weight, and paint it red (everyone knows that red is faster! ), the next race in the series is YOURS!

[fordtransman]

Father in law was a scout master (brothers-in-law both former Boy Scouts) and is still active to some degree locally, including moderating pinewood events...and my friend is an Eagle Scout. They both agree you cant powder dust the axles and the wheel size is controlled by the rules. Just before the cars hit the ramp, an "official" sprays some type of lube on the axles. The fastest cars have always been the ugly ones.

[MONSTER]

Our Rules just said no Liquid Lube, Powder was allowed, but we could do nothing to them after Checkin.

Not sure how we'd go about setting the Caster.

[Halgar]

Not sure how we'd go about setting the Caster.

Easy, just tilt the nails forward a little.

You ought to start a "modified" class and use the tech described on the above link. See if there's any truth to some of that stuff. You could build your own private track for testing ...

[Soncho Ponza]

Great stuff got a wolf and a bear racin starts next week there sure some great stuff on web for hop ups the dads and pack ldr decide to do a class only rule stay in 5oz and no mechanical help cant decide how crazy to go.

[JK Racing]

our race is this coming sunday (3/22). i dont have a single wood working tool, so off to the local hobby shop we went, and bought a great pinecar kit ($15), spent all day sanding painting fitting the fenders, spoilers wheels and solid axles (not nails), sealer coat, base coat, fluorescent orange paint, stickers and finally gloss coat the whole thing (okay, dad did most the work, the Tiger wanted to kick the soccer ball). Car looks absolutely wicked as all get out. Re-read the rules....no hobby shop kits allowed.....DOH....

Plan #2...square block, polish the nails, clean the flash off the wheels, some wooden "discs" from the craft store glued on top....a giant lego block, and I will let my son do all the painting. I am only installing the wheels on this one. We will take both cars, there is a "non scout" division that allows for the hot rod we built, so we will race both.

I will take pics during the race this coming sunday and post them.

[Halgar]

I will let my son do all the painting.

Hopefully it's lead based paint so that puppy will FLY down the track! It might mean the end of the JK Racing family name, but that's a small price to pay for the championship!

[MONSTER]

I will let my son do all the painting.

Hopefully it's lead based paint so that puppy will FLY down the track! It might mean the end of the JK Racing family name, but that's a small price to pay for the championship!

Now hes trying to Lead Poison Members CHILDREN!! See, I told yall he was a T R O U B L E M A K E R ! ! ! ! !

[Halgar]

No, no! Lead based paint for extra weight, not that other thing! Besides, if you ain't smart enough to keep these pinewood cars out of your mouth, chalk it up to Darwinism.

[MONSTER]

No, no! Lead based paint for extra weight, not that other thing! Besides, if you ain't smart enough to keep these pinewood cars out of your mouth, chalk it up to Darwinism.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....likely story. Just remember, everything you say/have said, is a matter of public record already.