Pinewood Derby

[jordway]

My 3rd grade daughter's Girl Scout Troop was invited to participate in the local Boy Scout Pinewood Derby.  I remember doing this with my dad ~45 years ago.  I'm guessing it will be obvious which car is my daughter's.  She named it "7 Jr."   I helped with masking, but otherwise, she did the design and painting herself.

 

Surprisingly, only one other dad had any interest in this.  So, he and I ended up helping all 14 girls with their cars (just the power tool parts).  Over 3 troop meetings, we worked on the cars and gave the girls 3rd grade-appropriate chalk talks on aerodynamics, friction, camber, toe and speed=distance/time.  I was blown away by how eager the girls were to learn.  They really got it, and could do the math to prove it.  One of the troop leader moms pulled us aside and said, "What the hell?!  We've never seen this bunch of girls that engaged in anything!".  Just an awesome bunch of kids!

 

For anyone familiar with Pinewood Derby and interested...  After a ridiculous amount of time spent reading blogs, we went with the classic "Rail Rider" set up.  2.5 degree negative camber on the back wheels, 1.5 degree toe in on the LH front wheel and a raised RH front wheel.  Recessed in zinc wheel weights plus composite weight tape to get to exactly 5.0 oz on the official check-in scale.  Front end alignment set to steer slightly right, into the rail.  Races start in the morning! 

 

 

[anduril3019]

Awesome!

 

I did the same for my daughter's troop. She's 35 now and can change oil, brake pads, and bulbs!

 

Sounds like you may have inspired a few future enthusiasts.

 

Good luck.

[panamericano]

Your talk on aerodynamics was really taken to heart by the girl with yellow car with the multiple vortex generators.  Without the & on the grill, I could see that as a Shelby.  Great dad work. 

[jordway]

31 minutes ago, panamericano said:

Your talk on aerodynamics was really taken to heart by the girl with yellow car with the multiple vortex generators.  Without the & on the grill, I could see that as a Shelby.  Great dad work. 

Ha!  Yes, clearly that one leaned more toward aesthetics than functionality.  Your comment about a Shelby hits home.  I remember when I was looking at the Seven that I ended up purchasing, I thought to myself "I need to factor in a paint job so that it looks like a Seven instead of a Cobra".  But, you know, I've grown to love it.

[theDreamer]

Both cars either side of your daughter’s #7 look like they came from Colin Chapman’s drawing board. The Swiss Cheesemoblie and the Fire Streaming Wedge look to be silhouettes of the Lotus 56 Indy car.

[jordway]

42 minutes ago, theDreamer said:

Both cars either side of your daughter’s #7 look like they came from Colin Chapman’s drawing board. The Swiss Cheesemoblie and the Fire Streaming Wedge look to be silhouettes of the Lotus 56 Indy car.

 

 

Nice!  The Fire Streaming Wedge is my other daughter's car (1st grade).  Different troop, and I only had to help with hers in that troop.  Left that out to keep the post from getting too long.  I struggle with excessive wordiness. 

[jordway]

Closing the loop on the Pinewood Derby...  The troop had the fastest 14 cars of the day (~150 cars total) and won 1st and 2nd place overall (only 2 cars per troop could advance to finals).  But the slowest car in her troop was faster than the other 18 cars in the finals.  Perhaps we over did it a bit.  Not sure we'll be invited back again next year.

 

 

 

 

[panamericano]

Great photo or the Seven owner.  Congratulations to both of you.