Some twenty-two years ago, I was in the scouts. And while I don't miss the bulk of it, I did enjoy the Pinewood Derby. A great time for my granddad, dad and I to waste far too many hours [we started two months in advance] in my granddaddy's shop. Age seven, we took home the Overall Best in Class and Speed trophies for my division: Age eight, I think we took all three trophies. Best in Class and both the Speed trophy for my division and the whole troop. Okay, so what's crazy about this next one is that I actually did more of the woodwork on my own for this one than any of the others to date. Now granted, the metal work and windshield were all my granddad and my dad did the small details of the rear "bumper" and seat cushions but I honestly did the bulk of the body work on my own once the bandsaw stuff was taken care of. And we started with the regulation block of pine straight out of the official kit. Now yes, we bought like six of them and weighed them, sized them and all that before we started cutting... but we used the actual Boyscouts' Kit. And yet, we were accused of cheating and lost the Best of Class Design trophy because they thought we'd used a pre-made kit car from HobbyTown. But nuts to it, we kicked the tar outta the times that year and set records. In fact, this one still has graphite coming out of the wheels and rolled out of formation when I blew stray dust off the floor. This car was awesome: So, with the nonsense of the previous year still on our minds, we dialed back for the next year. And yes, it does look like a blue/green pud: Irony being what it is, we lost the Design trophy that year to one of those pre-made kits we were accused of using the year before. And even taking the speed trophies home that year didn't ease the sting. So for my last year, we left the Indy Class behind and set out to thoroughly stomp our mark into the Stock Class: Again, we only used official materials. My family is a lot of things but we don't take to being hypocrites. We took two blocks, split one down the center and glued it to the second to give us the needed bulk for the body. Then spliced on a roof from a "close enough" scale model kit. I think it was 1:32. You can see just how much wood we had to carve back out just to get the weight back down. Something we'd never had to worry about with the previous designs: In fact, in all the other years, we cut out wood simply so we could put the weight, in ball bearing form, where it would do the most good and balancing. To our surprise, the 28 car not only won the Best of Class Design Trophy, but also took home the speed trophies and went to the State Regionals where it was bested in the semi-finals. But whatever, we really weren't out for speed that year. That was just icing. Anyway, forgive the blurry photos, these were just quick and dirty while I had them out.
Derby Do they transform? J/k! I was in Scouts some 20 years go too! These are the most impressive pinewood derby cars I've ever seen. You put a lot of love into them.
Very nice indeed. I enjoyed reading about the trials and tribulations of competition you encountered.
that's awesome. no lie, the best pinewood car i ever saw was at summer camp one year - they had a Scoutmaster Invitational, and one guy literally duct-taped a rock to the front and a banana to the back to stabilize it. AND IT WON.
I have to agree with you, while I don't miss much from my scouting history pinewood derby was always my favorite, This does make me wish I would have kept some of mine, me and my Great Grandfather made some awesome cars
Wow, I feel like I just read the history of a racing dynasty, in tiny wooden form. These are really, really nice. A hell of a lot more competitive and extensive than mine ever were. I guess it helps to have a dad and grandpa who were into it (and a wood-shop). More than cars were made there... good memories are even more valuable. zmog
Thanks to everyone. Yes, we took the derby very seriously. Sanding down the pins so the wheels would roll smoother. Going through sets of wheels looking for the best balanced. Powdering with graphite, the ball bearing weights to even it out. Like I said, we started two months in advance and did everything short of having our own track built. Which, now that I think about it, we may've considered in the later years.
