Off the subject - pine wood derby

[Royce Dorsett]

Joe,

    The Pine Wood Derby and be lots of fun!  My son and I have about 10 or 12 cars here at the house from our racing days......  I tried to center the weights on the car so no two wheels would have more weight on them then the others.  There are all sorts of strategies you can do,  but ultimately it will depend on the track and the amount of friction that are on the wheels.  Use the dry graphite on the nails that go through the wheels.  Just try to have fun with it and don't get too serious.  

    The first year,  I 'helped' my son make a really neat car!  On practice night,  it beat everyone!  On the way out the door,  he dropped it on a wheel.  I had to fix the damage.  I was pretty tore up about it because I took it too serious.  The next few years,  I took it easy and didn't try to get to upset about things...... We had fun and he brought home so trophies!  Bty,  He did win the contest for appearance on that first car!  I had made a 'shark' car.  I got the idea from one of his match box cars.....  It had almost no straight lines..... It was shaped like a fish and all the weights were 'hidden' in the car where I had carved out a hole for the weights!  An being an RC modeler,  of course I filled the place up and you couldn't tell where I had added them!  ( Now you see......  Don't get carried away! )

Royce

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Martin X. Moleski, SJ 
  To: discussion at nsrca.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 7:39 AM
  Subject: Re: Off the subject - pine wood derby


  --On Wednesday, January 15, 2003 12:13 AM -0600 Joe Barnes 
  <jbarnes at gaseed.com> wrote:

  > My eight year old son and I are building a Pine Wood Derby car for the
  > Cub Scout races. Does anyone know where the car should balance? (or does
  > it matter?) I will be adding about 2 to 2.5 oz. of weight to the car to
  > bring it to a maximum legal weight of 5 oz. There are different opinions
  > with the Dads. Some say the weights should be in the back to push the car
  > down the track and some say the front to pull the car down the track. I
  > think it should be some where in the back third. This is our third year
  > of races and we have done pretty well the previous years.(seconds but
  > never a first.)
  > Any help would be appreciated,

  Sounds like fun!

  I've never competed.

  Here's a helpful page:
  <http://members.aol.com/StanDCmr/pwdesign.html>

  He argues for a rearward CG.  I think the reason is that
  the higher uphill the CG is, the more potential energy
  the car possesses.

  Marty
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