Down and Derby

S.'s Pinewood Derby Masterpiece

 January brought more than the new year in our neck of the woods.  It also brought the Pinewood Derby to our ward.  The race this year was a lot earlier than in the past so it kind of snuck up on me.

I'm no Pinewood Derby expert.  (If you want to see what an amazing Pinewood Derby car looks like, check out this blog.)  This was, however, our third Pinewood Derby effort.  The first year with R., I did all sorts of research on how to build a Pinewood Derby car.  I pretty much smothered the topic.  I learned a few things and R.'s car did really well.  He won every single race but one--losing to the overall champion.

The next year, I was flush with confidence--until his car lost every. single. race!  I'm still not quite sure what the problem was.

The bottom line was that I really didn't know what to expect this year.  The only good thing was that now that R. is no longer in Cub Scouts, I only had to build 1 car--not 2.  (Even though S. was too young, I had to build him his own car along with R.'s--making double the work.)

The design was all S.'s idea

I tried to keep S. as involved in the project as possible, but his bedtime was kinda early and we kinda ran out of of time.  He did the entire design himself (along with some suggestion about what I was capable of cutting with the saw) and picked out the colors.  He insisted on the Big Red One on the car.  I had to carve that out by hand with the Dremel and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

There was just one hiccup.  I decided that we needed a coat of clear coat to make the car have a glossy finish.  When it was done, S. hated it.  He was so sad and I felt so bad about having forced him to do it that I just re-painted over the clear coat.

I took extra care to dial in the alignment of the car and felt really good about the final product, even if it meant that I missed some sleep.  Race morning, this is what S. came down to find waiting for him.

Ready to Race

I have to admit that I felt like it was Christmas morning and I was really excited to see his reaction.  His reaction didn't disappoint, even if I was still exhausted from feeling the effects of a couple of late night car building sessions.

I gave S. some lessons on how to carry and transport the car and how to properly present the car for weigh-in.

Weigh In

The weigh in was pretty much a zoo.  Luckily, we didn't have to do any last minute modifications to S.'s car. A few of the other cub scouts were not so fortunate.  The big yellow bus next to S.'s car (which was a really cool design) didn't make the weight or height rules.  I was glad that they let the boy race anyway.

One of the other kids car was overweight, so I loaned them my drill (I brought a full tool kit to the weigh in) so that they could drill out some holes in their car.  Then there was another kid whose car was overweight and his dad wasn't there.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't even touch someone else's Pinewood Derby car because I wouldn't want to break it.  But I knew this kid and his family a little, and there was no other option.  He really needed some help, so I grabbed my drill and helped him drill out his car so that he was race legal.  You'd be surprised at how many holes you have to drill in a Pinewood Derby car to drop 0.3 ounces of weight!  (We managed to get his car race legal!  Yay!)

Once the cars get weighed in, you can't touch them any more.

I was surprised at how nervous I got once the races started.  I mostly wanted S. to be happy and have a good experience.  In his first race, he got second (out of four cars).  Then he got second again.  Then something happened and he started winning.  Race after race, his little silver car was coming in first.

Here's a quick clip showing one of these races in action.  The clip is 17 seconds long, but brace yourself for the three seconds of heart stopping, pounding excitement from the actual start to the finish of the race.  S.'s car is the one on your far left:

S. kept winning all the way to the finals.  The final race literally came down to a photo finish.  Here is that photo:

The photo finish from the final race: S.'s car is on the far right

S's car took third by just a hair.  Still I felt like it was a lot of fun and S. was thrilled.  So I'd say that it was successful.

**UPDATE**

Following the race, there were whispers that the winner and runner up (the two cars on the left) had been purchased off the internet.  I really didn't care one way or the other, but at the Pack Meeting last week one of the dads admitted that he and his friend had found a professional Pinewood Derby car maker (seriously, is that a full time job) in Utah and they had ordered their cars.  I wish I had asked how much they paid for them!

Rather than being outraged, I actually took it as a compliment that S.'s car came so close to beating the professional cars!  I already have some ideas about how we can improve next year!