Gregor writes –
A group I’m in, the Columbus Society of Communication Professionals (CSCArts.org), just held a grown-up Pinewood Derby fundraiser for the American Red Cross. It’s like the thing the Cub Scouts do every year, ‘cept these cars are built by professional print, web, and environmental designers. And they’re *really* cool. ChiaCar, Typemobile, SushiCruiser — even an iPhone car. Thought your readers might enjoy seeing them.
An awesome variety of designs to be found here, hit up Flickr for more – CSCA PINEWOOD DERBY NIGHT
10 thoughts on “Pinewood derby designs of excellence”
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I’ve been a Cub Scout den leader and Cubmaster, and I thought those were some great cars. Right up until I saw the quote identifying the cars as having been made by adults. Not quite sure why, but as adult-designed cars they don’t do anything for me.
@Baden – Not sure how it goes nowadays but when I was a wee cub, I remember a lot of the winning designs seemed to rely heavily on “parental assistance”. So maybe it’s good to let the dad’s have a derby of their own ;)
A friend and his son built and raced theirs. His son came in 2nd with his and he came in 1st because he happened to have a large chunk of tungsten to put in the back of the car. :)
His son had a weight limit but adults in that class did not.
I admit cutting out and helping my son sand. Also painting. We never won, but as time went on, I let him do more and more of the work himself. He’d design the car, and I’d rough it out on my brother’s bandsaw, then hand it over for him to do the finishing.
I remember as a kid, being frustrated with adult-size saws and getting some pretty rugged looking work that never quite sanded smooth. Thought I’d try to save him that trouble and let him have fun with the finish work. I did make the effort to get some quality tools and coach him in tricks I’d learned to map his design to the wood block. We always had a lot of fun building and racing the cars.
The cars we built are still on the shelf in his room. He’s now 28 and in Korea with the Army.
(The kid that always won had a dad who built custom slot cars. We think he might have had some help)
Physics and the Pinewood Derby Video | The *why* and *how* of pinewood derby car building (www.pinewoodphysics.com). This is targeted at Cub Scouts, but the physics, math, and experiments presented are understandable by all.