Pinewood Derby

Our first pinewood derby experience is behind us!  This is William's first year doing any type of scouting program and I had heard what a big deal the pinewood derby was, but had never expected anything like we encounted!  William designed his car himself and with the help of a kind gentleman at the "build" he got help cutting it out and was told how to sand the vehicle. William painted the car (the first coat) completely by himself, although I did help him by adding another couple of coats of red paint once he did the first coat! An employee at Home Depot helped us pick out washers to add weight to the car.  Although he had "help" from adults, it was truely William's car.  What disappointed him was to hear and see how many cars weren't the cubscouts work (I honestly wondered in some cases if the cubscout worked on the car at all)....I think I probably even ticked a few dads off that I overheard saying things like "MY car" and could correct them and say "you mean your SON'S car" yes, I really don't care if people think I am a complete bitch....good thing that William was so absorbed in watching the cars race that he couldn't hear the whispers from adults in the group about ways they "cheated" by changing out axels or buying similiar looking wheels that "no one could tell didn't come with the kit"....

OK enough of a rant....each car raced on each lane of the track one time, so each car went down the track 6 times!  Williams car finished 6th 4 times, 5th 1 time, and 4th 1 time.  Its top speed (we believe, I missed the speed of one race) was 204.3 MPH! One of the boys raced his car, still shaped like the BLOCK OF WOOD and it even beat William's car!   For those interested the top car overall went 214 MPH and was supposedly designed by a child in 1st grade!  The entire derby took just under 2 hours, as there were 80 heats run!  William had a good time, although he got a bit antsy that they "forgot" about his car when it didn't race for over 20 races (a computer program randomly assigned the cars to heats).

William said he is looking forward to designing another car next year.....and hasn't decided what his goal will be...to design a FASTER car or one that comes in DEAD LAST every race!

William with his car and certificate.  He was a bit upset that they put "Will" on his certificate instead of William!

We did find a really cool pinewood derby site, but the directions were way over William's head, so we didn't use they to build our car since it was my belief that it was supposed to be William's project!  Maybe next year will used some of the ideas from the website....William will be a year old, and I am a year smarter!http://www.goaskgrandpa.com/Sample01.htm