History of pinewood derby cars

By hollowing out the underside of the truck I was able to get the weight down to 4. Two of the rear wheels were raised using the Pro-Body tool.

The History of the Pinewood Derby

The truck performed well in the parent-sibling race. It seemed to be a hit with the kids as well. He has tried this every year since winning it as a Tiger. It was a pretty cool idea. The most involved part was the painting.

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I put the tungsten weights in the back above the wheels. I drilled a little hole underneath for the tungsten putty. This was great for adding.

The History of Pinewood Derby

On race day, he shocked everyone! He pulled the fastest time of the day on his first run. It was 2. Most scouts were in the 2. He won the next two races also with times under 2. He was well on his way to the top speed. Then on his last run, he was leading a good bit, when the car suddenly slowed down one foot from the finish.

It finished with a 2. Then someone picked up something from his lane and handed it to me! It was that tungsten putty. It had fallen out from underneath his car! I felt devastated. He just asked if we were still going to Dairy Queen afterwards. Of course we did! I am so proud of him and his car. Lesson: jam that putty in there after it passes weigh in. For our Open Division, the rules are basically that it must fit the track, not interfere with other cars, not have anything hazardous like mercury , but still be no more than 5 ounces got to make it a challenge.

We also got a few good crashes broke a wing and a major crack in the fuselage from a nose dive. So, I gutted the electronics, cut up the plastic engine mounts to use with the car. With the motor and the battery pack essentially 4 AA batteries , it was going to be a challenge to make the 5 ounce limit. I had to use a lot of balsa and ordered some razor wheels from Maximum Velocity to save on weight. The only pine in the car is a thin sliver of the base, but even much of that was replaced with balsa.

One of the dents you see on the nose was from a test run on my floor. The car hit a door jamb, so I made a matching dent on the other side to make it a part of the design. Results: It blew the competition away. Pun intended. Literally so, in one heat keep reading. Heat 1: As soon as the cars were released, I hit the throttle on the remote control.

Zoom… Then I cut power as it crossed the finish. Up to that point of the race, the fastest time was 3. It came in at 1. Heat 3: This one was going to be interesting. It was in the lane next to the bird car complete with ostrich feathers. Bud Bennett, wrote Murphy: "We believe you have an excellent idea, and we are most anxious to make your material available to the Cub Scouts of America.

In its October issue, Boys' Life publicized the event and offered plans for the track and a car, which featured "four wheels, four nails, and three blocks of wood. Murphy continued to run the derby program through the Management Club until his retirement from North American Aviation in He died in A shoulder patch for the Western Los Angeles County Council that depicted a pinewood derby car and a message of honor to Murphy was released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the event.

In , the design of the block was changed from a cutout block, consistent with a s style front-engined Indy car, to a rectangular block. The tires were also changed from narrow, hard plastic, to wider "slicks. When using a kit sold through Boy Scouts of America BSA , the Scout begins with a block of wood, four plastic wheels, and four nails for axles. Blocks can be whittled with a hand knife, bandsaw , or a carving tool. Other than the previous basic design rules, the Cub Scout is able to carve and decorate the car as he chooses.

Cars vary from unfinished blocks to whimsical objects, to accurate replicas of actual cars. Weights can be added to the final design to bring the car to the maximum allowable weight. A high-density metal weight, such as tungsten carbide which isn't toxic like lead, reduces the volume of wood, which reduces air friction and increases speed.

Axle friction can be reduced by polishing the nails and applying graphite as a lubricant. The track usually has two to eight lanes and slopes down to the ground, since the cars are powered by gravity. Tracks may be owned by the pack or rented. The race is run in heats, giving every car the chance to run on each lane. First, second, and third-place winners usually receive ribbons, medals, or trophies.

Some packs also award on the basis of car design or styling. The first place race winners get to advance to the district level, then each of the district-wide race winners get to race each other from across the entire council. The force accelerating a pinewood derby car is gravity ; the opposing forces are friction and air drag.

Therefore, car modifications are aimed at maximizing the potential energy in the car design and minimizing the air drag and the friction that occurs when the wheel spins on the axle, contacts the axle head or car body, or contacts the track guide rail. The wheel tread can be sanded or turned on a lathe and the inner surface of the hub can be tapered to minimize the contact area between the hub and body. Polishing the wheel, especially the inner hub, with a plastic polish can also reduce friction. Often one front wheel is raised slightly so that it does not contact the track and add to the rolling resistance.

Axles are filed or turned on a lathe to remove the burr and crimp marks and polished smooth.

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More extensive modifications involve tapering the axle head and cutting a notch to minimize the wheel-to-axle contact area. Packs can establish additional rules for what, if any, modifications are allowed.

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In some areas, no changes can be made to the axles or wheels. A second consideration is the rotational energy stored in the wheels.

History of the Pinewood Derby

The pinewood derby car converts gravitational potential energy into translational kinetic energy speed plus rotational energy. Heavier wheels have a greater moment of inertia and their spinning takes away energy that would otherwise contribute to the speed of the car. A standard wheel has a mass of 2. A raised wheel can reduce the rotational energy up to one-quarter, but this advantage is less with a bumpy track. Another consideration is the track itself.

A track that is mostly sloping, with little flat at the end, can allow cars with minimal mass in their wheels to shine. However, a track with a steep slope and then a long flat section can penalize such cars due to the quick loss of energy they experience once they have reached the bottom, when all potential energy has been transferred to kinetic and rotational energy. Before the race, Murphy separated his racers into classes based on their age. The first pinewood derby was a hit, and wouldn't be the last.

Within a year, pinewood derby racing moved out of the Scout House and into city parks in the Los Angeles area. The first city-wide race was held in Griffith Park on March 17, , and people couldn't get enough.

The Story of Pinewood Derby

A second race was scheduled for , and the Parks Department began handing out derby racing kits at over city parks in preparation. As derby mania swept through Los Angeles, the Boy Scouts of America began eyeing the sport for a national event. Don Murphy gave the Boy Scouts permission, happy that he had made a contribution to the organization both he and his son enjoyed. Boys' Life, a magazine devoted to scouting news, made the first mention of pinewood derby racing in their October issue.

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• Preparing for the race!

A one-page article contained two pictures from the first race held at the Manhattan Beach Scout House.