Derby Talk

The Derby is never over for me. It is my year around hobby. I teach the Physics of the Pinewood Derby to Nursing Home and Assisted Living residents as we build cars and we then have a race after all our cars are built. We follow the rules of my District and use the BSA kit. I've built many tracks an...

Very Good Question. It is one of those rules that can't be totally enforced. The inspectors are looking for very obvious violations, which the man was in my previous post. The information you have given me leads me to believe I can build a "legal" Rail Rider under our rules if I look throu...

I'd like to share a story about axles and their preparation since the topic was brought up. Let me start by saying, Yes, I do prepare my axles and I am very meticulous about it. Two years ago I was working the repair table at our District races. A scout got caught with bent axles (a No-No for our Di...

Good Morning, Noskills, I'm going to guess at a lot of things. If you're getting into this and you will be in it for quite sometime, this is what I would do. Buy a piece of 1/2" plywood and build yourself a 2 lane track. You can buy 1/4" x 1 1/2" pine lattice strip at many places. Thi...

I do Nursing Homes and Assisted Living facilities in the summer time and have for the past 20 years so I don't really have a number. It is a very fulfilling experience and they get into it. DO NOT touch their cars. You might get a Cane up side your head. Ha, Ha.
Cheers,
Bill

Hi Stan, I'm new to this forum which I'm ashamed to admit since this is my 27th year racing the BSA. My various tracks have been used in our Pack since 1985. I get to start the cars and I get to race the 1st place winner of each grade group. I offer the scout $5.00, win or lose, to race me. I've had...

Hi Jeff, I'm new to this forum but I'll take a shot at answering your question. The farther you move the COG toward the rear the greater velocity you will have when the car reaches the horizontal run if you are running on a circular arc track. You will also gain an advantage involving the "Fron...