Derby Talk

This year my lovely wife, Diane, said I do not build her fast cars that can win in our packs Parent / Sibling races. So Noah and I decided to build the Mach 5 for her car. I had drawn up the movie Mach 5 plan first but then when I was looking for more pictures of the Mach 5 on the internet I came across these drawings.



After seeing the original again it was decided that was the Mach 5 we needed to make. The tall fenders and tail fins, the original is definitely cooler (I originally did not think there was that much of a difference between the original and the movie cars). We also decided to run with the new BSA red colored wheels. So I had to start over with the plans. These plans are actually a shorter than BSA standard wheelbase (it is a 3 7/8” wheelbase, 4 3/8” is standard).



After showing the plans to Diane she said “I want my car to be pink”. I told her the Mach 5 is white and red. If she wanted to have a custom made car she needed to start to plan earlier in the year and if she looked real hard, the white and red do make pink. I don’t think my comment helped, oh well.










A true convertible does help with weight distribution by removing some weight from the front of the block to be strategically moved for better weight distribution. But convertibles are a pain to make (especially when you make 2 in the same year). I actually had to add approximately 1 oz. of weight to the rear of this car to get it to 5 oz.










Turns out this Mach 5 was indeed fast, it took 3rd place in the Parent / Sibling race.

All i can say is WOW, you really truly are a real craftsman.

Wow. that is cool! My son has the Mach 6 this year but is determined to do the 5 next year. Thanks so much for posting the plans.

Great job! love the interior!

I bow in the presence of greatness! In the words of my teenage sons, "this is totally sick!"

Wow!! I am very impressed!! I'm glad you're not in my kids pack...ha..ha...

Absolutely awesome!

It looks like you made your own windshield. If so, can you say a few words on how you accomplished that?

The windshield is made from the top of a 500ml (16.5 fl. oz.) Aquafina bottle. The plastic (polyethylene terephthalate - PET) is recessed into the body, via a knife cut line and attached with a small amount of superglue (superglue is not recommended to be used with PET, according to the instructions, but I carefully sanded the part of the windshield, with 220 grit, that was to be glued, to aid adhesion). Here is a picture of the first test we did with a PET windshield, with this test I decided to not use superglue on the inside of the windshield (as it seemed to fog the plastic). I lifted the test fixture by the windshield to make sure it was stuck well, it did not release (even when I tried to abuse it).



Then I was worried that the windshield install with superglue, might affect the paint so I made a new test fixture that was painted. After painting I attached a bunch of test windshields (the superglue did leave a mark on the paint that was easily sanded down with 220 grit sandpaper, when cured), then I painted on top of the mounted windshield (because that is how I planned to paint the body, after the windshield install)



Looking at the test fixture you may be able to decide what car we were making for my son.

The windshield on the Mach 5 had a problem when the superglue cured. The windshield was not fully inserted into the groove in one section and it had a funny bend in the top of it. So I used a heat gun to try and make it more flexible so I could reform the upper bend, but instead it acted like a Shrinky Dink and shrunk down and looked pretty darn good.

ah8tk wrote:...I used a heat gun to try and make it more flexible so I could reform the upper bend, but instead it acted like a Shrinky Dink and shrunk down and looked pretty darn good.

Shrinky Dink?

I think that's the first I've heard of them in over 30 years LOL.

Bubba

p.s. Odd thing, though, I googled them and they're still around, even have their own website. With a bunch of young kids in the house, we might have to find "our nearest retailer"

We just had a pinewood derby at work, and my plan was to try the Mach 5 also, a bit of a challenge for not having done one of these in so long. I found your plans and pictures here very helpful, thanks so much for sharing.

My son (too young for scouts) is a big Speed Racer fan thanks to the recent Disney movie. I didn't follow the plans exactly, but tried to freehand sketch most of the major curves to fit the block of wood. I only used the original block of wood with the pinewood derby kit, cutting the top portion off the block to make the fenders on the sides. I should have taken a picture after rough cutting and gluing up the pieces, it looked more like Franken-5. I used only hand tools, so I wasn't that accurate and detailed, but close enough to get the idea. It won one heat before getting eliminated, but I didn't really spend much time on the wheels/axels and tuning it for speed. I did weigh it and found that it was 2.6 oz, and I had room for 10 quarters: 5 flat and 5 upright, taped down in the driver's compartment to add 2 oz for the race.

My windscreen was cut from a water bottle and is just held in place by some small tabs that insert into the sides of the car with a drop of glue.

I had a hard time with the Testor's ink-jet decal paper, the ink would run easily if you get the top of the decal wet, even when it was coated with regular clear spray paint, maybe I didn't put enough on. Also, the verbiage they use for white paper and clear paper is confusing, I used the "clear background" paper which is actually a white background, not really an issue for the Mach 5, but something to be aware of, I made extras and finally got the hang of it.

Great car. Yet another Mach 5. You guys are really really giving me the itch to make one of these things.
Don't ever apologize that it is not to perfect scale, that thing is beautiful! More curves then the West Virginia turnpike. Looks great!

I have seen a lot of mach 5's but this has got to be the most detailed one I've have seen so far.....Awesome work man it it just awesome..........

AeroEngrGuy wrote: thanks to the recent Disney movie.

My mistake, I think it was actually a Warner Brothers production.

Thanks for the kind comments.

This makes it official. I am a hack. That is some great craftmanship. I'll be posting this years cars in then 30 minutes

Thank You so very much for this post. I built this with my kids, it wasn't the fastest at the race, but it won Best Paint. I added some LED lights that turn on and off from a button switch in the cockpit between the seats. The BEST part was sharing this time with my children.

The Mach 5 looks great! Very similar to the one we built back in 2009.