Being the derby is sponsored by the motorcycle shop, I decided to see if I could build some sort of motorcycle car. I had done some drawings trying to make a motorcycle with a sidecar work, to keep the plan in scale proved to be difficult. Motorcycles have large wheels and when trying to stretch to the pinewood dimensions (7” X 2 3/4") I would have an extremely short car (or bike).
I had seen a picture of a Pinewood Derby Vespa with sidecar a while back. I was searching for cool Pinewood Derby car pictures I could assemble together to create a DVD to run during the breaks at the Pinewood Derby race. A Vespa has smaller wheels that would work better with the size of the PWD wheels. It would be huge compared to a pinewood car.
This picture showed the Vespa from the L side, but was a Vespa and sidecar with right hand drive. I went back and tried to find the picture again to maybe find a picture from the other side. I could not find it again. So I started drawing a plan for a left hand drive Vespa and sidecar. I was having trouble making the Vespa narrow enough to fit over the wheels (1/2” wide centered). I decided I could just not make this plan work.
One day I was down in the shop and I spotted some old PWD wheels (pre 1980 narrow wheels), I figured I possibly could make these wheels work with the Vespa. So I modified the plans to use the old wheels:
The plan was complete, now I still need to see if I had time before the derby to build such a project. I decided if I did not start building it by Friday (a week before the Sunday derby, 9 days to complete) then I would have to pass. It was good I didn’t have anything going that weekend so I could spend some time creating.
A friend of mine restores vintage motorcycles, he says motorcycles are more difficult to restore because you see almost everything on a motorcycle (ex. there is no hood to hide the motor if it is ugly). You cannot see the motor on the Vespa but it seemed really difficult to build. Maybe the difficulty is because I have made so many cars now I have a list that I follow, it all seems so simple and straightforward (to me).
I cut some blocks for all of the components. The base of the Vespa (the part that contains the wheels) would be a black slab that the other parts connect to. This would also give a spot to rest against the starting pin for the race.
I did some initial shaping of the sidecar:
Then I cut both sides from the sidecar, cut out the seat and foot well, painted the interior and glued the sidecar back together. This saved .56oz that I could add to the rear:
The front fender was built just like the sidecar, it was formed the sides cut off, the center was formed. Then the fender was glued back together and sanded into shape:
Additional wood was added to the sides of the Vespa and the forming of the Vespa body commenced:
Once the main body was complete, and in primer. I had to start work on the many accessories, handlebars, rear rack, seat, sidecar fender and tail light. These were all cut from scrap pine:
Originally I was going to paint the Vespa burgundy and off white, while I was at the hobby shop looking at paint, Noah asked me why I wasn’t going to paint the Vespa light blue, like my friend’s Vespa, so then it was light blue and off white. I could not find any lacquer paint in an off white, so I was going to get a pure white instead. Noah said I should get the light yellow paint he said it would look good with the light blue.
I painted the wheels blue, and used a cut down spare axle to make sure paint did not get into the polished wheel hub. The front wheel needed to be painted on both sides:
I was really not sure at this point that the chosen colors were going to work well together, but I continued (as I did not have time to get to the hobby store, much less spare time to repaint):
It was at this point I realized Noah was right about the paint colors working well together (if they didn’t I could say it was a Cub Scout - Vespa):
After the Vespa was put together its weight was at 5.01oz. I was trying to find a spot where I could remove some weight (without drilling out wood). I sanded the peg narrower, didn’t help. So I drilled out as much of the plastic on the spare tire as I could without going through, and we were at 5.00oz. If during inspection they found I was overweight, I could remove the spare tire (always good to have a plan).
The rear axles are drilled at 2.5 degrees camber, I installed the rear wheels with the axles straight, I bent the front axle (2.5 degrees) before installing the front wheel and ran the Vespa down the test board and adjusted drift. Now it was time to run down the 20’ BestTrack. These were nervous times for me as I was not sure what would happen on its maiden run. It is a very tall pinewood vehicle, I made sure I had pictures of the Vespa taken from all angles (in case of a disastrous crash).
Noah was at the lever, ready to release the Vespa I was at the stop section (all of our cars go right over the stop section and onto the floor, I was there to catch). On its first run it went to the rail and down the incline, just after the curve it went to the left and fell from the track. Turns out the wheel replacement peg I made was too short (probably a good thing to test before the first run). The Vespa was OK with no damage. I made a longer peg and tested it before the second run.
The second run it went to the rail and down the track without any trouble, I just wanted the Vespa to be able to finish the races without taking out any innocent cars in the process. The Vespa also went right off the test track stop section. It was off to the races.
As it turns out I did find another picture of the Vespa car I was looking for in the beginning of this project. This shows the Vespa from the other side (I am glad I could not find the picture at the time I was looking for it as I might not have built it):
They had offset the front fender so much it was not over the front wheel anymore. I like the use of the old Cub Scout wheels much better.
At the races everyone thought the Vespa looked really cool. This race was run on a 6 lane track using the 4 outside lanes. The races were basically 2 simultaneous drag races. If you lost you got an X on your race number sticker, after 2 losses you were out. I was not sure of this race format but for adults you could easily follow along. Still not sure the fastest car won.
The Vespa was indeed fast, it did not lose a race until the finals (a race against the Turbine car). The Vespa got the slow lane and the Turbine car beat it. They both had one X (loss) so the race needed to be re-run, change lanes, and the Vespa was the 1st place winner. The races were extremely close, take a look at the picture. Can you tell me who the winner is?
It turns out I was the big winner, as my cars won 1st and 2nd place (out of 35 cars).
