Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Show off your cool vehicle designs and track burning speedsters!
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roosclan
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Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by roosclan »

After a one year hiatus from Cub Scouts (moved to a new town and adjusting to new job made it too hectic), Roosclan Racing is back in action! After my son Seth's amazing season in 2013 winning Pack and District and getting 2nd overall at the Council (missed 1st place by .004s over 8 runs, breaking into the sub-3s range), we took a year off and now are back with 3 new cars. This year was a whirlwind trying to help my Webelo, Wolf, and Tiger get their cars done in less than 6 weeks during hunting season. We had our pack race this past Monday.

Seth, my Webelo, made a car somewhat similar to his 2013 car:
Image

He used a silver basecoat with a candy apple red kandy coat that has Parma Faskolor metal flake in it, followed by a clearcoat of Pledge floor finish. Since he is now a Webelo, he had to do all of the body prep, so he didn't get it as smooth as when he was a Wolf when I applied the bondo and let him sand it. Even then, the light in my photo booth doesn't do the car justice. He handily won the Webelo race and came in 2nd place over all, losing to his Wolf brother...

Dominic! His first car, and he decided to make it a thinner version of Seth's first car with some fins added to it:
Image

He chose a purple/green color shifting paint and did a very good job learning to use one of my airbrushes. His car was pretty quick, but it has a ton of fishtailing, so we need to go back to the alignment board and put a more aggressive steer on it (currently 3" in 4' with a 3/4" CoM), and maybe redo the rear alignment. I used 3.5oz of extra weight to align each rear wheel, and with so little time I didn't get to take my time and do a little each day (the attention span of an 8y.o. just doesn't lend itself to a marathon session of alignment).

Aidan, my Tiger, chose to build a car similar to my 2nd son's car from 2011. Introducing KarbonKruiser2:
Image

We used actual carbon fiber laminate for the top (not a decal) and a tungsten canopy for the weight. Considering the short amount of time we had, I'm very glad he chose to go this route, as it saved a ton of time only having to prep and paint the thin sides.

Our first derby with our new pack was definitely different. They borrowed a Best Track, but instead of the 42' we're used to racing on, this was considerably shorter. 35' at most. No computer system to record times, just the start gate and the laser finish line, which ended up not working halfway through the races. Fortunately, I had my camera there and took pictures as all the cars crossed the line, so we could review and figure out the placing of the cars.

Most of the night consisted of Aidan and Seth blowing past the competition. Dominic had a genuine competitor, and with enough Wolf cars to run in two heats, he won 2 of his 3 races in his heat to race the other heat. By the time the finals came around, it looked like this:
Image Image

Here they are, waiting at the finish line during the finals, and a last shot of the squadron:
Image Image
Tempus fugit. Frater, memento mori.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by Vitamin K »

Dude. Those are some sweet and original looking cars! :mrgreen: I feel the need to get checked for cavities now!

Are the bodies solid pine, or did you do the balsa-fill like you showed on the other thread?
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sporty
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by sporty »

Nice sharing. A nice post. Great car. And kids with smiles.

Sporty
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whodathunkit
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by whodathunkit »

Very cool looking car designs! Team Roosclan.
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
roosclan
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by roosclan »

Thanks, y'all! This year has definitely been different with so little time to work on them.
Vitamin K wrote:Dude. Those are some sweet and original looking cars! :mrgreen: I feel the need to get checked for cavities now!

Are the bodies solid pine, or did you do the balsa-fill like you showed on the other thread?
We don't fill with balsa. They are hollow with 1/32" basswood on the top and bottom.
Tempus fugit. Frater, memento mori.
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Scrollsawer
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by Scrollsawer »

Welcome Back Roosclan!

Great looking cars, and fun pics. of race day. Looks like you didn't forget much during your long hiatus. 8)

Scrollsawer
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birddog
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by birddog »

Thanks for posting. Very nice. I enjoy posts like this where you can see the cars, see the kids and read a nice story to boot. Well done!
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Noskills
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by Noskills »

Roosclan,

Glad to have you back. Those are indeed mighty cars. I love the diversity in shape, color and texture as well as weight choice. Soo cool.

Thanks for sharing.

Noskills (also a Seth :thumbup: )
"Nunchuk skills... bowhunting skills... pinewood derby skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"
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roosclan
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Re: Roosclan Racing is back for 2015!

Post by roosclan »

Scrollsawer wrote:Welcome Back Roosclan!

Great looking cars, and fun pics. of race day. Looks like you didn't forget much during your long hiatus. 8)

Scrollsawer
Forget, no. Get everything done I wanted to? Heck no. In our previous district, the pack that owned the track set it up and invited all the other packs to race on it. All pack races were done in two weekends. Here at our new town, the track travels, so who knows how well it gets set up! Not only that, but our pack didn't borrow the computer program, so there were no times. They also only used about 32' or so of the track.
Noskills wrote:Roosclan,

Glad to have you back. Those are indeed mighty cars. I love the diversity in shape, color and texture as well as weight choice. Soo cool.

Thanks for sharing.

Noskills (also a Seth :thumbup: )
Glad to be back! It wasn't quite as much fun for me this year since we were under such a time crunch I didn't get to spend as much time teaching the boys the why of what we were doing.
Tempus fugit. Frater, memento mori.
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