Bushy Run District Pinewood Derby Championship Results

[Gavin Chafin]

3 weeks ago I was pretty frustrated with my son’s second place finish at the pack. I took a deep breath, started over, took my time, read all of the advice I could on the forum (and from Stan and a few others), and my son and I built two more cars. To make a long story short, we went from second place at the Pack to…District Champion! And, it was a relatively comfortable 7 hundredths of a second victory over 2nd place (each car runs down a 40-foot aluminum track 3 times). I was very elated with the victory. Things weren’t going well this year and I thought the ‘District Champion’ title would forever evade us. I think that every single little tip I picked up on the board was necessary for the victory. Big thanks to everyone.

[Stan Pope]

I think that every single little tip I picked up on the board was necessary for the victory.

This comment contains an eternal truth that the deserving must learn! The value of the tips is not that any of them make the car a winner. The value is that by paying attention to ALL the details, you avoid making the car a loser.

Fail in one of them, and you fall off the cliff.

Congratulations to both! Get out your yardstick and measure the smile on your son's face for us.

[TDean]

Wow -- congrats to you as well -- all kinds of good news pouring in today!
A District Champion! Very exciting!

Please give us the scoop on your car -- anything you can think of that made the difference?

[Gavin Chafin]

OK. Specs on the car…Pure wedge. At it’s highest point in the back, the car is a sliver over ½ an inch high. Also, we rounded over every edge to make the car more aerodynamic (based upon recent test results on aerodynamics I saw on the board). I bought a drill press recently and had some of those lead sleeves (can’t think of the word for ‘em) that were purchased from Max-V. I drilled 3 holes all the way through the rear of the body (left to right) and inserted the lead sleeves through. One of the sleeves was inserted about an eighth of an inch from the back and the other two were inserted in front of the rear axle. Also, I drilled the holes very low in the body (definitely within 1/8th an inch from the bottom). The center of gravity was exactly 1 inch in front of the rear axles. Perhaps if the track was 50 feet, I should have gone a little further forward. But, it appears to have worked. As for the wheels, used a matched set of number 8’s, pro-wheel shaver, and the pro-hub tool. Coned the hubs going all the way up to 1000 grit sandpaper. The axles were straightened with the Pro-axle press (wonderful tool) and they were polished with 400 all the way through 2000 grit and then Mother’s. The alignment I wasn’t too high on (this really was my on weakness on the car). This has always been by weak point. But, the car rolled straight and I was able to use Stan’s waxpaper method to get the front wheel (the front wheel that wasn’t lifted) straight. The car appears to have rolled straight. I was unhappy with the back wheels since both wheels ended up being slightly canted (one more than the other). I didn’t mean to do it, but I couldn’t seem to “override” the Pro-body tool. Perhaps the tool knows more than I do.

We can’t use Nye-Oil, so I had to use the graphite with Molybdenum.

If I missed anything, just ask.

[terryep]

Congrats Gavin! How about the race, how many cars did you beat? Any mishaps? Bet you guys will sleep well tonight!

Terry

[Gavin Chafin]

Congrats Gavin! How about the race, how many cars did you beat? Any mishaps? Bet you guys will sleep well tonight!

Terry

Lots of no-shows (about 10 or 15). I think there was between 60-70 cars from 20 different packs. Bear in mind that only the top 3 from each pack are allowed to go (if the Pack is really large, they're allowed to send the top 6). But I'll know the total cars on Monday when I get the spreadsheet of the results.

Zero mishaps and no cars jumped the track. Quite amazing if you think about it.

[TurtlePowered]

Congrats! District Champs is great. We need to wait for April before our district races. Amazing you did that well without worrying about alighment.

[Gavin Chafin]

Congrats! District Champs is great. We need to wait for April before our district races. Amazing you did that well without worrying about alighment.

Oh, I worried about. Matter of fact, I had two other cars that the alignments were far better on. But, the car that the alignment was best on had a poorer disign (raised nose…it was a car that I actually built last year) and it simply wasn't as fast in our tests. As for the other car, it had a lighter front end and appeared to be neck-to-neck as fast as the car we ended up using (based upon tests we ran the night before in my brother’s garage using a make-shift 22-foot track…Yikes!). Since we were using a 40-foot aluminum track at the Districts, I went with a gut feeling and used the “poorly-aligned” wedge with more wood in the front. At the time, I thought it had a further forward center of gravity. But, I was wrong. The center of gravity was only 1 inch in front of the rear axle. Oh well. All’s well that ends well. I’ll figure it out for next year.

Of note, though, I noticed that a lot of the cars had raised noses this year. I believe this was based upon the fact that last year’s District Champion had a raised nose. IMO, these people didn’t do their homework. This year we switched tracks from a 32-foot wooden track to a 40-foot aluminum track. Aerodynamics and stability obviously kicked in as serious factors. Since a bunch of people copied last year’s winner, I guess we’ll see a ton of low wedges next year

[terryep]

Wedges are boring!

Terry

[Gavin Chafin]

Wedges are boring!

Terry

Yeah yeah yeah. I know. But it's also something that my son can actually do a lot of the work on. He's showing more and more of an interest. The fancier the car, the less he can do. I used to route out the well for the weight; now I'm just going to use the drill press. My son is definitely capable of lowering the drill from the drill press into the car.

I never said I was exciting

[terryep]

I've never been able to use my router for anything other than destruction!

I too use the drill press.. sometimes with a router bit!

Terry

[Darin McGrew]

I used to route out the well for the weight; now I'm just going to use the drill press. My son is definitely capable of lowering the drill from the drill press into the car.

I'm gonna lose my Tim the Toolman Taylor secret decoder ring for this ("More Power!"), but have you considered using a chisel? You might miss the whrrrrrrr! of the electric motor, but a good sharp chisel is a great tool for this, and it's a tool that a kid can use with adult supervision. The key is to make sure it's good and sharp. If you have to force the tool, then it isn't sharp enough. It's faster and safer to sharpen the tool and then use it once it's sharp.

[Cory]

I'm gonna lose my Tim the Toolman Taylor secret decoder ring for this ("More Power!"), but have you considered using a chisel?

The router jig for the Dremel tool is also good for this. Very light and you can see what you're doing pretty well.

[Barga Racing]

Wedges are boring!

Terry

Yeah they are but we have never been beat by anything except wedges. So until we figure out how to beat a wedge we also wll keep building them.

[terryep]

My son wants to build an ice cream truck this year.

I was thinking of a battle tank to use up some of our practice wheels!

Terry