Derby Talk

I made the mistake of messing with the car before district, now I cant get all 4 wheels to touch. I can slide a piece of paper under the wheel and it touches. Is that good enough or how strict is the 4 wheel must touch at district?

How to get all the wheels to touch without comprising the car?

Usually 4 wheels touching means 4 wheels touching on a flat surface (granite or sheet of glass or equivalent).

Axles aren't always perfectly straight. I'd try rotating the offending axle about 15 degrees at a time and see if I could get it to touch.

Hopefully that does it. If it doesn't, you might put a VERY small bend in the axle so that you can rotate it to the point that it will touch.

@gcode - Are you sure there is a 4 wheel touching rule? Not too many races have such a rule.

http://david-crockett.shac.org/pinewood-derby

c. Wheels and Axles
The only wheels and axles allowed are authorized BSA wheels and axles. The colored wheels available from BSA are allowed.
Wheel bearings, spacers, washers, or bushings are prohibited.
The car shall not ride on any type of springs.
The car must be free-wheeling with no starting device or other propulsion.
Only the tread surface and width may be altered. The tread surface of the wheel may be altered only to a flat surface that is parallel to the axle. The wheels may not be drilled, beveled, or rounded. The tread width may be altered only from the side facing the body of the car.
The tread width may not be less than .275”. The wheel diameter may not be less than 1.175” or greater than 1.200”. Lightly sanding and/or polishing the tread of the wheel to remove burs is allowed as long as it does not reduce the diameter below the allowable level. (Note: this rule does not apply to the open division.)
Materials may not be removed or added to the wheels except as stated above.
The underside of the axle head may be ground or filed to remove burs. Axle shaft diameter at the point of contact between the axle and the inner wheel bore may not be less than .085”. Simple polishing of the axle will not reduce the diameter below the allowable level.
No wheel covers (hubcaps) are permitted.
All four wheels must touch the track. (Note: this rule does not apply to the outlaw division.)

Very poor rule. It penalizes novice racers. Slap 4 wheels on a car and invariably one will not touch. We should make it easier for novice racers to build a car, not harder.

After a couple hours of messing with it and pulling axles I finally got it sit on all 4. Wow what a pain.

This Post really hit a nerve with me.
I wonder how many people know Randy Lisano got rid of that horrible rule when The Ford Motor Company ran their "Ford Fast Track Racing". Think about it. Randy ran races for 800 Girl Scouts across the nation. I wonder if he ever got a "Thank You".

We have one District in the Erie Council that still has that rule. No, it is not my District but I have tried hard to get them to get rid of the rule. I am so tired of hearing, "We've always done it that way". Randy's sentence has made me think about that District again and I'm going to write them again and use his sentence.

The BSA makes a lot of money on the Pinewood Derby and they're going to make more with the Girl Scouts getting involved Big Time. Wouldn't it be nice if people in the BSA who could make a difference all read Randy's sentence? They say they're always thinking of the little ones. Are they Really?

Hi neighbor!

Our district (Thunderbird, Bay Area Council) has the same "four on the floor" rule and it's a struggle every year to get them all down. Usually we have to adjust the offending axle until it touches by bending and turning the axle, then make final adjustments to the other axles to get the car going the way you want.

This year (our race was mid-January, really early IMO) we went with the 1* bends in front and 2* bends in the rear and on my son's car in particular the offending axle was turned all the way so that the bend was pointing down. My daughter's car (her first time, she's a Tiger) wasn't quite as bad but still needed adjustment.

So many variables go into putting four on the floor (axle height, "stock" axle bend, etc.) that it's tough for a Scout to fix this on their own. I'd like to see BAC completely rewrite the rules or borrow one of the major rule sets as the rules currently in use are fairly vague in general.