Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

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dstory
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Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by dstory »

Shape N Race - the best pinewood derby deal in the country. No pricey bells and whistles here, just top quality cars made by a family owned business committed to excellence and old-fashioned customer service. We sell complete kits with all you need to build a fast, top-notch car. We look forward to hearing from you and helping make your race great. 12 complete car kits with Super Speed Shape 'n Race Racing Wheels, Fast Axles, and Instructions for a total of just $39.00 with shipping included.

Visit us at ShapeNRace.net
Last edited by dstory on Sat Jan 12, 2008 4:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by Darin McGrew »

Note that these kits do not look like the ones used by CSB for its Shape N Race Derby.
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Re: Shape N Race - great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by dstory »

We have been the sole supplier for CSB (Christian Service Boys Brigade) for the last 25 years. We make both the CSB type of car and standard pinewood derby cars. At this time, we sell all our Boys Brigade type of cars directly to CSB and anyone wanting to purchase them must get them only through CSB. This helps generate revenue for CSB, a non-profit organization. However, if you want a standard 5oz derby car, we sell them directly at great prices and we'd love to send some your way!

Thanks for noticing.

Great cars at terrific prices: ShapenRace.net
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Shape N Race - great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by Darin McGrew »

dstory wrote:We have been the sole supplier for CSB (Christian Service Boys Brigade) for the last 25 years.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I've never seen the Shape N Race style blocks anywhere else, and the photos on your web site show the more typical Pinewood blocks that other organizations use.

BTW, the "new" (as of ~17 years ago) V-tread wheels are much nicer than the old flat-tread wheels. Cutting off the sprue and then smoothing the wheel was always such a challenge.

Also, the ShapeNRace.net URL doesn't work for me, but the Five-Ounce-Cars.com URL does work.

And FWIW, Boys' Brigade and Christian Service Brigade are different organizations.
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by dstory »

Hi Darin,

Thanks for the reply. The reason we show the conventional blocks on our website is that we sell all our special "Shapenrace" blocks directly to CSB at this point. However, our "normal" five ounce blocks are just like everyone elses, except better. :wink:

The URL for ShapeNRace.net should work for you now. We had some problems for a while with our web hosting.

All the best,

Don Story

ShapeNRace.net
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3 Cub Dad
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by 3 Cub Dad »

From the Shape N Race web site:

Applicability

Our kit can be used in any local race. The only time that BSA or Awana requires their higher priced, lesser-quality certified cars is when you are continuing on to regional competitions. Our ShapeNRace cars are perfect for local races sponsored by Awana, YMCA, and other children's organizations, as well as corporate, neighborhood, or community races


It should be noted that this is false and misleading. These kits would get the scout disqualified at our pack and district level, as well as every distrtict in our council, and several other packs, districts and councils that I know for sure of spanning from North Carolina to Kansas. IMO, This "claim" should be removed from the site.
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by dstory »

Dear 3 Cub Dad,

Thank you for expressing your concern. Please let me attempt to clarify our statement about applicability. We have sold many of our cars to Boy Scout groups across the nation that are then sold to the pack boys to use in their derbies. These groups have made the decision (at the local troop/pack/den level) to use our cars instead of the official BSA sanctioned car. We have told them very clearly that if they want to continue on and compete regionally, our car will not work for them. But many troops are not interested in moving beyond their local derby, so our car is what they choose because of a lower price and higher quality. Nobody is disqualified in their local derbies because they are all using the same car.

We got a letter from one mother who had a son competing in a Boy Scout derby that used the BSA car and a daughter that used our car in a Girl Scout derby. The mother shared with us that she wished she could have used our cars with both kids because it was so much easier to get our car to go fast because of the higher quality wheels/axles and perfectly square axle slots.

I have modified our website's "applicability statement" to address your concern and hopefully clarify that section. Our goal as a company is to provide the best product available at a competitive price, while giving excellent customer service along the way. Over the last 25 years, we have been privileged to help many organizations (including many Boy Scout packs) run successful derbies. We hope to help many more in the future.

Thanks again for your feedback. Please feel to ask if you have further concerns or questions.

Sincerely,

Don Story
ShapeNRace.net
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by ameliabedelia »

dstory wrote:I have modified our website's "applicability statement" to address your concern and hopefully clarify that section.
I went to your website, and I don't see that you've modified your statement: I copied it from your site today: Our kit can be used in any local race. The only time that BSA or Awana requires their higher priced, lesser-quality certified cars is when you are continuing on to regional competitions. Our ShapeNRace cars are perfect for local races sponsored by Awana, YMCA, and other children's organizations, as well as corporate, neighborhood, or community races

Again, as 3 Cub Dad said, it's false & misleading (still). Our Awana club, as well as many, many others (most, actually) follow Awana's Grand Prix rules which state that the Awana Grand Prix car kit must be used, including the wheels and axles included in the kit.

And Awana's car kits are not higher priced than yours, they're lower. (This year I bought 16 car kits--2 boxes--for $32, plus shipping, which is usually about $6).
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by dstory »

Amelia,

I am not sure what happened, but I did change the website.

It now reads, "Our ShapeNRace cars are great for local races sponsored by BSA, Awana, YMCA, and other children's organizations, as well as corporate, neighborhood, or community races. Many BSA and Awana groups choose to use our cars instead their officially sanctioned cars because of our lower prices and higher quality product. If your derby plans to send winners on to regional races, our cars will probably not work for you. If there is any question about eligibility, please ask the person in charge of your derby to clarify the issue. "

As for the lower price, AWANA advertises their individual cars for $3.95 plus shipping at their site. It is great that you were able to get yours for as low as you did.

Thanks for your feedback. I hope that you no longer believe there is nothing false or misleading on our website. Our goal is to provide a superior product with great customer service at a very reasonable price.

All the best,

Don

Vist us at ShapeNRace.net
Last edited by dstory on Sat Mar 01, 2008 11:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ameliabedelia
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by ameliabedelia »

dstory wrote:Amelia,

I am not sure what happened, but I did change the website.
It's fixed now. Earlier today it had the old statement. I've never been to your site before, so it's not old cookies...don't know what happened there. Much better than before, thank you.
dstory wrote: As for the lower price, AWANA advertises their individual cars for $3.95 plus shipping at their site. It is great that you were able to get yours for as low as you did.
Awana recently began selling car kits individually, but normally clubs purchase all of their kits by the box of 8. You must have gone to the Awana online Store which sells to individuals, not the one that sells to clubs.
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Re: Shape N Race- great car kits at terrific prices!

Post by dstory »

Amelia,

We really do appreciate the feedback. The last thing we want to do is offend or mislead people with info on our website. Thank you for helping us fix an issue that needed to be fixed. We do stand behind the claim that you won't find a better car for less money anywhere than from us. Over the years, we have heard from so many people that our cars, wheels, and axles have been a blessing to their derbies because of the high quality and uniform performance of our cars. We work hard to maintain superior quality to make it easy for you to build a great car.

Yes, I did log into the Awana store. That is the only part of the site you have access to if you are not an official leader. It makes sense that prices are lower in bulk.

Thanks again.

Happy Racing

Visit us @ ShapeNRace.net
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