Aluminum Wheels For a cool look!

[iLinkD]

This one’s for looks. No more paint, nor eye strain when it comes to dressing up those otherwise dull looking Pinewood Derby Wheels. Here’s an Aluminum Wheel that's real.
Have A Look!

[gpraceman]

Cool concept

[TurtlePowered]

This one’s for looks. No more paint, nor eye strain when it comes to dressing up those otherwise dull looking Pinewood Derby Wheels. Here’s an Aluminum Wheel that's real.
Have A Look!

Wheels look great! Wish I knew if the covers would get the car judges nervous. Our district is kinda funny about wheels.

[Da Graphite Kid]

Those wheel covers are way cool!

I believe that those wouldn't be allowed at either our Pack or District races - even though they would only hurt performance...


Da Graphite Kid

[Darin McGrew]

I believe that those wouldn't be allowed at either our Pack or District races - even though they would only hurt performance...

Since they're clearly decoration, and don't involve modifying the wheel itself, our derby would allow them.

[iLinkD]

Those wheel covers are way cool!

I believe that those wouldn't be allowed at either our Pack or District races - even though they would only hurt performance...


Da Graphite Kid

First I must state; I love this site and the opinions of its’ users thank you very much. That’s why I chose to advertise my Aluminum Hubs here. I think maybe I have achieved the first objective, that is, they look cool!

The next hurdle I think is acceptance in the question of legality. Rules are rules I know. Yet I challenge and welcome any Pack or District’s justification for not allowing the use of decorative wheel hubs. The design concept here is purely ornamental.

Performance question. The statement that "they would only hurt performance” I must challenge that as well. This hub only weighs .0015 oz. I believe this added mass will have an insignificant affect on the potential or kinetic energy. Any gain or loss is going to be difficult to measure.

However in an effort sway the opinions of my skeptics I am working on a test and plan to post the results here.

Thank you again for your objective opinions.

[Darin McGrew]

The next hurdle I think is acceptance in the question of legality. Rules are rules I know. Yet I challenge and welcome any Pack or District’s justification for not allowing the use of decorative wheel hubs.

There are derbies that prohibit any modification of the wheels whatsoever. Their rules often list paint and hubcaps explicitly as prohibited modifications. The justification is simply that you shouldn't modify the wheels at all.

I don't agree with this approach, but they didn't ask me.

However in an effort sway the opinions of my skeptics I am working on a test and plan to post the results here.

A simple test would be to compare the performance of a car with the hubcaps secured to the car's body near the axles, against the performance of the same car with the hubcaps installed on the wheels. If the hubcaps can be removed easily, then you could be doubly sure by alternating runs between the two configurations. If the hubcaps cannot be removed easily, then you will need to take extra care to avoid differences in the lubrication, wear, etc. between the two sets of runs.

[Da Graphite Kid]

iLinkD,

Not trying to shoot down your product here, but I think that you could more easily get a pwd car to run upslope than to get wide acceptance of your aluminum hubs from most Cub Scout Pinewood Derbies. Believe me, showing them test or mathmatical data won't help. Many of the rules that are used are the "we've always done it this way" or "We've never allowed them before" rules that they refuse to change - believe me, I've tried. Even if you showed them that it is purely a decoration, I think that many would believe that it will bestow some secret speed advantage to those pwd cars that have them. I do wish you good luck though.

As for performance, as most still run on a 32 foot track (okay, I know they actually race on only 25 - 28 feet of it!), any added weight to the wheels will make a pwd car have a slower start and therefore slower run times. Yeah, 0.0015 ounces per wheel isn't much and your tests may not be accurate enough to show a difference but there are those on this site that can show you mathmatically that the difference is there.

Check the massive archived posts as there are many debates on rules and I believe a few on weighting the wheels.

I would expect though that these will start showing up on WIRL show cars and on some of my personal cars as well (If I can convince my Accountant that I just gotta have them! ).


Da Graphite Kid