Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

General topics of interest to racers and race coordinators alike.
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TDean
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Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by TDean »

Hey Pineheads --
My sweet ol' mother just sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal Online: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,, ... m4,00.html
(I hope that link works).
It is an interesting article -- mentions Max V's site, DerbyWorx and WIRL!
It also says the PWD movie "Down and Derby" is finally due out on April 15th!

Check it out!
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by ranman106 »

Link works great! Thanks for the post and glad to here the movie will be out soon. I am planning to take our den to see it!
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by SpeedWorks »

Nice article, I sent it to my wife hopefully if will put my behavior in perspective.
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

They should have mentioned that some Dads have bought power tools JUST to make PWD cars.

I had my wife buy me a Ryobi band saw & belt/disc sander for christmas with the intention of making cars. I've used them for other things also.

Being a Pinehead, I will be making a few cars in the off season.

The movie is mentioned on our councils web site.
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by kcobb »

Excellent article. Thanks for posting! Also great news to hear the movie is finally going to be released. I am really looking forward to seeing that one!
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by WarpSpeedINC »

What about the National race in Dallas?
Any body have any info on this?

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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by gpraceman »

WarpSpeedINC wrote:What about the National race in Dallas?
Any body have any info on this?

Warp Speed Inc.
That article was the first I heard about it. I'll check with our District PWD Chair to see if he knows anything about it.
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by pwdarchitect »

this is what a search on excite was able to com up with:
http://www.sac-bsa.org/pdfs/National%20 ... TIONAL.pdf
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

Here's another tease. I haven't found anything concrete.

http://www.mississippivalleybsa.org/Tem ... ontest.pdf

The best I've found is that it is May 25-27 (Wed.-Fri) in Grapevine Texas.
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by WIRL »

I have included the article here, because it requires registration to view. We were happy to be included in the article although we wish they would have included our website address!
Scouting's Pinewood Derby: Driving under the influence of dad

By JONATHAN WELSH, The Wall Street Journal via the AP
March 6, 2005

When the annual Pinewood Derby rolled around this year in Peotone, Ill., the Cub Scouts of Pack 315 prepared for the big race as millions of scouts across the country have done since the Eisenhower era. They started with the same $3.55 kits — a 7-inch block of wood, four plastic wheels and four nails to serve as axles. With saw and sandpaper and a bit of help from mom or dad, the boys turned the parts into miniature cars.



And then, one by one, they lost to 7-year-old Jacob Chisausky.

Jacob and his dad, computer-hardware designer Larry Chisausky, had spent more than four weeks — and hundreds of dollars — perfecting Jacob's car. They used a $9.95 tool from a site called Maximum Velocity to make sure the axle hole was perfectly round. For lubrication, they bought graphite powder with molybdenum particles.

The final step: Mr. Chisausky set up a $250 aluminum track in the family basement and ran dozens of trials — using an optical-beam timer ($125) to clock the results to within 1/10,000th of a second.

"You know," said Jacob, now 8, who beat 98 scouts for the title, "Pinewood Derby is my dad's favorite part of scouting."

All of this is a far cry from the first derby, organized in 1953 by scout leader Don Murphy in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The idea was to get parents to spend time with kids to teach them rudimentary woodworking skills.

Even now, the Cub Scouts' derby guidelines — distributed on a sheet of paper that comes with each kit — retain this simplicity: Cars can weigh "not over 5 ounces," for example, and can be powered only by gravity. Kids can also learn to maximize speed by adding weight toward the car's rear, reducing friction and drag, and lubricating axles for smoother operation.

Many of the latest pine-car performance boosters are far beyond the comprehension of the average 8-year-old. One recent video, "Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets," ([no advertising for this vendor].com, $14.99) includes the formula for potential energy and a discussion of the torque of the wheel's braking area.

On pinewoodpro.com, it costs $5.95 to download "Winning Pinewood Derby Secrets," a book that suggests modifying cars so that three of the four wheels touch the track (to reduce friction) and creating hidden chambers for graphite so the lubricant can keep oozing onto the axles race after race.

Of course, for every kid with a hovering parent, there's another who worked a bit more independently.

For many kids — and their parents — winning now means more than ever. To mark Cub Scouting's 75th anniversary, the organization is holding its first nationwide pinewood race this year. That means the 1.5 million kids now competing in 300 regional Cub Scout councils will have a shot at May's national championship in Dallas.

"Pinewood Derby can be a very emotional event," says Jerry Dehoney, associate director of the Boy Scouts of America's Cub Scout division. "I wouldn't say the parents are like Little League parents — but they can get a little too involved."

For scout leaders who want to keep the playing field even, the derby's high-performance subculture is creating new challenges. Carl Menk, a scout leader in Montclair, N.J., says he often chides dads over the public-address system when kids enter virtually flawless cars. Because the Cub Scout national organization sets only a few basic rules, Menk explains, it's up to local Cub Scout dens and packs to interpret them. (Many forbid the use of axles and wheels not included in the official kit.)

"It's obvious the fathers are building these cars," Menk says. "Sometimes I take a dad aside and say, in a fun way, that I'll disqualify his car if it happens to win."

To help give grown-ups an outlet for their enthusiasm, many scout packs in the past few years have added "Family Derbies." These open competitions let brothers, sisters and parents compete in their own contest. There's even an organized national league for adults: About a year ago, a husband-and-wife team in Marietta, Ga. — they're former scout parents — started the Woodcar Independent Racing League. The league invites people from across the U.S. to mail their pinewood-style cars to its headquarters, where the cars are raced by proxy. Results and car photos are posted on the club's Web site.

Derby-obsessed dads are even the subject of a new movie. "Down and Derby" — it features Pat Morita of "The Karate Kid," and is set for April 15 release — is the story of dads who live vicariously through their sons' races. The comedy includes a dad who tries to pilfer a car design from another dad, and wrestles his son for control of a car. Says one of the movie's Cub Scout characters: "I can't wait until I'm a dad so I can build my own car and race it." (Director Eric Hendershot says the movie draws from his own experience as a dad of five Cub Scouts.)
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by Sylvar »

A $250 aluminum track?!? Where did he find one that cheap?
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by Patmanruls »

In the article, it mentions the finals being in Dallas in May. Is this true?

If so, fill me in. I live in Dallas and would love to see this, and maybe meet some of you.
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by Pinewood Daddy »

Patmanruls:

The best I've found is that it is May 25-27 (Wed.-Fri) in Grapevine Texas.

I think it's by invitation only. You have to submit your car to your Council by mid-April (district roundtable) and it must be judged based on certain criteria: "boy-built" & showing the spirit of the council.

See links earlier in this thread.
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Re: Wall Street Journal article on PWD!

Post by caveman823 »

FYI. We are in the National Capital Area Council. I checked with them and they have no plans to participate in the National Pinewood Derby.
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