Pinewood Derby Times Newsletter Volume 11 Issue 6

Pinewood Derby Times
Volume 11, Issue 6
December 14, 2011
In this Edition:

- Editor's Notes

- Feature Article - Lisano Enterprises Company Profile

- Humor

- Tip - Painting Platform

- Product Showcase - DerbyDome: 10% Off

- Pinewood Derby Car Showcase

- Q&A

Merry Christmas to you and your family!
May you have a blessed holiday season.

Editor's Notes

Reader Feedback We received the following feedback regarding the article "Looking Good: Techniques for Finishing Your Car" in Volume 11, Issue 5:

"Great article on finishing pinewood derby cars! Preparation is KEY! Sand, fill, and sand! I also have a few things to add:

I always wipe the car down with lacquer thinner before painting to remove dust and oil from your hands (important when spray painting!)
I use Rust-Oleum "Painter's Touch" spray paint (found at Home Depot) which has a good selection of colors, a good primer, and clear coat.
After the first coat of primer, we always inspect and fill any areas that we missed during the preparation work.
After the first color coat, we allow the paint to fully dry, and then wet sand with 400-600 wet/dry paper. Then re-coat with the color. This flattens the surface and gives the finish a mirror look! Again wipe with lacquer thinner before painting.
I have made stickers for my son's car using pictures from the Internet and printing on photo paper, cutting out and gluing to the car. Works great!
I have also used "Frog Tape" or "Fine Line Tape" to mask off and paint stripes and two tone finishes.

Thanks again for the speed tips! I enjoy reading your newsletter." - Chris Kostik

"One last tip - after a really good clear coat is applied, buff the paint with a furniture polish like Pledge. Also, the shiniest paint- clear coat-polish combination usually starts with a metallic paint. The flakes in the paint also help distract the eye from the smaller imperfections." - Philip Avery

Inventory Clearance Sale We currently have all of our printed Car Plans booklets, several kits, and other items on sale. Click Here to find our clearance items. Don't miss out on the great prices.

Can We Help? If we can help you in any way with your pinewood derby project, or if you have any feedback regarding this newsletter, please contact us at: info@maximum-velocity.com

MV Basic & Wedge Car Kits

If you are planning a race and are not required to use a specific kit type, our MV Basic or Wedge Car Kit are just what you need. These attractively priced kits are equipped with:

Quality Block - Unlike the blocks provided by some organizations, our blocks are soft, northwestern pine blocks, cut precisely to 7 inches long, 1-3/4 inches wide, and 1-1/4 inches tall. These dimensions, as well as the axle slots accurately duplicate the dimensions of standard pinewood derby blocks from BSA and PineCar.
Simple Axle Preparation - Don't worry about filing off flaws, or losing hub caps. Our Speed Axles have no burrs or crimp marks, and install without hub caps. With or without polishing, they are ready to go. We supply five, so you have a spare.
Quality Wheels - Forget cheap, out of round wheels. Our MV wheels are top-quality wheels. You will not be disappointed with the quality of these wheels.

So, if your organization does not mandate a particular kit type, consider our MV Basic Car Kits or MV Wedge Car Kits

Upcoming
Raingutter Regatta or Space Derby?

If you have an upcoming Raingutter Regatta and would like some speed tips, decals, or extra kits, please visit us at Raingutter Regatta - World Class Boats. Our booklet, "World Class Boats", provides many techniques and tips for getting the most speed out of the standard BSA design, and also shows how to build the super fast Catamaran and Hydrofoil. These boats are so fast, they have been banned from some races!

We also can help with your Space Derby project at Spaceship Derby - Soar to the Finish!. Our booklet, "Soar to the Finish", provides you with all the speed tips you need to build a super fast space ship.

Feature Article

Lisano Enterprises Company Profile
By Randy Lisano

Our involvement in pinewood derby racing began back in 1999, with our church's first Awana Grand Prix. Our daughter Amanda was a 3rd grader, at the time. A friend of ours was heading up the race and he enlisted a gentleman from the church, who was a contractor, to build a four lane race track from the Awana plans. I decided to help out where I could. That started what would become an addiction and eventually a full time business.

Well, I had not been fortunate enough as a kid to be involved in Cub Scouts, so I was not familiar with pinewood derby type racing at all. So, I decided to do some research. Surfing the web, I was surprised about the amount of information and tips that were available. I dove in and tried to learn about building the cars and how the race was run. I collected a lot of information from a variety of web sites and tried to digest it all.

Amanda didn't want some simple car design, of course. She wanted a dolphin! "Oh brother," I thought. No easy feat when you only have a jig saw at your disposal to cut out the car. Trying to securely hold the block while cutting it was a challenge. Well, we managed to get the body cut out and used some balsa for the fins. My wife Shelly helped with the paint job. We put the wheels on as straight as we could and raised one of the front wheels. We made sure to involve Amanda as much as she could at that age. The car turned out rather nice for a first build. It ended up winning 3rd Place for speed too.

In preparing to help out for the race, I decided that I wanted to build a timing system. After reading about trying to eyeball judge a race, I figured that we really needed one. It was a simple parallel port sensor system, where the computer actually did the timing using a small software program written in Basic, running on DOS. The night before the race, I was working until 3am on it and just couldn't get it working. So, come race day we ended up eyeball judging after all. Well, right after the race, I was able to quickly determine the problem and fix it. Having had a bit of sleep, I'm sure helped. Oh well, we had it ready for the next year's race. By this point, I was totally hooked on this race, so I decided to coordinate the next race.

Car Inspection Gauge Parts
The timing system was ready to go for the next race, but I really did not like the simple Excel spreadsheet that we used and having to use separate timing software. I started looking around for some race management software. I didn't really like the free or commercial software that was available at the time, as it didn't really run the race as our church preferred, so I decided that I would write some myself. That was the birth of our GrandPrix Race Manager software. Our next race went really well and the software was a hit. Version 1 was made available as shareware for a couple of years and received lots of good feedback and suggestions for improvement. People at our church recommended that I start selling the software, so I rewrote it to be more of a commercial grade software package. Our company, Lisano Enterprises, was born and we started selling the software. That was back in 2002.

CNC Router/Driller
Our business grew rapidly, as word of our software spread and timer manufacturers started packaging it along with their timers. We added our other software packages to help enhance the race experience and branched into some non-software products, like our Car Inspection Go/No-Go Gauges, to help run the race. By 2005, with a lot of help from my wife, I started working this business as a full-time venture. Each year we improve our software and strive to provide quality service and support.

Workshop
I have also been active in the pinewood derby community by providing free information and resources to help build the cars and run the races. Actually, before our GrandPrix Race Manager software was launched commercially, I created the GrandPrix Race Central website¹ to be a central repository of information and resources to make a race coordinator's job easier. In June of 2003, I launched the Derby Talk website.² It is a forum to discuss all aspects of building the cars and running the races. It has grown to over 2,100 members and 58,000 individual message posts. The sharing of information has led to the running of many successful races and has helped many racers to be much more competitive at local and higher level races.

What started out as helping at our church's first Awana Grand Prix turned into a hobby (addiction) and into a business. I have been quite blessed to be able to turn a hobby into a fun job. With this hobby, our three kids have been able to participate in many Awana and Cub Scout races over the years. Each kid has quite a collection of cars and trophies. Not all of their cars won in speed or design, but each year they did more of the construction and we enjoyed the time working together. Though my daughter is off on her own now and my boys are out of scouts, I continue to stay active by donating my time to run races for local Awana clubs that do not have their own track setup.

Randy Lisano Owner, Lisano Enterprises

Randy and Shelly Lisano
Lisano Enterprises offers a variety of software and supplies for pinewood derby race management. They are located in Highlands Ranch, Colorado; and can be found on the web at: www.grandprix-software-central.com

¹GrandPrix Race Central
²Derby Talk

Humor

I was visiting customers in their home one afternoon. While I was talking to them, their four-year-old little girl, whose name was Michelle, tugged on my pants leg and excitedly exclaimed, "I got a new bicycle. Do you want to see it?"

I said, "Sure, Michelle." So off to the backyard we went. Upon getting there, I saw a brand-new girl's bicycle. "Wow, Michelle! That's a beautiful bicycle," I complimented. "Can you ride it?"

"Yeah, I can ride it," she said, and then with a sad face she pouted, "but it's broke."

I looked at the new bicycle and couldn't see anything wrong with it, so I asked her, "What's wrong with it?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "but every time I ride it, it falls down!"

Tip

Painting Platform
By Chuck Strahm

Regarding painting. We've found that salvaging the rotator motor out of an old microwave oven makes a handy tool for a small paint booth. The motors usually rotate about 6 RPM.

I mounted one inside a cardboard box and made a round platform that a pinewood derby car sits on. I put a couple of washers under the car so that the platform and car won't stick together when I spray them.

As the motor rotates it's pretty easy to get a nice even coat of paint. It takes several rotations to get into all the nooks and crannies, but they usually come out pretty good.

After I've applied the paint I swing a spot lamp onto the fresh paint to help it dry a little quicker.

It's a pretty crude setup, but it works great and didn't cost a thing

Product Showcase

Derby Dome
10% Off

The DerbyDome is a high-quality case for safely displaying pinewood derby cars. The DerbyDome has the following features:

Heavy duty, clear dome fits snuggly with the black pedestal to keep cars dust free while providing a complete view of the car,
No-tools-required fastening system keeps the car in place - fits BSA, Awana, and other wheels,
Car may be mounted horizontally or tilted to either side,
Product includes: dome, pedestal, 2 mounting brackets, blank paper identification labels, and assembly instructions,
A custom printed label is available from the manufacturer for an additional fee. An order form comes with the DerbyDome.

Through December 27, 2011, you can get a DerbyDome for 10% off. To take advantage of this limited time offer, Click Here.

Car Showcase

'Mater - Richard Larson

Mater took first place for design in the Outlaw competition. However, the car meets specs (exactly 5 ounces) and could have run in the stock races. He wasn't fast, but 'Mater was happier running backwards.

Bugatti and Camaro - Aaron Shain and Jim White

Here are two of the twelve cars my Grandson (Aaron Shain) and I built for the 2011/2012 Pinewood Derby race season. The white car is based on a 2012 Camaro and the red/black car is based on a Bugatti Veyron. The Bugatti uses an extension plate under the car's front end so it is seven inches long for races.

Cannon - Ryan McLaughlin

The Cannon took first place in design in our Awana Grand Prix. Ryan wanted something different so he came up with a cannon firing. We had someone with a lathe do a rough shape which was then sanded to its final look. The Awana block was cut down and new axle holes drilled. Sides were mounted and a wood burner was used to add some detail. The base was stained while the cannon received a faux patina look.

Share your car with our readers!
Do you have a car you would like to 'show off' to our readers? If so, send us a photo of your car along with a brief description of any special features. Also, please include your full name. If selected, we will include the photo and description in this newsletter.Please e-mail photos to:
info@maximum-velocity.com.

Photos must be sent by e-mail in JPG format (minimum size of 640x480, maximum size of 1280 x 960). Please shoot photos from the front left of the car, similar to the orientation of this car:

Send only one photo per car, unless an additional photo is needed to adequately show a feature. Also, only one car per subscriber per year please. Thanks!

Q&A

Are the grooves in the grooved speed axles visible when the car is assembled? Can you tell that the axles are grooved in any way when assembled?

If you use a 4099-Grooved Speed Axle with a BSA wheel, and you mount the wheel/axle on the car body with the recommended 30 thousandths of an inch gap, then the grooves cannot be detected (without removing the wheel/axle). But before using grooved axles, make sure they are legal for your race.

We accidently cut our car so that the raised wheel is in the back. Have you ever heard of (or seen) a "winning" derby car that had one of its rear wheels raised"?

Assuming that you plan to back-weight the car, when the weight is added the rear wheels will both sit on the ground and a front wheel will be raised. But to do that the car will sit askew (the three supporting axles will sit at a slight angle) which will be detrimental to performance. It would be best to correct the problem by plugging and re-drilling the axle holes.

Do You Have Questions that Need Answers? Do you have a pinewood derby-related question? If so, send your question to: info@maximum-velocity.com. We answer all questions by e-mail, but not every question will appear in the Q&A section of the newsletter.

Back Issues

Are you a new subscriber, or have you missed some of the previous newsletters? Don't miss out! All of the issues for Volume 5 through Volume 9 are posted on our web site and can be found using our Newsletter Index.

Issues from Volumes 1 to 4 are available in four formatted documents, ready for immediate download. To find out more, Click Here.

Newsletter Contributions

We welcome your contributions! If you would like to contribute an article, a web site review, or a speed tip, please send it to: info@maximum-velocity.com.

Please read our submission policy.

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The Pinewood Derby Times is a free e-newsletter focused on the Pinewood Derby. It is published bi-weekly from October through April.

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Randy Davis, Editor, Pinewood Derby Times
E-Mail: info@maximum-velocity.com
Copyright ©2011, Randy Davis. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or place this newsletter on your web site without explicit permission. However, if you like this newsletter we grant permission, and encourage you to e-mail it to a friend.

The author disclaims any personal loss or liability caused by utilization of any information presented in this newsletter.

The Pinewood Derby Times is not specific to, and is not affiliated with the Boy Scouts, YMCA, Awana, or any other organization .

®Maximum Velocity! is a registered trademark of Maximum Velocity! Pinewood Derby Products.
Pinewood Derby, and Space Derby are registered trademarks of Boys Scouts of America. All other names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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