Pinewood Derby Times Newsletter Volume 13 Issue 4

Pinewood Derby Times
Volume 13, Issue 4
November 13, 2013
In this Edition:

- Editor's Notes

- Feature Article - Days of Thunder

- Humor

- Product Showcase - Axle Extraction Pliers

- Pinewood Derby Car Showcase

- Q&A

Editor's Notes

Introducing Guide Fins Time to step up the game? When rail-riding, the front raised wheel is just dead weight. Replace it with a Guide Fin, and add the saved weight where you want it.

Click Here for more information on the new Guide Fins.

Inventory Clearance Sale We also are clearing inventory on several items including our Propeller Car Kit II, the Assimilator Kit (with a tungsten canopy), plastic car canopies, and paint markers. We don't have many left, so don't delay. Click Here to find our clearance items.

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

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

Main Pinewood Derby Site - www.maximum-velocity.com
Mobile Pinewood Derby Site - mobi.maximum-velocity.com

Feature Article

Days of Thunder
By Greg Wallace

I attended a masculine, macho, testosterone-fueled gathering recently. An event where only the most manly of men dare to show their rugged, brawny faces. That's right, I went to my daughter's Girl Scout Powderpuff Pinewood Derby race and picnic.

For those of you unfamiliar with what a Pinewood Derby race is, allow me to explain. In this particular case, all the little girls in my daughter's troop were given a Pinewood Derby kit that they were to assemble and decorate with a supervising adult. The kit consists of a block of wood (presumably pine), four plastic wheels and four small, silver nails, hereafter referred to as "axles." The supervising adult helps to shape and paint the car and apply the wheels and "axles" so the little girls don't hurt themselves or have to have a turpentine bath. The girls then all gather together to show and race their cars. Afterward, trophies are handed out for the fastest cars and the Best of Show. Then you eat hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad and brownies.

If you ever want to see a group of guys on edge, try attending a Pinewood Derby race with a bunch of dads. I watched as they stood around the display table prior to the race. I can compare it to a group of NASCAR owners pacing along pit row before the Daytona 500. They all discussed among themselves what kind of band saw they used to rough out the shape of their car, how many coats of primer and sealer they had used to paint it, and where they placed the weights on the car to bring it up to the 5 ounce weight limitation. Most of all they talked about the amount of hours they spent sanding and polishing the aforementioned "axles" to get them to a glass-like finish and just what brand of graphite to use to make those "axles" even faster. They were all nervously sizing up the competition. No father wants his little girl to lose. He wants all the other fathers' little girls to lose.

I am proud to say that I was not a part of this high-strung group. Nope, I didn't have a care in the world at that time. In fact, I was much more concerned about the hamburgers. They smelled really good. You're probably wondering to yourself why I was so calm, cool and collected. Well, this was not my first Pinewood Derby. No, I have a long history of building little cars out of wood and I was fairly sure about how my daughter's car would perform that afternoon.

I did some mathematics this past week. That may not seem like a big deal to most of you but keep in mind, I was an art major. In the year 1973, I was in my first year of Cub Scouts and my dad and I made our first Pinewood Derby car. For means of full-disclosure, it was actually a truck. It was yellow and red with sky-blue windows. I can still picture it majestically sitting atop the Pinewood Derby track. Words alone cannot come close to describing its beauty. In my first heat of my first Pinewood Derby race, my yellow truck streaked out to the lead of the other three cars in the heat and barely held on for the win.

Now you should know that in the world of competitive Pinewood Derbying, the races are based on a triple-elimination basis. As long as you win, you're okay and you get to keep racing. As soon as you don't win three times, you're done.

With that first win under my Cub Scout belt, I was on top of the world. I was unstoppable. But just to be on the safe side, before my next race, I decided to squirt some more graphite on the "axles." In my mind, my yellow truck would only become faster. But for some unknown reason, maybe it was a chemical reaction, atmospheric conditions, or as I have claimed throughout the years, dastardly sabotage, my truck got slower. In fact, when they dropped the starting gate on my next race, Old Yeller just sat there while all the other cars roared down the track. That first win would prove to be my last. Throughout the rest of my Cub Scout career, I would never again experience victory as I would always be three races and out.

And then my son became a blue and gold neckerchief wearer. I thought that this would be my chance for redemption. But alas, in all his years of scouting, although we took home trophies for Best of Show, our cars were always out after three races.

Now here we were, on a breezy Saturday afternoon in 2013, 40 years after my first taste of Pinewood defeat. Yeah, I was pretty sure how my daughter's car would perform. I joked to my wife that the car would probably go faster if we would have left it in the box. But I kept a smile glued on my face as my little girl proudly approached the starting line with her hot pink car. It may be wrong, but I prayed as they dropped the starting gate.

On the way to the race, I explained to my daughter that winning wasn't everything. I told her that she probably shouldn't expect to win and that she should just try to have fun. She assured me that she would be happy no matter what the outcome.

As her car finished in third-place, I realized that my daughter is a little bit of a liar. The steely glare that she gave me, made me realize that happiness was not on the menu. As she sullenly sat on the park bench waiting for her next race, I could tell she was determining the type of nursing home she was going to place me in someday.

As she approached the starting line for her second race, I was trying to figure out my escape plan. Her car might not have been the fastest but I was pretty sure she could pummel me with it. As the cars started down the hill, I silently said another prayer. Through my squinted eyelids, I saw a flash of hot-pink cross the finish line in first place. We had done it! The curse was over! Four decades of defeat were in my rearview mirror! I might get to go to a slightly nicer nursing home!

When the day was over, she ended up winning one more heat before ultimately ending up in the top seven cars. I don't think she truly understands what those two wins represent, but I do. The forty years of shame and humiliation that I brought upon the House of Wallace were over. It was a good day.

And the hamburgers were delicious.

Greg Wallace writes a column for the Bureau County Republican newspaper in Princeton, Illinois. You can follow Wallace's blog at
gregwallaceink.blogspot.com

Used by permission.

Humor

Once upon a time there were two little skunks named "In" and "Out." They lived in a hollow tree with their mother. Sometimes In and Out played outside, but other times they played inside.

One day In was out and Out was in. The mother skunk asked Out to go out and bring In in. So Out went out and in a few minutes he came in with In.

"My my, Out," she said, "how did you find In so quickly?"

Out just smiled and said, "Instinct."

Product Showcase

Axle Extraction Pliers
$2.00 off

Remove and Adjust Wheels and Axles With Ease!
If you have built even one pinewood derby car, then you know that removing wheels without damaging something can be quite a chore. Oftentimes, considerable force is required. If the force is applied to the wheel, then the wheel can be damaged, especially with the expensive, high-performance wheels in common use today. If a standard pair of pliers is used, the axle head can be chewed up. In either case, the car itself may be damaged as well.

But Maximum Velocity's Axle Extraction Pliers will help you remove wheels/axles with minimal risk of damage. The curved and grooved jaws of the Axle Extraction Pliers provide strong but even gripping power on the axle head, minimizing damage to the axle, and giving maximum leverage to the user. Just grasp the axle head and gently remove the axle with a twist-and-pull motion. This same techhnique can be used to easily adjust alignment.

Through November 26, 2013, you can get a set of Axle Extraction Pliers for $2.00 off. To take advantage of this limited time offer: Click Here, and use coupon code EXTRACTION during checkout.

Car Showcase

Today's cars are from Don Brown.

In August of this year the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, Iowa held its first inaugural National Pinewood Derby race. The rules were quite simple: 5 ounces maximum weight, must be sprint car appearing with the wings from the Revell sprint car kit, and must have four wheels.

I purchased three Revell kits and did some serious work to make the cars look like a current sprint car. After the bodies were shaped, sanded, painted and weighted, I called on my good friends at Maximum Velocity for the best wheels and axles. The car I entered in the race used SS needle axle wheels with the needle axle upgrade kit. I countersunk the SS wheel to accept the bead retainers (I found out that the race required wide wheels). The other two cars have X-Lite needle axle wheels. After some polishing and fine tuning, the cars ran straight and fast.

Cars showed up from all over the country for a fun afternoon of racing at the Museum. I'm proud to say that at the end of the day our Halibrand-sponsored, red, white and blue sprinter won the "A"-main and was crowned National Champion.

Sprint Car 1

The National Champion car. Parts were added from a plastic model. I also narrowed the car body and used metal tubes to accept the needle axles.

Sprint Car 2

Sprint Car 3

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:

For better focus, keep the camera four or five feet away from the car, and then use the camera's zoom to fill the frame with the 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

I just read a question and answer article in your newsletter and there was mention made of a balance point. What is that and how do you do it?

The balance point (also known as the COG-center of gravity), is the point at which the car balances (like a teeter-totter) on the edge of a ruler or balance stand. Generally, it is measured from the rear axles.

In the photo, the balance point would be the distance from the rear axle to the black edge of the balance stand.

Unless the track is extremely rough, a good balance point is 1 inch. On a very smooth track, you can generally set the balance point at 7/8 of an inch safely. You can go less, but you would need to implement rail-riding alignment, have an alignment board, and preferably have a real track to test, align, and tune. League racers set the balance point extremely close to the rear axle, but they are running on the fine edge between peak performance and instability.

The risk of having a small COG is that the front wheels can lose traction, resulting in rear-wheel steering. This is evidenced by the car zigzagging back and forth around the center guide rail, which greatly reduces speed.

Would stock BSA, PineCar, or Awana wheels be the fastest on Awana axles, if the rules allowed this?

Assuming accurate raw wheels, the lightest wheels would be the fastest. Awana wheels would be fastest as they are the lightest. Average wheel weights are:

Awana - 2.2 grams
Maximum Velocity - 2.4 grams
BSA - 2.7 grams
PineCar - 3.5 grams

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 13 are posted on our web site and can be found using our Newsletter Index.

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Randy Davis, Editor, Pinewood Derby Times
E-Mail: [email protected]
Copyright ©2013, 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.

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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, Inc.

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