Pinewood Car Design Ideas

You have your pinewood derby car block of wood and now you want to turn it into a cool, hot racer. Where do you start?

You can download Pinewood Derby in Six Steps , or read on….

Well, first and foremost it is important to let your child decide what car design he or she wants. (Most derby cars are built as a parent/child project.) The more input the child has, the more they will feel ownership of the car and the more they will get out of the project.

Pinewood Pro has written a nice pinewood derby car design idea guide to help you get started. There are over one hundred car design ideas offered, with lots of info and car design resource links.

If you want to start from scratch, I would suggest drilling the axle slots with a drill press so your car rolls straight. You can also raise one wheel (see Winning Pinewood Derby Secrets).

You can also purchase a pre-drilled pinewood car block to save time.

Next you need a car design “theme”. Again, ask your child what they want….a fast aerodynamic race car or a funny theme or perhaps a theme based on their favorite cartoon character.

Once you have the theme, look for ideas related to that theme. Now your child can have fun drawing their car. At this point your pinewood derby car starts taking shape. As the adult in this project, you need to be sure the car is not too difficult to make! Be sure there are not too many intricate cuts.

The best tool to use for intricate cuts is a coping saw . The kit offered by Pinewood Pro includes five coping saw blades as well as a four sided wood rasp to smooth the rough edges.

You are now on your way to building your pinewood derby car. But before you rush off, be sure investigate speed techniques so your car is competitive.

Making a fast car involves all aspects of the car design, wheels and axles. Winning Pinewood Derby Secrets is the bible of speed secrets, but you can read about speed basics at How to Build a Fast Pinewood Derby Car .

Hope this helps give you plenty of ideas for pinewood derby car designs.

Pinewood Derby Cars – Cub Scouts Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is important in every competition…including pinewood derby car racing. What does sportsmanship mean? Sportsmanship is simply your behavior (or reaction) when you win or lose.

I always tried in instill good sportsmanship in my son by making the following statement before every race, “Remember, win or lose, we did our best. And doing your best is the most important thing.”

The important thing is to have fun on the journey and to follow the cub scout motto, “do your best ”.

I have an interesting story that demonstrates pinewood derby sportsmanship. One year when I was managing our pinewood derby race for our Cub Scout Pack, a boy handed me his car during the weigh-in that shocked me. The wheels were cut in half vertically and each wheel had five large holes drilled through them from the side to make them lighter.

The axles were machined rods that went through the entire block. They were not even pinewood derby axles . Pre-cut cars , polished axles and wheels that have been “cleaned up” with light lathing were fine, even expected for serious racers, but this car was patently illegal using any interpretation of the derby rules.

Unfortunately, the person submitting the car was none other than my son’s best friend! I called over his father and said that these modifications were not allowed. He argued with me (in a nice way) saying that the rules were not specific enough to say he couldn’t cut the wheels in half! I was shocked. This was incredible.

I took a closer look at the car to see if there was something I could do. I could ask him to change the wheels. Problem was the rods went deep into the block and were permanently glued. They were not coming out.

What should I do? I was the pinewood derby race manager …I had to decide.

Should I disqualify the car and send this boy home? I’ve never disqualified a car because no one ever grossly violated the rules . So I thought - who has the most to lose??? It would be the second place winner. Well, guess who was the first place winner two years running? My son! If I allowed this illegal car, surely my son would lose his first place streak.

I talked it over with my pinewood derby race management team. We all knew the car was illegal but no one wanted to make the final decision to toss this car out.

It was up to me and my son had the most to lose!