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Pinewood Derby Stories and Photos from Maximum Velocity
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PINEWOOD DERBY MEMORY
Second Place in Speed Goes to ...
My son Connor is now a Bear Cub. When he was a Tiger Cub he won for most unique. I also thought he had a fast car. Since then he has been bitten by this bug and has gone for unique designs instead of speed. Last year he made a 'Tank' which was pretty cool. It didn't win anything, but he still enjoyed building and racing the car. This year I decided that no matter which car he built, it would also be fast!
He again came up with a unique design: a tombstone. He carved it and painted it to look really nice with a stone paint finish. I had some leftover tungsten weights from building a car for the adult race, so we used them in Connor's car.
I think these tungsten weights made a difference because of their density and small size. I was able to create a small hole to put them in (over the rear wheels). Then I was able to carve out some wood underneath to make the 5.0 ounce limit.
During the time trials the night before the derby we got excited. His car beat most that he went against. His time was also competitive with the adult cars. We had done something right! On the day of the big race he was very excited. We had a fast car and a unique car. Most of the other scouts liked Connor's design. Everyone wanted to touch it and feel the stone finish.
When the race started everyone, except me, was surprised that this 'rock' was so fast ! It was not aerodynamic at all. It did not look fast,
but it was. In his heats he had two first place finishes and two second place finishes. Connor was so thrilled just to win two heats that he would have been happy just with that.
When they called the third place winner in speed, it was not Connor. I felt like he would at least get third. "What went wrong," I thought.
Next ... "Second place in speed goes to ... CONNOR." Yes, he won second place in speed! WE ARE GOING ON TO THE DISTRICTS RACE IN MARCH!
I think the speed of the car has a lot to do with the tungsten weights we got from you and where we placed them. I recommended these weights highly!