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Pinewood Derby Stories and Photos from Maximum Velocity
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Pinewood Derby Car Showcase
Speed Trap - Chris Hailey
This is my son’s 2007 pinewood derby car called "Speed Trap". He got the idea from this past winter when we had a little mouse trouble in the house. We went to Lowe’s, bought some mouse traps, and solved our mouse problem. But my son thought it would be funny if he raced a mouse trap this year. So, we studied a standard mouse trap, purchased some materials from our local craft store, and drew the initial idea on paper. It actually took us two tries to build this car, but we both think it turned out great! Hopefully, it will perform as well as it looks. If not, he hopes to win a design award.
Batman - Kerry Bybee
The inspiration for this car was the Batman car of the movies, but my son Brady wanted a pinewood derby car that looked like his Hot Wheels Batman car. So with a copier I enlarged the profile of the car to pinewood derby size. I used a scroll saw to cut out the car, and then a Dremel tool to shape it. It then took a lot of fine sanding to shape the wings right. I have built a lot of cars that have won and lost, but the Batman car stays consistent; it has never placed below 2nd at any race.
This car raced in February in our local pinewood derby and won 1st place. In then took 1st in a district race, 2nd in an RA race, and then 1st place in a local RA race. It also won 1st place in an Outlaw race; I added weight in the back between the high fins to reach the higher weight limit.
Velocinator - Shannon Davis
This is a prototype of the Velocinator1 which my daughter ran in a Parent/Sibling race in April 2007. This was our first experience with the needle axle wheels. The car was very fast, winning the first two heats. It then slowed down and took second the last two heats. We later found out that the axles had bent, either from the force of the run or from the abrupt stop. After the race we bent then back in place and made a test run. It immediately went back to the original performance. Oh well, a lesson learned!
