Pinewood Derby - what's your secret?
- Thread starter Iowa_Buckeye
- Start date
My youngest has it coming up next weekend, here goes nothing.
No I polished them from 600-1600 grit sandpaper wet
They are lubricated with graphite.
We followed the Mark Rober video
He also mentions a boeing engineer who did most of the science work. I have that video (purchased for my oldest to watch when it was his time) and my youngest watched it but it was a bit much for the kid. Next year we will do more with that video but I'm just using this to stretch his scientific knowledge and such. I mean how many 9 year olds do you know that can talk about potential energy, kinetic energy and other such things?
Good luck, but Lemon Pledge is the secret!! I finished mid-pack the first year using graphite. There is always next year!!!
We did okayGood luck, but Lemon Pledge is the secret!! I finished mid-pack the first year using graphite. There is always next year!!!
ThatBuckeyeGuy
Active Member
Gosh, this brings back memories. My dad was a PSYCHO for this thing. No BS, he built an exact copy of the track in our basement to test cars. He'd take the cars to work and use a special scale to get the weight 100% exact to the maximum...then we'd go to the derby and dudes with kindergarten scales would say "Too heavy!" and drill them out. He'd get so mad about that because he knew the weight was perfect. He and I would have like 5-6 cars and race them head to head at home so we knew the one we took to the races was the fastest car we had. Got a lot of trophies from the derby!