Henry is a Webelo which means this will be his last Pinewood Derby. He was not all that excited to make his car. We have not had very good showings the last few years so Henry's goal this year was simply to "not come in last" and "always cross the finish line". The track they runs the car on is rather long and often the cars don't make it all the way to the finish. His first car was a shark and we even painted it with some glitter and glued on a shark fin. It was a real dud as far as speed goes and had trouble getting all the way to the checkered flag. We have no idea why it was so awful! Henry's Watermellon car last year was cute but certainly not fast. We think the weight distribution was all wrong. But at least it always crossed the finish. This year we looked online to see what others had done to make fast Pinewood Derby winners. Henry didn't want to do anything cute this year he wanted speed!
The sawing was done outside but he made a great whittling mess in the house! But this car was created almost all by Henry. He didn't even want to paint it. He called it "The Chunk".
His Dad did help him get the wheels ready and put on.
Sorry but this is the best picture I have of his finished car. The weights were ducked taped onto the top for a really classy look!
When the car was turned in the weights weren't taped quite where those Youtube videos told us to place them. So his first two races didn't go as well as we would have liked.
The boys were allowed to add graphite to their wheels and make minor alterations at the halfway mark of the races. Henry moved his weights a bit to correct the weight distribution.
His last two races went so much better! His times were right up there with the winners. He even beat the 2nd place winner during one of his races but because they averaged the times he didn't make it into the finals. Those first two trips down the track really affected his ranking.
He was pleased with how it turned out and happy that his car made it past the finish each time. He was just glad to not have the worst car out there.
1 comment:
I remember my youngest son's last pinewood derby. I think we were kind of "done" by then, too! Glad your son was happy with the results of his last derby.
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