Posted on 08/30/2010 11:57:35 AM PDT by SZonian
SANDY -- Boy Scouts are going to be very excited when they see the huge track being built for a special Pinewood Derby race to be held Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium. It's not just the biggest track in Utah, it's the biggest ever.
For the first time, the race wasn't only for Boy Scouts -- registration was open for anyone race, and everyone is invited to watch.
The Pinewood Derby track will be more than 325 feet long when it's done, and it's going to break a world record.
World's Longest Pinewood Derby
Saturday, August 28 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Cost: FREE to spectators Rio Tinto Stadium 9256 South State, Sandy Usually the derby tracks that engineer Steve Atkinson builds are 30 to 40 feet long. At 10 times that size, "It's easily the longest I have worked on," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksl.com ...
WOW! I remember this from 1958!
My son still has the collection of Pinewood racers on his shelf. The troop had a very fancy track that had electronic timers for the speed (to 1/1000 of a second).
I wrote a software application that kept track of the times, averaged the scores and put the winners in order. Before that we slogged through the scores with calculators, which took a lot of the fun out of it.
Our Cubmaster made a car with a wireless spy camera on it. We would send it down the track just after the racing cars started and show the in car camera on a projector. One car was so slow, it got rear ended by the camera car.
I remember taking my son to the Post Office to weigh his pinewood derby car.
We had one of our Indian Guides show up with a car that was wayyyyy overweight. The kid and his Dad got out a cordless drill and started drilling holes in the car. When it got legal it looked like swiss cheese as it was painted white. It actually did quite well.
We had one Dad show up with his son’s car in a padded case. That car won hands down, and we knew there was no way the son had anything to do with the construction. The next year we instituted a rule that the kid had to carry the car back to the start of the track for the second heat (we ran 2 heats because we could only handle 2 cars at a time like a drag strip). That year the same car in the padded box showed up. When the son was carrying it back to the start, he dropped it and it broke into many pieces. The Dad spilled his drink.
True, the “Official” derby is. However, there are still many dads who are still Cubs at heart and having an “open” class is fun and helps to build comraderie and friendships.
Run the Cubs’ cars first, for the “Official” race and then have your open races. Nothing wrong with that.
Besides, I don’t know if this track even meets the official criteria, but it would be fun nonetheless.
Usually, when we’ve had “open” races, there were no restrictions of any kind. A free-for-all. Fun times, cool cars, etc.
I need to see that. I had to resist the urge to meddle with my son’s construction of his car when he was a Cub.
That’s why I always advocated an “open” race after the official derby.
That allowed the dads to build and race their own cars. Helped to cut down on dad built cars for the Cub races.
Have to spin the axles at about 10000 rpm to see if they are straight. We were allowed to select as many axles as we wanted so we did reject a few as out of line.
Then you need to polish the axles. Abrasive powder for final stone polishing put in a rag and then spin the axles again in the polish.
Then its time to apply the graphite.
We have open class races too, my daughter loves them, all my kids race in the open class.
Hey..... my day was 30 years ago. I wrote it up pretty well for one so long removed.
You are benefiting from us pioneers who established the methods decades ago. :)
But....as always, Free Republic gets to the nitty gritty by collectively giving the lesson.
You did a good job. That was fun back in the day wasn’t it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.