Pinewood Derby

Today was the big Pinewood Derby races for the Cubscouts. Carter is in his first year of scouting, and his Den is called Tiger Cubs. Last night, we brought his completed car to the track for weigh-in and inspection. Once it was given the "ok", he was allowed to do 2 practice runs then he had to turn the car into their hands until today. It was pretty exciting!

I have to say, there are some pretty serious Derby goers in terms of car styles and designs on how to make the perfect, fastest car. We were given a stack of papers from our cousin on how to build "the winner". I have to admit, it was so involved and Tom and I could hardly understand any of the instructions. We thought that would take us all three weeks to do the car with those instructions. It's supposed to be the kids doing them anyway, and there's no way he would have been able to follow the directions and suggestions. Besides, you must know that Tom now has a new list of tools he needs to add to his empty tool box. So we tucked those winning instructions away with the car kit until the day got closer.

Guess what. The day sure did get closer. And closer. And at about 48 hours before we had to turn the car in, we remembered that we still had not as much as broken the seal on the box the kit was in. So there we began, on Wednesday, coming up with an idea with Carter on how he wanted his car to look. We scribbled some rough aerodynamic sketch onto scrap paper, traced it onto the block of wood, and then realized that we did not have the proper tools to even cut this shape out. So, over to Grandpa's house where all the tools are, the two of them went to cut out the corvette shape. When he got home, he started to work on the car.... sanding it down and then he got to paint it quickly before bed. The next morning, he colored on the windows. After school he sprayed some sparkles on it. After dinner he decorated it and added weights to the bottom. I suggested most of the weight should go near the front, and it proved a good move. We were done - with time to spare, and a hair under the 5 ounce maximum weight allowed. I always say if it wasn't for the last minute, then nothing would get done, right?

So, here are some pictures to tell the story of our first experience with this annual event. You can click on any picture to enlarge it! Enjoy...

Here's the shape Carter wanted - he chose a "Corvette" like his Grampy has.

Next he sanded his car with 2 different grades of sandpaper (that's about as 'handy' as we got!)
Next, he wanted to paint his car blue like Grampy's 'vette. We eventually spray painted some silver sparkle all over it too.
Here he is drawing on his windshield and other windows with a black Sharpie marker.
Putting on the final touches to his USA themed car - some American flags etc.
And here is the final product! We took a picture of it on the scale showing how much the car weighed in the end. We could not go over 5 ounces. Pretty close, huh!
Here is a look at the track set up...
Here is Carter's car after inspection and check-in... his is on the bottom far right.
Here is the start of the race - his car is number 201, first car on the screen.
Can you see what the screen says now? He got the TRACK RECORD!
Check out the winner's circle! 1st-4th place winners for Tigers....
And the FIRST PLACE trophy goes to Carter!! Wooo hoooo!
To say he was excited is an absolute understatement! It was so cute to see him after each heat yell "my car was first, my car was first!" and jump up and look for us in the crowd. He was pretty proud, and so were we. We'll have to come up with our own secret instructions to hand out now..... This car will be put in a place of honor for a long time. Hooray!