Pinewood Derby

Yesterday was the Pinewood Derby. This was William's first year and he was really excited to get to make a car and race it. He started planning his car early and it went through many different design phases, some of which were really outlandish and some that were more practical. One of his favored designs included rows of spikes that were cut out and resembled the back of a dinosaur or lizard. While we agreed that it was a cool design, we weren't sure how we could help him accomplish it with William still doing the majority of the work. He finally decided that a wedge shape would work well. To be a little different from a standard wedge car, he took the triangular piece he cut off, flipped it around and glued it back on top so that he had a much deeper wedge shape. After much sanding, which he really liked to do, it was time to decide on a paint job. Of course for William there was never much question that the color was going to be orange. Then he also wanted to portray speed so he figured that lightning bolts would accomplish that. He spent a lot of time researching lightning on the internet before deciding on what the actual decorations would look like. We cut them out of vinyl and stuck them onto the car. The look was completed by a large W on the back of the car. William thought the whole thing turned out pretty great.

Here he is showing off the finished product. In the picture all the graphite smudges don't show up.

Here is the lineup of all the cars waiting for the races to begin. Some goodlooking work!

I had to take a picture of the awesome track. Four lanes with a finish line that not only places the car but gives you the time it raced in and the mph it was traveling. Our tech oriented Cubmaster connected the computer to a projector that put all this information up on a screen for all to see. Way cool!

And here is William with another shot of his car, giving the whole todo a big thumbs up. I think feelings of all the boys can be summed up by the one scout who kept coming over to the table and said, "I just like to stare at my car." Well, they like to race them also!

I put up this post and William came in to read it. Evidently I forgot some important information. William was thrilled to make the finals and ended up finishing third overall which earned him a ribbon. He also got a certificate for Best Design.