Extreme Pinewood Derby

Tomorrow the Elder’s Quorum of our Ward is hosting an Extreme Pinewood Derby- a modification of the popular Cub Scout activity. It’s an opportunity for (not so) grown men to tap into their childhood and play with little cars. Hey, do you ever TRULY grow out of that?

Anyway, what makes this fun is that that there are very few rules. Here they are:

1. You must use official BSA (Boy Scouts of America) wheels and axles.
2. Your car cannot touch another car on the track
3. Your car cannot extend beyond the starting mark
4. You cannot damage the track with your car
5. No open flame
6. “The Fox Rule” aka- no CO2 cartridges

We had this activity last year, and most of the rules stem from last years entrants. For instance, “The Fox Rule” was adopted on behalf of Bill Fox. When the CO2 cartridge that propelled his car came loose and flew across the gym, it almost decapitated his eldest daughter.

This year’s race is going to be a lot of fun. In true NASCAR style, we’re tailgating in the parking lot beforehand. I’m sure the root beer will flow like a river. You know how those crazy Mormons are! The part that I like most about the activity is seeing the imagination that goes into creating the perfect car. We have many men of intellect from our ward, so it’ll be fun to match wits with them. My car is called the Rat Racer. I chose that title because it’s “powerplant” is a mouse trap. This baby cranks out a MASSIVE 4 mousepower. Not really sure about that figure, but when I bought the mousetrap, it came in a pack of four, so it seems logical.


As you can see, I took the “Use BSA wheels and axles” rule a little liberally. The rule doesn’t say how MANY wheels and axles to use, so I used them on the front end of the car. On the back, I made wheels from an old radio I cannibalized. They were part of the mechanism that operated the tape deck. They are made of a heavier metal material, which turned out to be necessary with this type of car. I learned the hard way that using a mouse trap to move a small car generates problems. Here they are along with my solutions:

1. The mouse trap makes the car jump when it goes off. Hence the use of the heavier wheels. It helps to keep the car on the track.
2. The spring action of the car is so strong, it either bent or snapped my axles. I was using thin aluminum tubing at first, but I had to re-mount the axles using pieces of heavy gauge wire and parts of a coat hanger clip.
3. Spooling the pull string. The mouse trap pulls so hard that it would break or fray the pull string. I finally was able to use a woven type of dental floss and make it work for repeat races.
4. Leverage. You get a very short burst of speed from the trap since the spring mechanism only has a travel range of about 4 inches. I was able to multiply this by adding a pulley-like extension on the back of the car using a twisted up piece of coat hanger.
5. "Spin outs". The pull of the trap is so sudden that the wheels would just spin the car in place, giving it no forward propulsion. I had to wrap the rear wheels in double-sided tape in order to give it a little grip. You can see that they are tow-tone in appearance. I had fun with a black Sharpie.


Don’t know if I’ll win or not- after all they are predicting 36 cars this year, but it will be fun. I learned last year that it’s not necessarily the FASTEST car that wins, but the one who can handle the most races. We’ll see what happens. Wish me luck.