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Post by RacerX on Feb 22, 2007 11:29:52 GMT -6
How is everyone doing this season? ;D We have been working hard to bring everyone new stuff and we keep hearing about pack and district records everywhere broken with everything from tips from this board, Derby Worx Tools and even our new 1 gram and 1.8 gram wheels. Tell us how it is going in your area, how you did and what helped you over last year if you have a little secret. It just keeps getting faster and faster every year. Race Fast Racer X
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Post by backcreekpinecars on Feb 22, 2007 14:30:02 GMT -6
racer x - frankly I'm pretty mad about this whole pinewood derby thing - and you in particular. you see last November my tiger cub and I got this BSA Grandprix kit and was told about a derby on Jan 27th. As an engineer, it was an awesome opportunity to spend time and teach my son some basic speed concepts. recognizing that this was new I did seek advice and experience from others - thus how i found derby talk and derbyworx boards. The work and testing began... however, how do you test without a track - so i signed up as the new derby master for the pack - at last a track, timer, and software were near. Next came a scroll saw, table saw, drill press, band saw, bech top sander and of course my truck is now outside since I couldn't convince the wife that sawdust and paint fumes in the basement would be ok. (forgot mitre saw - was able to sneak it in - after all in the fall I will need to touch up some deer stands 20 blocks later we had the perfect design, perfectly weighted and did I say fast..... so we win pack/den on points and taek second overall by .002 seconds. Now any engineer will tell you this is not good. As districts drew near, more blocks, more web visits to pinewood extreme and Max V, and now we have every derby worx tool known to man, and a a few other jigs that make it life a little easier in the "race shop". Oh, did I mention that of course we had to name the team and use Daddy's plotter at work to print multiple size posters to hang in the shop and tiger's bedroom - because you know that's what a race shop looks like Daddy.... So this month we send in 2 cars to WIRL, and there are 3 in the shop in various stages of construction for districts on 3/10 and WIRL for 3/17. My wife is also mad at you but we'll leave that for another topic because I'm pretty sure the gussin' I hear downstairs is from the primer fumes and I think she just tripped over the track on the way to the washer.... Thanks Racer X and all you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (of course I'm kidding in attitude as this stuff is FUN - however the remainder is true - gotta go - I'm comin honey.....)
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Post by RacerX on Feb 22, 2007 20:41:40 GMT -6
Just let me know how it goes over when you ask her to drop by the hobby shop for some sand-n-seal and some paint on the way home from grocery shopping.
Racer X
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Post by backcreekpinecars on Feb 22, 2007 20:55:37 GMT -6
word to the wise - if the wife is at wal-mart grocery shopping and you ask her to pick up some paint and body filler....
Don't complain that she got the wrong stuff
One step ahead of you Racer X
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Post by SpeedGeek on Mar 4, 2007 7:13:44 GMT -6
Racer X,
We had our Pack race yesterday. We were a little nervous since my son's car set the track record last year (3.025 s) by 25 milliseconds over the previous record, and all eyes were on his car. The record was announced before the race and my son was asked to stand and be recognized. He loved it!
First heat came out slow and took second... oh no... it doesn't look good... certainly a blazing car would never take second place! What have we done wrong!?!?!?
Our nervousness faded fast as our times in the preliminary heats dropped due to the graphite running in. A crash in the first of the final heats worked to our advantage, since the race officials decided to clean the track.
A new track record was announced for the 3rd heat in the finals, then, another record in the 4th heat!!! 3.001 s!!!
Needless to say, my son's car SPANKED the field. It was no contest. Off to districts next month.
Special thanks to:
Maximum Velocity AWESOME axles. And great to deal with; always fast delivery of top quality products.
Warp Speed Inc. BEST WHEELS ON THE MARKET. Inertia Lites are AWESOME!!!
We're looking to break the 3 s barrier next year!
SpeedGeek
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Post by slkrnsntracing on Mar 4, 2007 21:26:53 GMT -6
SpeedGeek and son,
Congratulations on a great job. I'm sure your son will remember yesterday for the rest of his life. I'm sure it also strengthened the bond between the two of you.
Again great job!
Phil
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Post by RacerX on Mar 5, 2007 13:18:58 GMT -6
Great Job Speed Geek and Son.
Try the 1 gram wheels next time if your rules allow and HANG ON!!!!!!
Race Fast
Racer X
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j2ce
Addicted to Speed
Posts: 92
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Post by j2ce on Mar 5, 2007 15:07:11 GMT -6
My son did well this year. The Derby Worx tools worked flawlessly. It appeared that 1st or 2nd was going to go either to my boy or a fellow scout until both cars flew off the track and ruined the alignment. My boy placed 3rd in district and his fellow scout fourth. During our PWD work shops we used the tools also. This is how it went for our pack this year. 5 top 10 finishes. The most of any pack. 10 top 20 finishes the most of any pack. This was the best showing of our pack and all of the boys had their best runs ever except my boy. We could not be any more pleased with the results. Thanks for the tools.
j2ce
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HyperDrive
Head in the Pine
Magnum Force
Posts: 243
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Post by HyperDrive on Mar 5, 2007 15:43:17 GMT -6
My sons pack race is this saturday which I'm running on my track. I'm kinda scrambling to get things organized and also get in a few test runs with the nail bending technique to improve his times. I'm pretty positive we're the only ones in the pack with our own track so that will hopefully be to our advantage. We'll let you know how it turns out. HyperDrive
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Post by SpeedGeek on Mar 5, 2007 19:21:14 GMT -6
Thanks Phil and Racer X
It was too much fun. Already designing next year's car.
I hope Ashlee is doing better. Give her our best wishes.
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Post by RacerX on Mar 9, 2007 9:01:46 GMT -6
My son did well this year. The Derby Worx tools worked flawlessly. It appeared that 1st or 2nd was going to go either to my boy or a fellow scout until both cars flew off the track and ruined the alignment. My boy placed 3rd in district and his fellow scout fourth. During our PWD work shops we used the tools also. This is how it went for our pack this year. 5 top 10 finishes. The most of any pack. 10 top 20 finishes the most of any pack. This was the best showing of our pack and all of the boys had their best runs ever except my boy. We could not be any more pleased with the results. Thanks for the tools. j 2ce Thanks a lot!! We really do try hard and believe in what we do and it is the comments like this that keep us motivated. Race Fast Racer X
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Post by spindoctor on Mar 9, 2007 22:17:56 GMT -6
Need to make the poll mult-entry befcause all 3 apply We killed them this year About the same as last year. We won best design(paint).
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Post by RacerX on Mar 15, 2007 8:56:01 GMT -6
Spindoctor,
That's awesome!!!
This hobby is really starting to grow with some progression and inovation, there are so many new things floating around here from drawings to protos, it's crazy but the need for speed keeps driving us to try more things. I also want to thank everyone for the e-mails and up-dates on races, pack wins, district wins and new track records, we try to get to them all , but sometimes it is hard.
Race Fast
Racer X
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Post by DerbyDoc.com on Mar 15, 2007 16:43:09 GMT -6
Racer X, are you the guy that makes the derbyworx tools? Im a machinist and I love all of the tools and I own all of them (I think). You need to come out with some more tools so we can buy them.
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Post by SpeedGeek on Mar 15, 2007 18:19:21 GMT -6
I never expected this, but with the good comes the bad: for the past week+ my son has been badgered for "cheating" by scouts in his pack. It's kind of tough on an 8 year old.
Can anyone offer advice?
Thanks
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psycaz
Addicted to Speed
Posts: 86
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Post by psycaz on Mar 15, 2007 18:58:56 GMT -6
It's sad when doing your best results in almost wishing you hadn't
You can always start with the parents of the scouts involved. Maybe offer to help answer any questions the scouts/parents have on how the car was made - or let your son answer them - if he feels up to it.
Personally, if it were my son, if I couldn't solve it quietly, I'd bring it up in front of the entire pack. Tell them all what is going on and that it is not acceptable behavior, especially for scouts.
Point out if they want to ask how to build a fast car, just ask.
We are hearing something similar, my son for pack overall for the second year - some kids are saying he just repainted his car from last year.
I pointed out to one child who said this to me that "you do remember playing with the car on the practice track all night during check in and the car broke completely beyond repair - RIGHT?"
I said this in front of his parent just so there was no misunderstanding as to what I said and how I said it. It wasn't mean, jus pointed out something he didn't want to remember.
I also pointed out that he did see both cars at the same time so it couldn't have been the same car.
Good luck with this, too bad it happens.
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Post by SpeedGeek on Apr 3, 2007 10:14:36 GMT -6
On the brighter note, I just learned recently that next year, we are going to have a Council race!
Up until this year, not all districts ran a race, there was no incentive. Of course, we have to agree on common rules.
Hmmm.....
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Post by Big Daddy on Apr 18, 2007 14:29:00 GMT -6
Hey guys, I'm new here. I think this board is great. I used some of your ideas on our cars this year and killed our pack. 1st in the parents race, 1st in Webelos-1,and 1st in Wolves. The boys also took 1st and 3rd overall in the pack. The 3rd overal would have been 2nd if not for a bump in lane two. This is the first year anyone has beaten our Cubmaster and his boys. We will see how we do at the districts on May 4th. I didn't sand and polish the axles as much as I should have after reading what some of you guys do, but hopefully it will be enough to do well at districts. The cars are not much to look at (very plain paint jobs), I just let the kids loose on them with spray paint, brushes and rub on decals. Hopfully we can take some time and make a car to send to the WIRL. Thanks again for your help.
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