May 9, 2012

Guest Blog: Pinewood Derby Cars by Sweetie


When Sport was less than two years old, we noticed that two things seemed to get his attention… cars and girls… maybe it’s just the curves they share?   It was actually fun to watch.. He would play with his toys (toy cars if they where present) and ignore the TV until  a car or lovely lady came on the screen.  . He would stop... watch until it went away, and then go back to playing.  
That love of cars has continued on.  He loves hot wheels, watching the Velocity channel, etc.  Since he also loves Cub Scouts, pinewood derby is one of his favorite activities. In the last calendar year we have built and raced three vehicles...at three different races…  
Every time it’s the same thing, he loves designing the cars and he’s most excited about the design. He doesn’t care if it’s the fastest because he doesn’t like flat, very aerodynamic pinewood derby cars that don’t look like cars.  And that’s all true until about 20 seconds before the first race… when suddenly he wants to win. 

This last race was interesting.  He wanted to make a jeep..  Tall and short, it would be slow …even if I spent hours on the wheels and axles.  He didn’t care, he just wanted it to look cool.  Once we got there and he found out there was no prizes for design, he watched the first race.  The jeep took fourth on a 4-lane track…so Sport quickly headed off to the exhibits, leaving Dad to the humiliation.

In the end the jeep was only about 0.8 seconds slower over 4 runs than the fastest car…good enough for third  place…. from last that is. Point 2 seconds doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s several car lengths.  

When we were finished, I told him not to play with this one because I wasn’t building a new car for the town days race. I'm just not sure I can lose that many more man-cards, but I am thinking about buying special cheater wheels and axles on the internet.  And Sport is warming to flat aerodynamic designs.. and...dang I hate to be in the bottom half.  Oh and everyone says he’s just like me… and while I’ve learned not to jerk my head when a lovely lady walks by  (love will do that), an Italian sports car.. a nice custom… or a really cool pinewood derby…well, that’s a different story… 

Maybe it's genetic.

Oh, one more thing to explain the pics... Sport and I have built and raced 3 cars... Curly and I - 2 cars,  Scout and I - 2 cars… Crafty one car, Prima Donna one car, Dog Walker one car…







   



5 comments:

Crystal Pistol said...

Cute post! My husband helps Tyson with his car for scouts. They get so excited and involved. He didn't do very well in the race this year. But he had fun! That's what matters, right? :)

Sarah said...

My nephew is big into scouts, and he made his share of Pinewood cars. One that looked like a Mario Kart, complete with a little Mario guy driving. That one placed third, since it was supposed to look like a go-kart, it was actually pretty thin and aerodynamic. There was a police car one year, Speed Racer, Ghostbusters...I can't remember the rest. An ambulance maybe (he went through a cop/EMT/firefighter phrase). But, I have to say, that Jeep is pretty awesome, probably the best pinewood car I've seen. Too bad there wasn't a design ribbon at that race. And the one made to look like your family's fan is extremely cute, I would have never thought of that. But, it is extremely hard to make a car that looks cool and will win. Some of those cars at the race are practically splinters, and of course they just fly right down the track.

LeAnn said...

What a fun post. Brings back memories of many Pinewood Derbys for us. We felt like we were in cub scouting and scouting for many years and we were. The competition was always a big thing. I like the pictures of the cars.
Have a very Happy Mother's day you deserve a medal for all you do or at least breakfast in bed.

Emma Frances said...

I love all of these cars! I wish there were more prizes for awesome designs 'cause these are the best!! :) I love the family drawn on the back!

Targatoys said...

This is a really good idea and just what I was looking for. Putting together a car related education pack. Read more informotion at https://targatoys.com.