Top 8 tips for building the fastest pinewood derby car

How to build the fastest pinewood derby car. It's pinewood derby season and if you're helping your scout build a car, you definitely want to check out these tips and tricks we've discovered over the last 5 years of racing to help you across that finish line faster than ever before. In this video I talk about the TOP 8 things that will help you build the fastest pinewood derby car. We have numerous first and second place finishes using the tips I show you in this video so make sure to stick through to the end. You can also jump to different sections listed in the chapters below. I show you how to pick the perfect placement for weight, lighten your pinewood derby wheels, polish your pinewood derby axles, how to get the perfect 5 ounce pinewood derby car, how to bend your pinewood derby axles, some pinewood derby speed secrets and some pinewood derby tools that we use to make setup even easier.

As always, thanks for watching and consider liking and subscribing to help support bring you new DIY content every week.

If you used these tips and and finally got that first, second or even third place finish finally, let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear about it

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:20 Car Design
1:44 Optimizing Weight
2:25 Weight Placement
3:10 Wheel Alignment
3:57 Bent Axles
4:40 Polishing Axles
5:40 Graphite Lubes
6:24 Lathed Wheels
8:04 Our Winning Car Design

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#scout #scouts #diy

[theguyofalltrades]

For the record my son spent about 4 hours cutting, sanding and painting this car. I helped him with the technical aspects of getting it to go faster than last years. This video is me simply demonstrating the tips to help you and your scout build a better and faster car. Please don’t assume ‘dad’ built the entire car. Good luck in your pinewood derby race and let me know if you used any of these tips in the comments

[amarshall]

Thanks for the video guy. Don't sweat all the internet hate about you being involved with your kid. Great tips man.

[PrincessCutLawnCare]

Following up with a comment you left on my channel last year where you mentioned you were closing in on 1k subs..
Look at you now! your crushing it bro, keep up the good work!

[roadswrenches]

My last pinewood derby as a scout was in 1999. I always built my car with dad’s help, but he made sure that I was the one building 90% of it. We got a few 1/2/3 finishes over the years, but that last year we swept the floor with a 1st place trophy, Fastest Heat Time trophy, and Best Overall plaque… back in those days we just competed with our pack, we didn’t have districts as I’m seeing in some of these comments.

The BMW car club I’m in has a pinewood derby race every year, so I’m looking forward to competing again as a adult 😂

[TheDirtbikekid]

Very useful video I am doing a pinewood race this year and this is going to help a lot
😀😃

[luish]

thank you for a great overview my son completing his first race tlater this month thanks for the advice

[TNTBA]

This was really interesting and informative! Excellent video!!!

[digitalpacs]

Another pro tip that is important is flaring out the axle head so there is less friction from the wheel to the axle head (hub). I got a Pinewood Derby Pro Axle Press Tool at the BSA shop that flares out the hub of the axle as well as bending it 20 degrees.

[loudns]

Congrats on the win!! Did you shave any off the body by the wheel doing the steering?

[bornskid]

What is your consideration for amount of distance between the body of the car and the plastic wheel hub? Does this distance matter?

[drewmalcovsky]

Did you use a specific template for the general design?

[anyhourdlaird]

Would a 2lb derby car be faster than a traditional derby call of 5oz?

[youknoweverything]

My grandpa use to help me build every pinewood derby car and I won tons of races in boy scouts of Canada and won the Canadian pinewood derby national championship as a American kid who's dad was stationed there on the united states airforce

[MatthewPautzke]

I would think that shaping the wheels such that only a small portion of the center or outside rides on the ground would reduce friction and also make it faster.

[KidLogicLTD]

Do you have a template for the body shape? Looks really slick, nice build!

[bcworkman]

I have a question, how long was the track?

[seeit]

Pinewood Derby is men competing with men under the guise their kid did some of the work.

Which man got 1st place is irrelevant.

Have the adult division so the kids can experiment on their own.

[katieandkevinsears]

That car was nowhere near as fast as the one my dad put a model rocket engine into back in the 1980's. It didn't hit a scale speed of 310mph, it really did 310mph.

[Afflictionx]

Our district rules don’t allow us to drill axel holes. We have the use the original slots and the entire axel has to be disable from the underside.

[Afflictionx]

My son placed 2nd in his pack but did not place in districts. Unfortunately our pack is ran by a very corrupt family who cheats a lot. District rules state only the top 3 cars can advance from each pack to districts. Our leaders son placed 4th, his car was much slower than the top 3 in our pack. However come districts, the pack leader and his son were there checking in and raced. They brought an entirely different car to districts and managed to go from 4th place in local pack races to 2nd in districts. It’s families like this that make it discouraging for everyone else. Luckily many people noticed what this family did and they are investigating the issue.