The Science of Making the Fastest Pinewood Derby

A former NASA engineer explains 7 steps that are scientifically proven to help you build a fast Pinewood Derby car for your next race.

Mark Rober, who kindly agreed to let us modify and share his Youtube video on our channel, wrote an excellent article for Boys' Life magazine with his list of the 7 things that make a Pinewood Derby go faster. You can find the article in the January 2015 issue of Boys' Life magazine or click on this link:

Some of his tips are not allowed in some races, so make sure to check your race's rules before you start to build your car.

For more Pinewood Derby tips and ideas, visit

[ScoutLife]

Don't worry! Mark Rober is cool with us sharing his awesome video.

[danfouts]

My daughter took first place this weekend, we used this video for help and boy did it work. We never lost a race all day!!!!

[RichardBooher]

My son placed won first place in the Pinewood Derby at our local church. Thanks for making a video my eight year old can understand. Great job!

[augustatrack]

We watched your video. Followed your suggestions. And won every race.

[mexirox]

this year was our first on the derby, I build the car following all your tips and we got the 2nd place, my little Tiger was super happy, thank you for sharing!!

[johngeorge]

Great teaching principles. Good work with the blocks. I showed this to my kid 6 months ago and he didn't care about any of this. I showed it to him after he built his car and he understood why he was going to lose big on speed and will have to win on character instead. Next year hopefully he will use science to make a more competitive design and car..

[Young_Star]

Thanks for making a trimmed down version of Mark's video.  The original was already the most kid friendly derby science video on youtube but the edits for this have made it even better for short attention spans.  

[justinhorton]

Thanks for the video followed it when helping my son with his car I've never built one before we won every race last year until the car flipped off the track in the finals and bent the axle took the same car back this year and won every race won our division then won over all fastest out of all division thanks again.

[anthillmobstars]

Helpful video. Had our race Saturday. First car my son and I have ever made. We came in first in addition we won all our races and came out undefeated. We are on our way to some District race in next month. Thanks for all the help.

On a side note one of the parents was really salty.

[bluevik]

First year doing scouts and we had no clue how to do the derby car. Followed your video and our little tiger took first place in the whole pack!!!

[elguapo]

Great video! This amateur dad/son appreciate the tips. Watched many videos & some are crazy detailed & time consuming. So from another video I saw extending the axel length helps. What do you think about that and/or sticky nose?

[markscanes]

This is an excellent video! Not only explaining what to do but why it works.

[smproductions]

Just finished our first pinewood derby with first place overall in the pack. This video was perfect! Thanks!

[mattvotaw]

First Pinewood derby entry ever, and we were the fastest in our whole troop by following all your advice! Great video and information, I knew I had come to the right place as you broke it down scientifically!

[marcusdavis]

Just want to give u serious props! 1st year they did Pinewood Derby in Girl Scouts, my daughters took home 1st and 2nd Place! They really liked your video and the info used worked so well!

[TheTyce]

Thanks for making this video!! My son is a huge Mythbusters fan and we wanted to find a video that scientifically defined what was important in designing his car. We took a pre-cut block and focused on just the weight distribution and the polishing of the axles. In his first year he took second based on the information in this video! (we only had a few hours to build it, paint etc.) Thanks again!

[CervusGreen]

My son followed your advice and got 1st in his den! Thank you!

[JohnSmith-uyfp]

You say that the axle/wheel contact area is not critical to friction but the closer the interface between axle and the wheel is to the center, the lower the velocity between the surfaces is. Some graphs of friction show it to be linear with velocity depending on if it is wet or dry friction. Graphite seems that it might be a kind of wet friction because of the very small particles at the interface.

[realfaithlife]

No kidding. We have NEVER participated in nor watched a Pinewood Derby. We followed your video, multiple times, and won every race - and we entered 2 separate cars. We used the same instructions for both cars and each car won 1st place! We also won the grand prize trophy for fastest time. Phew!!!! Awesome video!!!

Viewers: 1) pay attention to where to place the weights, 2) get as close to 5oz as possible - seriously...we weighed in at 4.98oz & 4.91oz (we ran out of weights or else this would have been at 4.97oz, 3) ride on 3 wheels, 4) bend the wheels as instructed, and 5) do NOT forget the graphite. #5 is critical as we witnessed a car unable to make it to the finish line. We witnessed that same family add graphite to the car after the race and the car crossed the finish line.

This was sooo much fun as every member in the household had a hand (literally) in building these cars. My family and I WILL be racing our own respective cars next year - awesome experience. Blessings race fans!!!

[MohanKarulkar]

lolol same here, did all the tips allowed, i.e. weight placement, rail riding, graphite, profile ... and my Tiger scout won the pack! He even beat out the adult bonus group. His average was way ahead of the next placed car.