Pinewood Derby

This was Zach's last year with the pinewood derby.  (3 derby's down, only 6 more to go!)

I found a video online that was all about the science behind pinewood derby cars and how to get them to go faster.  I made Bret and Zach watch it.  Zach thought it was really awesome stuff.  But applying all those tricks to his car was another matter.  It was all about where to place the weights, what to do with the axles and wheels, etc.  He might have learned a lot, but it didn't really help with the speed of his car.  Our lesson learned...we have much better success when we just do our own thing! By the time Grayson is working on his derby cars we have going to have this thing down. :)

Zach was able to cut his car out one night at scouts, and then Bret helped him put together the rest.

I thought we were really getting into it this year when I bought a scale for them to use.  Too bad it was a piece of junk scale and what we thought was weighing in perfectly at 4.9 ounces was really 5.7 ounces!  Not a great start.

The timer on track was broken so we executed the race the old fashioned way, just two cars at a time each having a turn to race in both lanes.  Each car raced multiple cars before the final rounds began.

 Gavin can't wait till it's his turn.

 Zach and one of his best friends Matthew.  These two kids are two peas in a pod.