Pinewood Derby Prep 2018: Triper

We got the Pinewood Derby kits before Christmas, but just like last year we didn't have time to start working on it until the week before the race. Last year we learned that a potential key to winning a design trophy is to make a car that would be entered into a less popular category, basically don't make a Star Wars car because there are going to be fifty of them. So this year Zane decided on a snake design, entering into the judges choice category, where you make anything you want and don't have to stick to a specific theme. He chose the White Lipped Tree Viper, after doing lots of research in his various snake books for the best color design. At first we were thinking rattle snake, to keep it local, but they aren't as colorful and have a harder design to paint. I told him he would need to be able to do the painting all by himself since Zach would have to do most of the wood working portion of the design.




 They spent a lot of time on it and I think the final product looks amazing. Zane was involved in coming up with the design of the snake being curled up, sanding it down once the design was cut out, putting the indentions on it to look like scales (done with a wood working tool from Dad's set which was fun), painting, and lots of race testing yesterday. We learned a lot from last year's experience such as sanding down the wheels and the axels. There is also apparently some sort of lubricant you put on the axel on race day. This year Zach and Zane have spent a lot of time doing test runs, making sure the wheels are running straight and not rubbing against the side of the track, which apparently was our problem last year. I'm told all these things are legal so hopefully we have a good showing. In the side by side race this year's car, named Triper (short of tree viper, get it), was substantially faster.




As you may recall last year Zane was the only person in his Den that didn't get a trophy for something. The trophies are handed out for first, second, and third place for speed in each Den and in the overall Pack. There is also a trophy for best design in four different design categories. It's a long morning/day of racing if at the end of it you don't get anything to take home. He did get a medal last year for participating, which was not super exciting to Zane since we had provided them for the Den. We tried to stress the fun was in the making it, but as a seven year old boy the fun is obviously in the trophy. So hopefully he has a good showing and has fun. Rowan is already coming up with his design for next year. He landed on a Tiger design "just a car that's painted like a tiger," which should be easy enough. We are definitely going to have to start this process much earlier when we have two cars to make.




I was at work this weekend so I got picture play by plays and then they put all the finishing touches on it yesterday when we were all home for MLK day.

Initial paint job. The poor tail broke off initially and then broke kind of in half during a test run. It has been successfully super glued back on though so no worries.



Yesterday they spent a lot of time getting the wheels put on just right. I'm not sure how the engineering of this works, but it took a lot of tweaking to get them just right. In the midst of this yesterday Zane and I had to make a run to Hobby Lobby for various racing kits/supplies. We ran into another Cub Scout whose dad tried to mansplain derby cars to me. Thanks, we've got it covered. My personal favorite part of the process was the morning outing with just Zane. I never do anything with just Zane these days so this hour of singing, talking, trying on baseball uniforms (side errand), and searching for derby supplies was wonderful.

Zach's new work bench in the garage was key to the final project. We also had to purchase a few different tools/bits that had been stolen, boo!

 First attempt at a trial track, this is where the tail breakage happened.

 Final product, complete with fangs, vertical pupils, triangle shaped head (because tree vipers are venomous obviously), his initials, and a shiny gloss finish which I think pushed it over the top.

  Second trial track idea worked much better. They had numerous races with last years x-wing. Triper is much faster.



Race day is Saturday. I'm not sure how much of it Thatcher and I will be able to stay for, but I'm excited for him and love watching him and Zach complete a project together. I'll let you know how it goes.