Pinewood Derby Scandal!!!

[Pembo]

Tonight was our cub scout pack's Pinewood Derby. I don't know these people too well, we just joined the pack this year. This guy started talking to me...he noticed that car #5 won every one of it's races. Coincidentally the owner of that car won the Pinewood last year. The boy who is 8 I think was telling all the other boys that his dad bought parts for it on Ebay and another rumor going around was that the dad ORDERED it premade off the internet. I have to admit it was a pretty professional looking car. But who knows?! Supposedly, according to this guy who was talking to me, the officials were going to look closer at the car after the race.

Such scandal!!!!!!!!!

Btw, our cars did horrible as always but hey my kids made them with their grandpa and we had a blast painting and decorating them. Now who has a Pinewood ringer I can buy???????

 

[minniecarousel]

hehe - my sons are 26 & 23 - even back then, every year there was always a rumor about pre-made cars or totally "Dad-made" cars!! I imagine that there are more sophisticated ways to get pre-made cars!

 

[Taylor]

Way back when I was a scout I remember that most of the cars (the fastest ones anyway) were built by the fathers not the kids. Many of the dads were engineers or worked in machine shops so the cars got to be pretty exotic. Real good lesson for the kids

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Oh yeah, our cubmaster was telling us you can get kits or gorgeous cars off of EBay--and even if they are homemade, you can tell when it is all dad--DS (now 7) did everything but the cutting last year and lost every race, but DH insists that we will not be competing with the other "dads". They even have a parent race where parents can race cars they built, hoping that the dads get it out of their systems that way!
Our race is 1/29.
Robin M.

 

[DisneyLovingMama]

When my brother was in cub scouts, someone put liquid mercury in the car, so as soon as it went on the incline, all the mecury went to the front and gave the car an advantage. It was a HUGE scandal at the time. My dad alwasy thought it was ingenious and wished he had thought of it.

 

[Pembo]

Ooh, what a good idea, the liquid mercury.

I just took a look on Ebay. There are cars supposedly built by engineers or rocket scientists that are going for over $50!!!! I don't think the trophy is really worth that much. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy your kid a trophy?

 

[Taylor]

Many years ago there was a scandal with a soapbox derby car. The father put a powerful magnet in a hidden compartment of the nose of the car. The starting gate dropped forward away from the car and was made of metal. The thought was that the car would gain an advantage at the start.

What better way to teach your kids sportsmanship?

 

[jajuan]

My DS was in scouts for a few years and his cars were made completely by him. You could definitely tell. We still have them and get a kick out of it. Whenever he was sad that his car didn't win I reminded him that he made the whole car on his own and that is what mattered. It is such a shame for the kids that the dads have to get so involved.

 

[DukeStreetKing]

Many years ago there was a scandal with a soapbox derby car. The father put a powerful magnet in a hidden compartment of the nose of the car. The starting gate dropped forward away from the car and was made of metal. The thought was that the car would gain an advantage at the start.

What better way to teach your kids sportsmanship?

Or the starting gate would stick to the nose of the car. That would quite embarrassing.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I used to actually be the computer operator for the pinewood derby for like 5 years. And every year these amazing cars would come in and would supposedly be build by 5 year olds. I'm sorry, I don't buy that. My brothers always looked like he made them with his feet. But he had fun doing it. I even made one, one year. It was a cheese wedge. I have no imagination. At least usually the outlandish cars were too big to pass the finish lines so they would be judged on looks but would not race.

But cars being sold on ebay?! Its a race of wooden cars! The trophys aren't worth $50. And you know what, most of those kids don't care if they win. They are just happy to be there with their friends. They watch one race, get bored, and run around the rest of the time.

 

[safetymom]

My late husband and son loved working on the pinewood car. My husband would instruct my son how to do it and my son would do the carving.

The year my husband died my son had to create it himself. He came in first in the district. It was wonderful seeing the look on my sons face when he won a race. He did it all himself. That is what it is supposed to be.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

How ridiculous--talk about competition run amok! Our pack has a "family car" division, which is nice for dads or siblings that want to make a car, too. They don't get real "trophies", but they do get a wood "plaque" (a slice of a tree trunk that a scout burns "!st Place" into). Last year, my DD entered a pink car, the year before that, it was shaped like a hot dog.

My DS won 4th place overall last year, he helped cut the car himself and painted it, decorated it all with the Red Sox logo. We were all stunned he actually won something. Let me tell you, he STILL carries that trophy around! But more importantly, he knows he earned it fair and square--isn't that what it's supposed to be about?

 

[eeyoreiscool]

I did all my cars with the supervision of my Dad. Only when I screwed up too badly would he try to get some sort of fix to it. I did fairly good in the races, second overall one year and first the next. It was a simple design and proved to be better than some of the fancy ones.

 

[Marseeya]

Why don't they just make some sort of rule that all the cars have to be made during pack meetings, or with the whole group?

DS was in cub scouts for a year and I thought it was a disgrace the way some of the parents handled the derby.

 

[Mickey527]

My son did the pinewood derby one year when he was about 7 or 8.
I was a single mother and knew nothing about cutting out a nice shaped car and my son had the certificate to carry a pocket knife, I didn't, so I had him do all the work himself.
He won first place and got a really nice trophy. His car was just wedge shaped, nothing fancy at all. He painted it red and put a stripe on it. He did use some weights that came in the kit, but they weighed all the cars before the race and they had to be within certain weight guidelines.
So these parents who pay $50 or more for their boys to win the race are wasting their money.
My son is now 22 and he still has his car and his trophy on his beurea.
Peggie

 

[golfgal]

The one year we did the Pinewood Derby they were holding up this car asking who it belonged to. No one was claiming it and finally a Dad nudged his kid and said 'that's your car". Oh, sure the kid made THAT one. Our DS's car was the ONLY car that was made by a kid. They should just have a Dad's division and be done with it. It is REALLY sad!

 

[puffkin]

My dad helped both my brothers with their cars, but I look at it as a bonding experience. I know both my brothers won first place in their races (5 years apart) but plenty of fathers helped their kids out. My brothers did most of the work, under dad's guidance. All I remember is my brothers cars were fast, but not the neatest looking.....

It is no different than school science fairs, the parental involvement at those is unbelievable.

 

[msdznyduck]

When DS was in cub scouts, he and DH always made the cars together. DH also researched some 'winning tecniques' and had DS add them to his cars. But DS did all the work. One year he made one that looked like a pencil. He won a lont of the races, even though there were dads who were engineers and their cars did not do as good.....they couldn't figure out how DS's cars usually won the races.....not cheating.......no flaming please, and DS DID do all the carving, sanding, painting etc by himself. Some of them didn't look really 'cool', in fact one of them was hardly carved, just painted, and still won some of the heats.

 

[Towncrier]

They should just have a Dad's division and be done with it.

My son's scout pack DID have a Dad's division. And they also had a division for "illegal" cars (usually meaning oversized, overweight, or with razor sharp wheels). This way the boys could have their own race and the dads (and moms) could compete on a separate playing field.

Seriously, there are tools available that can be used to true up the wheels and to otherwise tune the cars. Some people go so far as to buy literally hundreds of pinewood derby car kits to find four perfect axles and four perfect wheels.

Regarding the liquid mercury, I don't understand how that could make any difference in how a car performed (other than to slosh around). The best place to have your weight is as high as possible when the race starts. That way you have more potential energy to be converted to kinetic energy. The only way the mercury would work would be if it were held in a reservoir up high until the car started to move and then dropped as low as possible during the race.

 

[Chicago526]

Yeah, when my brothers and dad were in Scouts, they tried to disqualify my brothers cars because they always won. My dad did help my brothers, but they both put in a lot of time on their own cars. But the cars measured up to whatever rules they have, so they kept their trophies.