Pinewood Derby Secrets

Now that he's comfortably at home polishing his Pinewood Derby Grand Champion trophy, Jack "Lightning McQueen" Wilson (and his Dad) agreed to share the secret of their success in this guest post. You're gonna want to bookmark this post for next year.

Hey Greg. Here is the website I followed while building our car. It lists 16 steps. The key steps I followed closely were:

Step 5 (but I didn’t countersink the weights. And speaking of countersinking the weights – I noticed numerous cars striking the track during the races, so I will never place weights under the car. I also saw advice on another site to put most, but not all, of the weights high and in the back),

Step 6 (I have a scale from Stamps.com that showed my car at 4.9 ounces. The official scale showed my car at 4.75 ounces, so I brought along and simply added enough weight to get the car at exactly 5.0 ounces),

Step 7 (excellent ideas for painting cars – note the use of fishing line),

Step 8 (KEY STEP. What I did different: put the nail in the drill and used a regular file to sand down the burr. Also, I used one grade of medium sandpaper soaked in water for 5 minutes, cut it into ¼ inch strips and spun the axle around it for two or three 15 second bursts. I didn’t see the need to go through all the sanding levels this guy lists. I almost skipped out on the car wax, but decided to do this the last minute – and it made a big difference. Again, didn’t do all of this guys suggestions. I applied the wax with a paper towel with the nail in the drill and then spun the axle with the drill and buffed using a dry washcloth),

Step 10 (used liberally),

Step 11 (mine spun from between 20 and 35 seconds),

Step 12 (note the “trick”),

Step 13,

And of course, see steps 1, 15 and 16

Steps 5, 6 and 8 made the difference from a car not winning a race last year to not losing a race this year. So, shhhhhh – keep this information a “Den 4 Exclusive” and will rule the Derby for YEARS. OK, getting a little crazy there, and besides, simple Google searches on Pinewood Derby will lead anyone to these tricks.

See ya on the 25th.

Thanks Todd.