Post by Slow Steve on Jun 12, 2008 23:59:39 GMT -6
This is Mad Max (or Pinkie as my son Max calls it), the first car we built together. Max picked the paint color and painted it himself, and when I asked him why he picked pink he said "Dad, this way all the guys will think it's a slow girly car and they they'll be surprised when we beat 'em! (Max had a lot more confidence than I did!). Fortunately for both of us, the stars must have aligned and Max won 1st place in the Tiger Cub division and 1st place overall in the Pack. Max is convinced to this day that the jet engines sticking out the back were the key to victory.
Having qualified for our District Race and realizing we would likely face a whole lot more competition (and realizing that there was a LOT of good info on Pinewood Derby available on the internet), we figured we'd take a stab at building a faster car. Mad Max 2 (or Whitey as Max calls it) was the result, our first attempt at rail riding. Magic marker decor by Max and big sister Ashlyn (Ashlyn added in the glitter much to Max's chagrin... : Much to our surprise (more like shock!) Max won 1st place in the Tiger Cub division and 3rd place overall. Mad Max was ecstatic! (O.k., I admit it, I was probably at least as excited if not more so than Max! ;D)
Having qualified for the big Council Race (to be held at the Mall of America in front of a huge crowd) and racing against the fastest cars out of ~38,000 scouts representing 30 districts, Max and I figured we were pretty much in over our head. But I told Max if we "did our best" we'd have nothing to be ashamed of.
So of course... and much to my wife's dismay (I was already starting to get the "are you down there again playing with those silly little cars???" comments)... doing our best meant sequestering ourselves once in our Pinewood Research and Development Laboratory (o.k... it's actually just our basement but it sounds a lot cooler the other way!), toiling for hours on end in an effort to build yet another, faster car. After two false starts (cars we couldn't get to run faster than Whitey) we finished Max Max 3 (or as you can probably guess by now, Orangey as Max calls it) the night before the Council race. When Max went to bed at 9:00 that Friday night before the Council race, Orangey wasn't quite running as fast as Whitey, but Max said "Dad, figure out how to make this thing go fast!". Talk about feeling pressure... Now with renewed and ample motivation, after a good five hours hours of tweaking, by 2:00 a.m. I managed to eek a little more time out of Orangey... but would it be enough?
Well... even a blind squrrel can sometimes find a nut, and Max ended upon having the fasted Tiger car in the whole Council and winning 3rd place overall! The look on Max's face pretty much says it all (Max is the 3rd from the right)...
Max's momentos...
So now that our inaugural Cub Scout Pinewood Derby season has come to a close, Max and I were feeling a little wistful until we learned that PWDRacing is right in our own backyard! So we're thrilled to have the opportunity to race against, and more importantly learn from, all of you wonderful folks that have so far made us feel very welcome. My thanks to Warren and whomever else may be responsible for creating PWDRacing, and we very much look forward to Saturday's race!
Max will be running "Mad Max" (Orangey) in the Novice class, and I'm going to enter "Old Yeller" in the Stock class. Here's a pic of Old Yeller...
See everyone on on Saturday!
Steve B.
Having qualified for our District Race and realizing we would likely face a whole lot more competition (and realizing that there was a LOT of good info on Pinewood Derby available on the internet), we figured we'd take a stab at building a faster car. Mad Max 2 (or Whitey as Max calls it) was the result, our first attempt at rail riding. Magic marker decor by Max and big sister Ashlyn (Ashlyn added in the glitter much to Max's chagrin... : Much to our surprise (more like shock!) Max won 1st place in the Tiger Cub division and 3rd place overall. Mad Max was ecstatic! (O.k., I admit it, I was probably at least as excited if not more so than Max! ;D)
Having qualified for the big Council Race (to be held at the Mall of America in front of a huge crowd) and racing against the fastest cars out of ~38,000 scouts representing 30 districts, Max and I figured we were pretty much in over our head. But I told Max if we "did our best" we'd have nothing to be ashamed of.
So of course... and much to my wife's dismay (I was already starting to get the "are you down there again playing with those silly little cars???" comments)... doing our best meant sequestering ourselves once in our Pinewood Research and Development Laboratory (o.k... it's actually just our basement but it sounds a lot cooler the other way!), toiling for hours on end in an effort to build yet another, faster car. After two false starts (cars we couldn't get to run faster than Whitey) we finished Max Max 3 (or as you can probably guess by now, Orangey as Max calls it) the night before the Council race. When Max went to bed at 9:00 that Friday night before the Council race, Orangey wasn't quite running as fast as Whitey, but Max said "Dad, figure out how to make this thing go fast!". Talk about feeling pressure... Now with renewed and ample motivation, after a good five hours hours of tweaking, by 2:00 a.m. I managed to eek a little more time out of Orangey... but would it be enough?
Well... even a blind squrrel can sometimes find a nut, and Max ended upon having the fasted Tiger car in the whole Council and winning 3rd place overall! The look on Max's face pretty much says it all (Max is the 3rd from the right)...
Max's momentos...
So now that our inaugural Cub Scout Pinewood Derby season has come to a close, Max and I were feeling a little wistful until we learned that PWDRacing is right in our own backyard! So we're thrilled to have the opportunity to race against, and more importantly learn from, all of you wonderful folks that have so far made us feel very welcome. My thanks to Warren and whomever else may be responsible for creating PWDRacing, and we very much look forward to Saturday's race!
Max will be running "Mad Max" (Orangey) in the Novice class, and I'm going to enter "Old Yeller" in the Stock class. Here's a pic of Old Yeller...
See everyone on on Saturday!
Steve B.