phlporsche

My son and I just started his pinewood derby project and he wanted a 911. The car is taking shape and almost ready for paint:

Sneaky Pete

That is awesome! I won my derby in the Cub Scout 45 Pack back in the 70's. You just brought great memories of me and my Dad....thank you for that!

Sneaky Pete

And use plenty of graphite on the axles!

babylonboots

Eliminate friction & air resistance wherever you can; make sure the car runs straight. Pack the wheels with graphite/molybdenum (since you usually can't reapply between races); polish the nails; borrow a mettler balance and make sure the weight is dead on the max.

phlporsche

Thanks for the speed advice. Yes, tomorrow is paint day and then we work on the axles and wheels. My older son is working on a new style Camaro so there should be a nice solid race of American muscle vs German performance between my boys.

Dennis C

Nice work!

RngTrtl

so exactly how much of this did your son design/do? that doesnt look like the handy work of a 10 year old.

FRUNKenstein

Hey, as long as they are working on it together as a father/son team, that's all that matters. As much as I love the design he's made, it won't be a super fast car. Having fenders over the wheels is tough on speed. The fastest cars will look like this.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...d=0CDIQMygNMA0

RGrove

LOL...looks good. Cant be a "real" 911 with those headlights though....
I just got done putting the last coats of paint on our pinewood car. I probably have the only 8 year old who wanted to build a McLaren M8A can am car...I can empathize on the wood carving!

BTERRY1

Put the nails "axles# in the end of a drill with 400 grit sand paper and get them super smooth and then graphite. got first doing that as a kid.

phlporsche

To be honest no matter the design, I won't have my 10 or 8 year old using a power saw alone. This is a project we work together on and I am teaching my kids to come up with a design and draw it on the block then we work together to achieve. It is a great bonding and teaching project not an independent project for them. They do all painting and any other work themselves.

phlporsche

That is our next step. Paint went on over the weekend and wheels and axles are next.

phlporsche

Awesome, let's see a picture.

babylonboots

Many years ago, my son and I built a similar PWD car. Won all events, local and district. When we were planning to build, I asked him if he wanted to build a car that looked good, or one that was fast and won. Speed won vs. show.

phlporsche

I have asked the same question to my boys and the both seem to go back and forth. Last year was all about speed. The winner for speed didn't even carve his car, it was a block that he added lego bricks on top. I think it is more about perfect wheel setup than design. This year they wanted to try for a bigger focus on a cool looking car. So here are the final products. I figured I would post both the american muscle and the 911. Yes, I know those round headlights are ugly...