Pinewood Derby Part 1: In the Making

I know it's been a while since I last posted... mostly because I haven't really been doing much other than working. Anyway, here it is: my next project. This is my design for this year's pinewood derby with the RA's at church.



(a view looking at the front-left corner)


(a view looking at the front, note the elevated front wing)


(a view looking at the left side with the front on the left)


(a lower view of the left side, note how close to the ground it is)


(a view of the rear)

Here are the basic principles I went with in the design of this car:
- I noticed last year that our track has the cars riding between two rails instead of on top of one rail, so I wanted to try and get the car as low to the ground as possible to see if that helped.
- Since it rides between two rails, I thought that I would see if I could prevent the wheels from rubbing against the rails by having a bumper between them. I plan to embed a paperclip into the sides to further reduce friction with the rails.
- I wanted to remove as much original material as possible so that I could add more weight in the rear (which theoretically makes it start with more energy)
- I wanted to make a car design that I had never seen before.

I think this design meets these goals pretty well. In regards to the removing a bunch of material, right now it weighs 1 7/8 oz according to my digital kitchen scale, and I need to shoot for a max of 5 oz. That'll work. There is only one problem... I don't know what to call it. Thus I am holding a contest on my blog to come up with a name for this wooden wonder, so post up a suggestion at your leisure. It also needs a paint scheme, but I'll figure that out once a name is decided. I think I have fixed the settings so that you don't need to have a Blogger account to post up. I haven't decided on a prize for the winner; maybe I'll give a share of the glory I receive from leaving those elementary boys in my dust.