Family Pinewood Derby

[howarthe]

This year we had 20 Cubs entered in our pinewood derby. I think we also had one sister, but I'm not sure. We weren't really organized to accept sibling cars. She just brought one. She got to race it down the track, but I donlt think she received any recognitions. Anyway, NEXT year I want to do this better. We usually buy the cars for th scouts. We can't afford to buy cars for all the siblings and parents, but we might be able to if we made it a fundraiser. We usually try to raise a little money for Friends of Scouting during the pinewood derby by selling hotdogs and soda. What if ANYONE could build a car and race it for a fee? I'm thinking $10 would include the cost of the kit and a trophy or certificate. We coudl have a dad's division, mom's division, sister's division, brother's division, maybe others, maybe it should go by age. Maybe all the Boy Scouts in our associated troop would like to build cars again and race? Maybe all the Girl Scouts in town would like to come race? Hmmm.... What do you think? Have any of you ever tried anything like this? How did it go?

[Nike]

Many packs have a sibling category, a vintage category (Dad's old car) and a Dad category where the only rule is there are no rules. While I wouldn't open a PWD to Girl Scouts just because of the nuttiness of the day as it is, I would have no problem whatsoever running a PWD for them. Last year I borrowed our Pack's track for a Daisy/Brownie Day, and we made potato cars. The girls loved it!

[blw2]

I've toyed with suggesting something like this for our pack. I like the idea of a dad's race or an unlimited rules race.... my though being it may cut down on the over the top dad designs in the boys race and take that down to what I think it was meant to be - boy made cars with help from dad, not the other way around.

 

the more I think of it though, it's a lot of work to put on a race and opening it up to much more just drags out the work and day even more so I don't think my committee would go for it.

 

This year we did have one sister that brought a car.... rather nice one too. I think they ran a sibling race at their old pack. I had a car that my son & I had thrown together the morning of race from the bottom of the block we used from his car. It had the slots in the bottom. I drilled outthe slots by hand, stuck some wheels in it, and trimmed a fishing sinker untill it was 5 ounces. It was our 10 minute car & I had brought it as a backup in case my son's car crashed or something. Anyway, we ran that car against little sister after the pack race was done.

 

[koolaidman]

Our pack has always had a sibling category and an adult category.

[Polaris]

We have a family race (moms, dads, siblings) and a no-rules race (nuclear power, teletransportation, etc). Generally, after all the scouts race 6 heats each, very few hang around for the family and no-rules race. Pinewood races make for a long day.

 

The families buy their own cars for the supplemental races.

[SSScout]

My home Pack always has at least three (sometimes more, depending on who is interested) classes: Cub (boy builds car), Non-Cub Kid (siblings, cousins, etc.), and Unlimited (adult ). This year, we only had one Unlimited-adult entry. He had encased a block of lead in wood veneer. Nicely shaped and painted, it looked like a PWD car! However, it weighed in at 6 lbs, 13 oz. (!!!!). The Committee decided it was too dangerous to "race" on the track, and gave it a "special " award.

[Fehler]

Can't have a "no rules" race, since we hire another pack's track/runner to hold our race for us. Don't want to risk damaging the track. But we do have an "open" division for siblings, parents, and Boy Scouts, and will have extra kits available for sale at the meetings where the Cubs get their free kit.

[Fehler]

Can't have a "no rules" race, since we hire another pack's track/runner to hold our race for us. Don't want to risk damaging the track. But we do have an "open" division for siblings, parents, and Boy Scouts, and will have extra kits available for sale at the meetings where the Cubs get their free kit.

[Basementdweller]

He hold an open class race for parents, leaders and sibs. $10 buy in give kit and trophies for the class.

[meschen]

Our Pack has always supported sibling and parent cars. We very clearly state when we give out kits that parents get to compete in their own division so that they keep their mits off of their Scouts car!!

[5yearscouter]

We have a race for sibling made cars and adult made cars. they must follow the same rules as the cubs, but we may not be as careful with the measurements, as they are racing for fun. we don't give trophies --We have 1,2,3 place ribbons and participant ribbons for all, and that costs us next to nothing. they pay for their own car kits. we raced adults first this year, so their cars were the test cars for the track to make sure everything was workin right and the scoring system was up ad functional. we only had one sibling car, so that one raced with the adults but got a 1st place ribbon as fastest sibing car.

[jc2008]

We have an "open" race after all the racing is done. This is for siblings, parents, leaders etc. Its a bunch of fun, especially between the adults.

[njdrt-rdr]

We have a family division which is anyone in the family other than the scout. We charge $5 for the car kit that the family purchases from us. We hand out 3 trophies in the family division and it follows the same rules as the scout divisions. We run ours in stages, so it's scout round 1, family round 1, scouts round 2, family round 2(final round), then scouts final round.

[jpstodwftexas]

My Last Pack held Different Divisions

One for Each Rank

Tiger

Bear

Wolf

Web 1

Web 2

Plus Pack Over All in Which the Winners Competed

Open Class Youth..Any Kid

Open Class Adult..

Top Finishers in Last three competed against each other for Grand Champion

 

Years ago our Council held a council Pinewood Derby

 

[blw2]

How many of you run a grand champion race after the den races?

 

Our pack (and district) run the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd boys form each Den all together in a fresh set of heats as a "Grand Champion" race.

 

Since all of the racers in the grand champion race will go onto district anyway.... AND since the software will report the overall Pack standings in a list of all dens / all boys so we can see the overall winners for the pack for bragging purposes..... I am failing to see the point of the Grand Champion race.

 

I proposed to our CM and will likely propose to the committee that we skip the grand champion race. It may be a way to make more time available for a family race, or some of the other ideas mentioned in this thread.