We were up and at'm this morning, putting the finishing touches on Gray's Pinewood Derby car.
Late last night we drilled holes underneath and inserted 3/4 oz fishing weights to bring the car right up to the 5 oz racing limit. This made Grayson exceedingly nervous, as he though that we might be cheating. He was greatly releaved to arrive trackside this afternoon to find kids attaching everything from fifty cent pieces to just inserting screws to the sides of their cars to bring them up to racing weight.
When the green flag dropped....uh, well, let's say we learned a lot of things. Even after taking most of Brent Steeno's suggestions, we managed to build a slug. Who knew you could alter the wheel base? Or raise one wheel off the track for decreased friction (I'm still debating the physics of that one, but I will admit there were some very fast 3 wheelers).Fortunately, we had fun...and Gray left saying "Next year, we'll.....". That's the sign of a good sport, and I'm plenty content with that.
3 comments:
Alas, we, also were overcome by a sneaky kid who basically raced a frame--he had hollowed his car out and put all the extra on the front end. AND it went on three wheels...
Thanks for the racing update - slug or no slug, sounds like fun!
Jen, I still think that mathmatically, the 3 wheeler has no advantage. Doesn't it just transfer 1/4 of the downforce to the three remaining wheels?
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