Last year I was on my soapbox about my dislike for the pinewood derby. I assure you, even a year later my feelings haven’t changed. I still think it is a waste of time and money and I hate how the boys don’t even make their cars. No joke, Hunter took his car to the weigh-in the night before and a boy asked me if Hunter helped his dad make the car. I had to laugh. Hunter made his own car. The boy’s response was classic, “You let him make his own car?”
I’m ready to turn the pinewood derby on its head and turn it into a lego derby, where all the cars are built on lego frames. Our friend’s troop did that and I loved the idea of having every boy truly build the car on his own.
Since that isn’t happening anytime soon – Hunter made it his reality now. He had to use the wood base (we glued lego plates to the wood) and the BSA approved wheels (seriously? this activity has gotten out of hand!) but he made a lego car. He worked through a couple different designs before landing on this design.
And you know what? The car didn’t do half bad. He wasn’t setting records but he was in the middle of the pack the whole time. He was pleased as could be – and so was I.
We’re keeping the car and he can create a new lego car on the same base next year!
That is very smart. Definitely going to use that idea and wish I’d thought of that with my first two boys. I hate the derby too (and I was the cub master/den leader for 4 years….small ward). I’m just waiting for the church to phase out of scouts all together. 😉
Genius idea! Can you do a tutorial? How did you do the base part? I can’t quite tell from the pictures. My son would love to do a lego car next year. (I also hate the pinewood derby)
We are in our first year of scouts and had our first Pinewood Derby- we loved it! One thing our pack does is a separate race for the non-scouts – parents, siblings, leaders, anyone. Its called the “Outlaws” and anything goes as long as it makes weight. This gives the parents their chance to make whatever they want (and they are allowed to buy the fancy wheels if they desire) and it lets the kids focus on their own car. Of course the extra “Outlaw” races make the Pinewood Derby take forever but it really does cut down on parents doing all the work.
The night before the Pinewood (at weigh in) a bunch of dads hang out and will help all the boys add graphite to their wheels and add extra weights. Its a really big group effort and everyone seems to have fun.