a startling forgotten memory as a result of this post. My car did great 25 years ago. it was the only silver one… i was a bit embarassed when it was realized to be quicker….I didn’t feel the serious tension the adults around us did.

If you happen to get the Boy’s Life Scouting magazine look in the very back, there’s an ad for a $5 ‘Secrets to winning pinewood derby’ thing. I got some of the tricks out of it from a neighbor and they work amazing. I won our pack championship 4 years in a row.

It has some minor things like sanding the wheels smooth, adding as much weight as possible, tilting one wheel up so that only 3 are touching the track and it has less friction and the one that seemed to work best was spraying the old school pine-sol on the nail axels, the kind with the oil still in it. The tricks sound minor but they make a suprizing difference.

I remember my pack started an adult competition too, but they decided to make it no rules ‘cept for nothing flamable. My dad stuck a massive electric motor with a propellor on some balsa wood and that thing screamed.