Pinewood Derby Car Weight Tips
When building your Pinewood Derby car, never wait to add weights! However, the process is more complex than it might seem at first. Failing to take the right steps could mean the difference between winning the race, and crossing the finish line a split second after the fastest car. Here are some helpful tips for successfully adding weights to your car.
1. Avoid adding too much weight
The maximum weight that your car can be is five ounces. The key is for your Pinewood Derby car to be as close as possible to that weight-without exceeding it. This means that you should be cautious when adding weights, as adding too much will disqualify you for the main event. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help you achieve your mission.
Pinewood Derby Car Weights
2. Keep the weights flush with the car’s surface
When adding weights to the car, avoid allowing them to protrude past the surface of the car. That would add friction, which could ultimately prevent you from crossing the finish line first.
3. Add the weights to the back half of the car.
This is a crucial step to take when building your Pinewood Derby car. Taking this approach will maximize the amount of momentum that your car has. In turn, that will boost the speed of your car and give you the best chance at crossing the finish line first.
4. Properly secure the weights
Weights won’t be worth much if they drop out during the race. How should you secure them? An effective method is to add a little glue around the surface of the weights. Then before you paint your car, add some putty over the holes where you inserted the weights.
5. Use denser weights
The actual type of weights that you use isn’t as important as how efficient they are. It’s highly advisable that you use weights that are as dense as possible. This will further help to reduce the amount of friction that the car produces-which will in turn make it faster. Regarding the actual weight of the weights, lighter is better. This will allow for more precision, so you can get as close to your target weight as possible.
6. Consider adding some weight to the front half of the car
You should typically add the majority of the weight to the rear of the car. But you might want to counterbalance that weight, by adding some to the front half of the car as well. For instance, you could add two-thirds of the weight to the back, and one-third of the weight to the front.
7. Keep experimenting until you get the weight right
After adding weights to your Pinewood Derby car, you might need to make some other adjustments. So weigh the car afterwards. When necessary, add more weights until you’re extremely close to the target weight.
While there are several possible methods for maximizing your Pinewood Derby car’s speed, adding weights is one of the most effective ones. These above pinewood derby car weight tips will maximize the benefit of adding a little weight.