re: What is the keys to winning the Pinewood Derby Championship?

All of the things mentioned are key, but the one thing that separates the top cars and is most the difficult to get is axle alignment, especially in a rail runner car. That's going to you those few hundreds of a seconds difference with the other fast cars.

BTW... I've, er, my kids have built dozens of these things. My last kid is in his last year... so thank God for that. Sick of these damn things.

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Without cheating.

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"I" won by staying the Hell out of Dad's way.

don't think I laid a hand on that car but it smoked everybody else

Take emery cloth and jeweler rouge - put the wheel nails in a Dremel tool and buff the nails to absolute smoothness, then wax them and buff some more. The smoother they are, the better the wheels will turn. Buff graphite into the wheel openings where the nails will contact plastic. Make the nails as straight as possible when you tack them into place. You will need to make the car as close to maximum weight as possible and put the weights exactly over the wheels (front and back) The car needs to be balanced at mid point between wheels. Make sure the nails aren't driven too deep into the car to cause them to bind against the car or nail.


The car that won when our youngest son competed in the cubscout event belonged to a kid who nailed the wheels in place in his block of wood, wrote a number on the side with magic marker and raced it. What did he do to make it special? Nothing.

Graphite on the wheels from what I remember. Lol

Nails? I didn't know there was nails involved. I thought it was just the block if wood, axles and wheels

There are tons of small things you can do to win the Pinewood derby.

Reducing friction of the wheels and making sure you are exactly at the maximum weight is what I would focus on.

I would also make several cars and get to the track early for a few test runs. Pick out your fastest racer.

First, ignore the predrilled holes as they are notoriously not drilled square. Get a drill press and make sure that they are drilled at 90 degrees and have three of them at the same level and the last one should be drilled slightly higher so that this wheel does not touch the track (provides for less friction)

Bevel the wheel hubs so that they come to a point on the inside and bevel the axle away from the wheel to reduce friction as well.

Take the axles to your local dentist and have them spun on grinding wheel and polished with emory cloth and rouge (the stuff that makes gold crowns shiny).

Get an accurate metric scale and use washers and lead shot to raise the weight to the maximum limit.

Lastly, while I can't recall if it is legal, a bit of white graphite on the axels can't hurt and will probably go undetected.

Good luck.

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only one thing of what you said is the big deal. you didnt say the other one........you want a rail hugger.

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This and weight right up to the limit, as far back on chassis as possible, highly polished axles, and wheels with no burrs. Oh, and one front wheel raised above the rest so it doesn't contact track.

Ruzil, white graphite was legal when we raced about 10 years ago.

Add extra weight to front of car

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Nails? I didn't know there was nails involved. I thought it was just the block if wood, axles and wheels

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The nails are the axles.

It has nothing to do with aerodynamics. It's all about reducing friction. Polish the axles, Cant the top of the wheels inward so that the car rolls on the edge of the wheel more than the entire surface, also, make it so one front wheel doesn't even touch the track. You can also give the car a short head start by cutting a V notch in the nose where the pin for the gate touches the front.

ETA: Also make sure that the slots cut into the block for the axles are perfectly square to the length, otherwise the car will vear to the side.