Pine Wood Derby "Ferrari" - Lets see them!

It took a couple of weekends but it was worth it.

1:1 scale
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I 'had' two of these - one built by me, the other built by my father. The spirit of the competition is for the cub/boy scout to build the car himself, and race it against his fellow scouts. It has degenerated into who's father has the better woodshop. The car I build myself basically sucked - but it looked like something I built myself and there was a certain pride to that. The other car was OBVIOUSLY built by someone who knows a thing or two about metal/woodworking - the car had a fancy paint job, a sheetmetal rear wing, and a F1-style cockpit windscreen fashioned from sheetmetal. My father built/painted everything, and I pretty much did nothing but watch him. Neither car won anything.

BTW, the key to building a winning car in that day was to hollow out the front completely, and fill it with as many BBs/Lead shot that the car would legally hold (I believe there is a max weight to the car). All that weight in the front of the car without making it too unbalanced with the rear of the car (and liberal amounts of powdered graphite on the wheels/axles) would make the thing sail down the track. The more aerodynamic/front-heavy the car, the more it won. My cars had weight in the middle/rear, and I didn't have any powdered graphite.

Another failure of my youth....

 

Here are two that my son & I built. The 1st one is a hand painted vintage Ferrari racer that my son did 50% of (I hand painted on the Ferrari emblems). The second one is a Ferrari Mondial T coupe that he did 95% of (I helped HIM paint the Ferrari emblems this time). The coupe was faster. He won all of his heats with it.
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First time this picture has ever been useful in the history of the wooden F50.

I took 2nd place with my car, and I was so mad that I lit it on fire when I got home. Call me a sore loser, but I was really upset.

 

For some strange reason, Lil' Bull didn't do a Ferrari.......in racing order we had:

1) A Curtis Indy Car, the yellow one, recently restored in real life
2) A White Countach
3) A blue Bugatti EB110, Elf sponsor decals

4) And then the last year, he put two Pokemon figurines on top of a yellow car that was just "futuristic' in design. They kind of messed up the drag CD numbers, but I'll admit them and the lightning bolt tail fin were kind of cute!

We had a huge Pack, so none made it into the Final Standings, but we had a great time! I wore the Ferrari MOMO jacket, and a Phil Hill T shirt, for good luck!

Well done, Scott! I am proud of him!

 

So much for the mondial not being considered a top performing Ferrari! Cool.
BT

 

When I made my derby car I wasnt interested in cars so I didnt model mine after anything. Probably explains why it looked like a red blob. It still won though. I won everything except for two races or something like that. I dont really remember.

 

Those are very cool Michael. As I don't have a son yet, and hopefully will in the next two years, I am definately looking forward to doing projects like those with my son.

Nothing like father and son working on a Ferrari project together

Alexander

 

Thank you.

Children are very rewarding. Do look forward to it, as it is special.

 

My girls are both in Awana at our church. Paige has done 3 cars and Alissa has done 2. They are quite young so I do build the car for them, but they choose how it will look and get heavily involved in painting and sanding, just have to keep them away from power tools. This is not as competitive as Boy scouts, and considering the age the parents in most cases are the actual builders, but the girls really enjoy the event and helping all they can. They are usually competing against boys and girls and the group is about 60 cars deep. The first year Paige came in 2nd with a 375F1, and the second year she finished 3rd, Alissa has never placed and last year Paige didn't either, but we have big plans this year.

1st year Paige : 1951 375F1 - Pink and blue
2nd year Paige: 1962 156F1 - Pink with glitter
3rd Year Paige: 1982 512BB - Yellow with flamingo

1st year Alissa: 1962 156F1 - Orange with glitter
2nd year Alissa: 1982 308 GTSi - Daddy's car
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Here is my son's effort (with some help from me) a few years back. it's modeled after a 312P. We didn't have any Ferrari stickers for it, so found a yellow shield that we put on the front. Not exact but close enough. This was our 4th and final year with the pine wood derby, and as such this car has a lot of work that was gained over the previous years. Flattend sides of the axle nail heads, very slight camber to the wheels (as evident by the thin wear mark on the treads. one of the front axles was bent a little to use as a steering wheel so the car would track straight for at least the first 10 feet without hitting the guide strip, ect. Results of 4 years are: 6 1ST, 3 2ND.
Trophies in picture are: 1ST place his den, 1ST place over all, 2ND place best of show.
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The cars and the results...
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WOW!

I am impressed sir! Give your Son an "Atta boy" for me.

 

so are those holes drilled all the way through the body to make for better air flow?

 

Great looking car, Congrats