Customer Reviews

Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets: Design and Build the Ultimate Car

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written from experience and illustrated with fantastic photography that actually prove the adage "a picture's worth a thousand words". Dave Meade has been involved in scouting and PWD for a lot of years. Quite a few people can say that, but usually not with as many winning Derby entries and PWD trophies as the Meade family gathered!
Besides sharing his technique and expertise in easy to understand and logical procession, he shares safety tips and begins the book with a nice, informative 50 year history of the Pinewood Derby. This is the only Pinewood Derby instruction book authorized and licensed by the Boy Scouts of America.
There are many important aspects covered in detail to build a competitive car for everyone from beginner to advanced. The book even covers recent advances in the use of specialized PWD tools by Pro Worx. As well as templates, materials and tool lists and more.
David is also owner of an online retail store (derbychamp), selling Derby tools, wheels, axles, weighting materials, decals lubricants and other items, anything you might need on Derby Day.
I'm a PineHead fanatic and I recommend this book.
I strongly suggest you take a look too no matter what your level or degree of interest might be in PWD. Buy it for your Scout!!!

Pinewood Derby has been an American tradition for Cub Scouts since it was originated in 1953, a fun event for Scouts and their fathers. There are many books out there that tell you how to make Pinewood Derby cars, giving you helpful hints and serious suggestions on how to increase the speed of your car. Well, of all of the books that I have seen, I must say that I do think that this is the best of them all!

This excellent book covers all of the suggestions that I have seen in all of those other books, ALL of them. But, what really sets this book apart is that it is filled with many colorful pictures that show you exactly how to do each step in making the best Pinewood Derby car that you can. Yeah, this is a great book.

So, if you have an up-coming Pinewood Derby coming up, do yourself a favor, and buy this book. I give it my absolutely highest recommendations!

First and foremost, this book is exceptional as a single source for a myriad of speed tips. There are many different articles online, but no sites cover as many particulars as this author. My son and I read the book and designed his car using several of the tips to the best of our abilities. We discussed the mechanical advantage of the various tips and came up with the best ways to accomplish them. We were somewhat limited by our skills and tools. As a result, our car was an ugly asymmetrical wedge, but he was proud of it and I was proud of him. He was very involved in almost every aspect (no band saw) and we spent countless hours tweaking it. Long story short, he won the entire pack competition.

Now for the caution: After the competition, the pack leader mentioned that several cars were "pushing the limits" and might not pass district inspections. I spoke with him individually afterwards about my son's car to be sure he was good to go. He mentioned our extended wheelbase (mentioned in the book) as a point of possible contention. He then mentioned that the axles needed to be viewable as well. Neither of these points was mentioned in our pack's official rules. Besides the written instructions, we got additional verbal instructions as follows: "Look at the rules. Use only official parts, don't do anything prohibited...everything else is fair game. There was an additional light-hearted comment, "Dad, make sure your son is involved." He and I were both excited for the project.

I felt terrible for my son after speaking with the pack leader. He sensed my concern and basically told me not to worry about it. He said there were many cars with blatant violations like those mentioned above, and that there were some cars that definitely weren't built by a child. I saw several that were either kits from the internet or precision machined. Many of the dads wouldn't even let their sons hold the car. He even said he wasn't talking about my son's car when he made the statement. His reassurance was nice, but it still felt wrong.

Before I get attacked, let it be noted that went to great lengths to preclude exactly what happened. I requested the full guidelines for our group with as many specifics as possible. I asked several people if there was anything else we needed to know and was assured there was not. There were several things specifically forbidden such as bent axles, reshaped wheels, liquid lubes, starting mechanisms, etc. Nothing in our rules even hinted at our potential violations. Before we received our official rules, I looked at several sets of BSA pack rules online. To say the least, they vary dramatically. Many specifics, including extended wheelbases, are mentioned with notes about whether they are legal. Some, like ours, never mentioned it.

Summed up; This book and some PWD building tools are sold directly by the official BSA retail store. The author even had a featured article on Boys' Life magazine. I believed whole-heartedly that my son and I were adhering to all of the requirements and not violating any rules. Our warning about "potentially not passing the district inspection" leaves us in question about what to do. If we build a new car, that car will have never won a race and will be at a disadvantage if our original car is allowed. If we take the original car, it might be disqualified from the start. Regardless of what rules your group uses, check for the legality of the any steps mentioned in this book before assuming anything. With the efforts I made to get ALL of the rules, the "cheater" feeling bites especially hard. It definitely diminished the joy of the father/son experience. Good luck.

This one should help you and your scout bring home the trophy. Full of great tips to help maximize the speed on the derby racer. Well illustrated and easy to follow tips will help your scout do most of the work (I know it's hard to resist Dads... make your own alongside your scout).

I had know idea the kind of things you could do to your car to make it go faster. Each tip is easily explained in detailed instructions well worth the price.

David Meade's book is fantastic. I had no idea you could do so many things to a pinewood derby car. The instructions are easy to follow, with lots of photos. I am not someone who is comfortable building things, but this book makes me feel like I can help my son build a competitive car. Mr. Meade explains the physics involved with the techniques, making this project a very good teaching opportunity. Using this book was time well spent.

My son and I have been using this book to build our cars over the past 2 weeks. It's a GREAT book! My 7 1/2-year-old likes it and he got lots of great ideas for his car design from it (and the *extensive* pictures!). I really appreciated the easy-to-follow step by step approach of the book. The layout of the book is perfect and approachable for any level of experience. Because of all the pictures and how well it's written, the book will be equally suited for the coffee table or the work-bench! Thank you for the very helpful informative book! I'll update my review after the race (next Saturday!)
Update: My son won *every* race in his class! In the "overall" races, he only lost one race to a much older kid, and only lost by a inch! We had a blast!

I'm not the handiest person when it comes to woodworking. This book gives you awesome tips and it puts them in very easy to follow terms with lots of pictures. The book gives three levels of performance. I followed most from the lowest level, and added some from the top two levels as the rules allowed. Much to my pleasant surprise, my son's car (yes, we worked on it together) won his troop's Pinewood Derby and came in 3rd at Districts. This book allowed me to be a helpful dad. For that, I'm very grateful.

This detailed and easy to read book was helpful for the first year Cub scout parents enetering into the Pinewood Derby. The derby is about parents and sons building a car TOGETHER and "doing your best," which is why I bought the book. After reading my local rules, I adhered to the book and avoided the nightmare check-in entries I witnessed at the derby. My son didn't win for speed (he did win best design), but won 2 of 3 heats and most importantly he had fun. I enjoyed watching him and knew our car was competitive and didn't have to make any last minute adjustments.

There is a ton of information on the net about building a fast pinewood derby car. This book covers in pretty good detail most of the common speed tips and construction methods. By following this book and our district's rules we were able to build several very quick cars. Using the techniciques in this book my son was able to take second in his den and the pack while at the same time setting our pack's track speed record.