Pinewood Derby Templates and Car Designs
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The Pinewood Derby is a Cub Scouts of America event, which is inspired by the famous Soap Box Derby, which is for older children. The cub scouts, with the aid of their parents, build miniature wooden racing cars without engines, which are “powered” by gravity on a downhill racing course. The event was first held in 1953, and has been going strong ever since.
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Understanding the Pinewood Derby
The basis of every Pinewood Derby racer is a block of pinewood, four nails, and four wheels. The finished racer must weigh in at less than an agreed on weight, usually five ounces. There are also rules on racer’s length, which are set by the event organizers, but generally speaking, the completed model racers must be no larger than 7 inches in length and 2-3/4 of an inch in width.
The Scouts see the Pinewood Derby as an opportunity for parents and their children to build even stronger bonds to each other, as the event thrives around parent and child working together to build their car.
A mini-industry has sprung up around supplying the tools, parts and components necessary to build the racer, as well as the plans, which are called Pinewood Derby Templates. Many of these templates are available for downloading online at no cost, and don’t worry about what type of computer or software you are using – the providers will have you covered!
A Pinewood Derby Template might provide top, front, and side views of the shape you must form the basic pinewood block into. These online templates are often displayed against a background of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines, partitioning the viewing field into a linear background of squares, just like graph paper. The template is draw to scale, with each square representing perhaps a quarter-inch or a half-inch on the actual completed model.
On the same page, the provider of the template might provide links to decals you can purchase so that your model hot rod will look even hotter! There will also be links to online stores where you can buy wheels, axles, and other non-wood parts, and to tools for purchase to make building the model easier and more fun.
Other templates are more instructive and systematic, providing step-by-step instruction not only for every cut you make, but how to make it and with what tool. These types of Pinewood Derby Templates are much better for beginners, but might be a bit boring to experienced teams.
And, yes, this is a supposed to be a team effort, so back off a little bit, dad, and stop hogging all the fun!
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