I have 3 daughters and all went through the Indian Guides/Princess program in Austin. We did similar cars in that program. Each year I asked them to choose - did they want to go for speed or best looking/most creative. The YMCA program had awards for those two categories. They won most years and placed high in all years.

It was always fun as they designed their own car (regardless of going for speed or looks). The most challenging was making a block of wood look like a dolphin (her school mascot) with wheels. Somehow we made it work. LOL

Follow the comments above regarding balancing on 3 wheels and polishing the axles. We found it best to get the weight on the front axles. (I balanced them on the two front axles and one rear axle.) We were all pre-GOOGLE days - just used knowledge we gained when I was in cub scouts.

I'm now past 60 but I still remember that as a cub scout the car I liked the best was the first one - because I did it pretty much myself. After that dad got really involved in the design. Other than helping to cut the car and doing the weights my daughters did the work on their car. They still cherish and have those stupid cars they made ~20 years ago.

So have fun with the kiddo but make sure they feel it is their project.

Here is one from a few years back that took first place. Get the weight as close as possible to the limit.

UPDATE:

Race was to be the 23rd but it was postponed a week because of the flooding.
So we had it ready for Sat but my wife fell in the kitchen late Friday night and I was resigned to getting text updates of the races from my daughter while sitting in the DR office. (more in another post)

34 cars were entered.
His car won every race it ran, heats and runoffs, to take 1st place.
The announcer was referring to his car in announcements by its name (Spirit of America) rather than its number... pretty cool.

So thanks for all the advice and support guys...

AWESOME!

That is great news! Memories that the both of you will hold for life times!

I did this with my kid twice. Learned a lesson the first time. See, I suggested that the boy make 2 cars, and enter the one that was fastest. Which he did. The day before the "race" the pack met up, and there was some new boy. Little indian kid, it was his first day as a cub scout. He so wanted to enter the race but didn't have a car or time, so my kid says "I've got 2, you can have one". Then proceeds to hand him the fast one and he kept the slow one. This car had won the race against his other car, and then he had worked and worked and worked on the fast car to make it faster. The slow car saw no other work, was totally ignored. He'd worked so hard on the fast car, it clearly would whip the other car, and he had to have known that he was going to lose.

Me, being infused with the spirit to "win" was in disbelief that this kid shows up at the last moment and gets my kids "winning car" with no work at all and my kid keeps the turd. I wasn't feeling very good as the race approached, and as it turns out, my kid goes first and the wheel literally fell off his turd!! The indian kid, with the my sons "fast" car lost horribly as it didn't run straight and scrapped the edge of the run, slowing it down dramatically, but both him and my boy had a ball and they ran around in total enjoyment with their cub pack, both "losers" but having a great time and a great time was had by everyone else as well. Everyone (including me) went home happy. Before we left, my boy went over to the winning car makers and politely admired them and asked why they were so fast. He got a lesson as the fast car makers opened up to him. They took him to the track and they ran them and evaluated what they were saying worked and why it worked.

Next year, he also make multiple cars and he won. 1st place and the next closest car wasn't close at all. AND the adults entered cars as well against other adults and because of my sons advice to me (he was about 10 years old) on how to make a fast car, mine took 1st for adults (which was not really part of the race or anything that mattered but if you had another car or a brother that wasn't a cub scout, anyone with a car did a non-official race). Folks encouraged us to race our cars, so we did: my sons was much faster than mine.

When I look back, without the first race happening just like it did, the boy might not had learned that lesson to investigate to achieve excellence. It was something I learned as well. We both learned something, although I will admit that I might have learned the most. My son grew up, got a job in another state and moved on years back. He left me that car, and it's right up above me as I type this. I see it anytime I look up.

^^^^^

Very nice!!

Congrats! We had ours a month and a half ago, it was fun building an adult class car along with our Tiger son and our daughter's sibling class. All three cars ran middle of the competition and I learned some things to tinker with next year. They've come a long way in the 30 years since I did mine.

I won the Pinewood Derby in 1970. Dad took our rough cut body to a machine shop and had the nails and body "blue-printed and balanced". How? I have no idea, I was 10. That car smoked down the track. I was accused of cheating. And in the infamous words of my father, "You need to work harder on it next year".

The Pinewood Derby is more for the Dads than the kids.

We had a Scout Leader that told us to let the kids do the car by themselves. We could tell them what to do, but we shouldn't touch the car. Guess what, His car looked like it came from Counts Customs, paint looked like a real hot rod paint job would be. He blew everyone away. Next year I helped and we won.