Main Idea

Pinewood Derby except with more lasers, motors, and physics. With no weight limit you can imagine all the ways to make the car go faster: fan for propulsion, electric motors connected to the wheels. Just imagine!

Rules

1. Must include all parts of Boy Scouts of America Pinewood Derby kit (wooden block and plastic wheels). These parts can be decorative (or non functional) but must be part of the car in some way. The track will be made to assume the width of the wood block body and plastic wheels to hold the car in its lane. The length of the car should also be the same length as the wooden block so they will fit on the track at the starting gate. The track will be made to assume the length of the wooden block for the starting area.
2. No weight limit but there is a physical limit where you’ll be slower than you want.
   
3. No pyrotechnics (safety third!) so no jet engines, petrol/alcohol engine, etc.
   
4. You MUST stay in your lane. Going airborne is OK as long as you go through the finish line and get “clocked” in the lane you started in. The whole car must go through the finish line (no projectiles). Runs will not count if you cross into another lane.
5. If you damage other cars, you’re disqualified.
   
6. Remote controls, batteries, motors and microcontrollers, etc. are encouraged to give your car a turbo boost or other speed advantage.
7. The maximum height of the car must be less than 5 inches. The middle gate and the finish line gate are 5 inches above the track so your car must make it under the gate without running into it.
8. In order for the sensor to pick up your car for timing (and in order to be counted to win!) make sure the bottom of your car is no more than 3/4" (0.75 inch) from the bottom of the wheels (from the table where the car sits).

How to win

The finish line will be a gate with two light beams 6 inches apart. As the car breaks the first beam it then times how long it takes to break the second beam. Then we can figure out the speed. Average Speed = (Total Distance Traveled) / (Time it took to travel this distance) There will also be a light beam or switch at the start gate to get the total time it took to finish so we can figure out the winner: start - finish time, and secondary contest of final speed through the finish gate.

1. 3 recorded times. Fastest time will be used for qualifying.
2. Fastest speed across finish line will win separate prize.
3. Design contest: All attendees will get 1 vote.

Awards:
1st place.
2nd place.
3rd place.
Prettiest car.
Fastest car (fastest single run).
Slowest car (slowest single run).
Ugliest car.
Best engineering design.
Most artistic design.

Notes

Will need a planning day, track build day, car build day / Test & Tune, and a race day.
12/21/2015 - Track build notes:

Note: wheel width must be 1 5/8’‘  instead of 1 1/2’’ as pictured below

Car Width / Lane Width limit: extra 2 inches on each side of the car past the wheels? 7 inches total track LANE width?

We will use the standard spring loaded pin drop for the starting gate. This will also be tied into the computer that does the timings to get the true time from start to finish.