I have two sons.  The oldest is not quite 8.  This year he joined the Cub Scouts.  I’m no outdoorsman so the camping doesn’t do much for me.  But there’s one annual scouting event that’s right up my alley.  It combines my love of woodworking and my lifelong interest in cars. It’s the Pinewood Derby.

The Pinewood Derby is the original level playing field.  Every kid gets a block of wood, a few nails and four plastic wheels.  The rules are simple though typical of our times they run to about half a page.  And while the heats are now computer-timed the basics of the race are straightforward.  A sloped track and Sir Isaac Newton are as complicated as it gets (ok, throw in some graphite powder).

Making the cars is a father/son project but the bulk of the work is to be performed by the scout.  Dylan designed his car.  I cut the shape on the band saw and then Dylan sanded it.  And sanded it.  Painting was a team effort.  Turns out that spray paint cans can be difficult for seven year-old fingers to work.  But we managed two coats of primer and two of Ferrari red.

A friend mentioned that the secret to speed is to sand and polish the axels (the above-mentioned nails).  So we did that too.  And we made sure that the wheels didn’t have any rough spots from the manufacturing process.  A few decals and it was ready to race.

In Dylan’s age group there were 13 entries.  Each car raced 12 times -- four runs on each of the three lanes on the track.  And that’s just for one of the five age groups.  So it seemed like it would be a long haul.  In reality it went quickly and was fun.

In Dylan’s first set of three runs his car won each time.  The look on his face was worth a million bucks.  In the end, he didn’t win his group.  Cars against which he didn’t race were faster.  He didn’t seem to mind.  Within minutes he and his brother were playing with the car on the floor.  Winning is fun but not as fun as playing.  Or making a car with your son.