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Day of Thunder, Sort Of We build a faster race car than Roger Penske and Darrell Waltrip can make, but do we make the Nightly News? We do not. BY FRANK MARKUS Copyright Car & Driver Magazine For the previous 410 issues of Car and Driver, no one can say we haven't lived up to the implications of the word "Driver" in our famous name. Pat Bedard drove at Indy, twice. Brock Yates won the cross-country Cannonball race (with a smidgen of help from a hanger-on named Gurney). John Phillips was victorious at the Camel Trophy torture test in the jungles of Borneo. Barry Winfield was part of a three-man Neon team that won its class in a recent three-hour race at Willow Springs, and, well, the list of our victories could go on for at least one more longish sentence. Indeed, drop by and we'll show you an impressive trophy case attesting to our skill and courage (and the PR community's penchant for recognizing our genius and issuing plaques in testimony of same). Recently, we came upon an opportunity to demonstrate the talents of our engineering staff as regards the "Car" portion of our name. (We have four engineers here at headquarters, easily identifiable by their interesting hairstyles, purpose-built shoes, and groovy Indian-bead belts.) There's always a PR person lurking about somewhere, and in this case it was Tom Cotter of Cotter Communications, who invited us to participate in a peculiar race series. We were to build a car that would be judged solely on its technological advancement and its capabilities, as part of a series in which the cars would run without drivers. The competition no doubt scared off the brie-breaths at that other car magazine. Because we would pit our guys against--get this--Penske Cars Ltd. of IndyCar fame, Darrell Waltrip's Winston Cup team, and Elliott Forbes-Robinson's 600 Racing (creators of the affordable motorcycle-engine-powered Legends series race cars). The event was to be staged at Road Atlanta in conjunction with the SVRA Atlanta Vintage Grand Prix, but the cars in our series would face no danger of running off into the red Georgia clay. They would instead run on a special track built to specifications set not by CART, the FIA, or the SCCA, but by the BSA--as in, Boy Scouts of America. In short, the greats of motorsports racing were invited to compete in the no-horsepower, gravity-powered Pinewood Derby. Model cars. This is an immensely popular race series. More than 1.4 million Cub Scouts participate annually, creating a large alumni group that includes your humble servant, who was delegated chief project engineer for Team C/D, owing to a winning streak of three consecutive seasons campaigning Pinewood Derby cars during my days as a Cub Scout. I know, hard to believe, but true. When the official kit arrived, our team examined the rules closely, keeping an eye out for loopholes of the type that the Penske team drove their giant Ilmor-Mercedes pushrod engine through to win the Indy 500 last year. Unlike the FIA or CART book-length rules, the BSA's can be paraphrased in a single paragraph:
Our larcenous minds raced. "Freewheeling" and "no starting devices" . . . did that mean it would be legal, once the car was rolling, to trigger a little rocket motor? Could we file down the wheels to knife edges? Did we even have to use the pine? We called to pump Cotter for details that might close these loops. "Are these Scoutmaster scrutineers going to hold us to the letter or the spirit of the law?" we queried. [Translation: "Is it okay to cheat, Tom?"--Ed.] Cotter noted that our event would be officiated not by Scoutmasters, but by vintage racers. [Serious bad news.] But in order to keep the event running in the spirit it was intended, Cotter told us that our competition would also include four honest-to-gosh Cub Scouts--Benjamin Buberniak, age 7; Harrison Buberniak, 10; and Andrew Shannon and Matthew Niblett, both age 12. [Serious good news.] They would not be running carbon-fiber, remote-controlled rocket cars, he assured us. This was the Passport Pinewood Derby, named after the collector-car transporting business, Passport Transport, owned by event founder/benefactor/grand poobah Robert Pass. Pass started the PPD at Road Atlanta in 1990 as a way by which he and his vintage racing chums could keep their competitive hormones flowing during the church-mandated quiet period between 10 a.m. and noon on Sundays. Quiet competitions at other Road Atlanta races include a golf-cart Grand Prix and an electric barstool race, but the Pinewood Derby is particularly appropriate because so many vintage-racing families have recently coached kids through the construction of these little wooden wonders. The Cub Scout series discourages excessive parental coaching, so a lot of pent-up design energy is vented on the Passport Pinewood Derby cars. Some emphasize speed, with aero-sleek bodies and polished running gear. Others feature Boyd Coddington-style looks and detailing, like the Chesbrough Ferrari and Chris Campbell's fabulous Deuce Coupe. It should come as no surprise that the motorsport pros were going for speed. The Darrell Waltrip team tapped into the talents of shop foreman and Pinewood veteran Dan Kingen, who last helped build a Derby car 14 years ago. Perhaps in keeping with the spirit of NASCAR racing, the Waltrip car features fairly conventional technology. The wheels and axles are unmodified BSA stock, and no daring aerodynamics or remote rockets were used. The car was built on a Bridgeport mill and painted in Western Auto colors, complete with correct-to-scale sponsor decals. In all, the team invested about 35 man-hours, and the result is gorgeous. Indy-car technology was brought to bear on the incredible Penske entry by team chief Brian Oliver, a motorsports fanatic and part-time European stock-car racing correspondent who works in Penske's purchasing department. In England, Cub Scout Pinewood Derby veterans are few and far between, so this team had no first-hand experience to draw from. They were therefore forced to rely on pure engineering judgment. Oliver involved the team's chief aerodynamicist, David Johnson-Newell, who suggested a teardrop shape with a longitudinal tail fin a la the Jaguar D-type. The axle nails were polished, and the tires were shaved with a crown so that only the center of the tire contacts the track, thereby reducing rolling friction. Finally the car was painted in official Marlboro Racing colors, with a coat of lacquer that looks two feet deep. The car took three weeks to build and involved roughly 40 man-hours and an undisclosed but presumably princely sum of pounds sterling. Elliott Forbes-Robinson's 600 Racing team rounded up the ultimate ringer in Pinewood Derby veteran and machinist extraordinaire Kenny Thompson, who fabricates Winston Cup exhaust headers for a living and builds exact-to-blueprint replicas of GT40s on the side. Thompson, who has reared Cub Scout Pinewood champs of his own, believes that wheel alignment and axle friction are the most important factors in building a winner. He checks his polished nails under a microscope to eliminate even the tiniest scratches or imperfections (he once experimented with having the nails polymer-plated, but this was less effective than simple polishing alone). Then he bends each axle just slightly, installs the wheels on the car, and heads to the test track (which he owns). Alignment is set by rotating each axle a few degrees at a time until the car runs down the track in a perfectly straight line. Other tech tricks incorporated into the 600 Racing entry include an 86-percent rear weight bias to keep the mass uphill, where gravity can act on it as the track begins to level out; a front tire that reduces rolling friction entirely by not touching the ground; and a "spoiler" mounted high in front to give the car a one-inch lead when the starting-pole pivots down into the track to release the cars. More than 100 hours went into the construction of this car three years ago, when it whipped all challengers up through the Pinewood regionals. As for the Car and Driver entry, our two-pronged engineering strategy included minimizing friction (by polishing the axles with pumice, crowning the tires, and lifting a wheel off the track) and also limiting aero drag by minimizing the frontal area. We put 74 percent of the mass in back. Finally the morning of October 23 arrived, and we headed to the track. At 10 sharp, the vintage engines were silenced, and within a matter of minutes a crowd of 50 people had gathered at the side of Robert Pass's transport trailer to register their cars. The scrutineering process amounted to weighing the cars and verifying that they would fit on the track. The plywood track is 24 feet long and 16 inches wide, with three lanes defined by quarter-inch-thick furring strips, which the cars straddle. The top third of the track maintains a 20-degree angle before transitioning to horizontal for the last eight feet. The starting heats were paired at random, and a finish-line judge was appointed--her name was Whitney Chichester, and her main qualification was that she was the nearest kid to the finish line. To thwart any allegations of impropriety on our part, graphite axle lube was applied to each of the pro and Cub Scout cars by disinterested third-party race promoter Tom Cotter. There were 25 cars entered by 18 teams. Every car would run at least twice, with the losers of the first round competing for a second chance against the winners of the second round. Highlights of first-round action included the dramatic come-from-behind victory of the Campbell Deuce Coupe over the No. 20 Brugentheis car, and the bone-jarring wreck of the Julie Allen Indy car when a freak misalignment of the plywood road surface caused it to jump the track. Lowlights of that round included the C/D car losing to line-judge Chichester's car. We chalked it up to insufficient axle lube, and added more to each of the cars. The Chichester car went on to defeat the 600 Racing car in the second round, when a gust of wind caught that front spoiler and unweighted the already light, one-legged front suspension, causing it to jump the track. Thompson's track testing didn't account for wind, as most Cub Scout Derbies run indoors. Windy conditions proved to be the Penske car's undoing as well. A slight prevailing crosswind blowing on its tail fin pushed the rear end off line and into contact with the center strip on the track, thereby increasing friction and slowing the car down. The Waltrip entry fell victim to an underdeveloped suspension. Excess rear tow-in made the car a bit darty, causing it to glance off of the track's center ridge repeatedly on its way to the finish line. The C/D and 600 Racing cars both advanced through the second-chance competition and returned to the main grid. Our car was pitted against veteran Jerry Mueller's land-speed-record-style car, a pencil-thin fuselage with weights lashed to the rear like DC-9 jet engines. Somehow this thing beat our car, and we were eliminated. 600 Racing almost drew a bye, when scheduled foe Shane Murphy, age 5, wandered off with his successful Indy-car-running-backward entry. After much calling, he arrived and the car backed down the track to victory, eliminating the last of the pro cars. In the semifinal round, Mueller's missile was pitted against Henry Horn's yellow psychedelic blob-mobile, but flower power was no match. Shane Murphy's backward Indy car took on the O'Rourke closed-wheel GTU-style car and won after a couple of close tie races. (Check it out, ESPN--running real Indy cars backward against GT cars could be a helluva draw!) High drama prevailed in the final round. The first run was too close even for the eagle-eyed Chichester to call. Then the intrepid Mueller car managed a photo-finish win over Murphy. The event's only tragedy came in a runoff for second place. On the first run, the Murphy car's Fisher-Price-scale driver (who probably had one heck of a crick in his neck from racing backward) lost his head and yet managed to tie the Horn car. In an incredible display of bravery, the team returned for a second run, but without the cognitive skills (and mass) of the driver's little wooden head, second place went to the Horn team. As the quiet time drew to a close, trophies were handed out for win, place, and show. A "People's Choice Award" went to James Overlin for his highly detailed Indy car (also backward-running), and "Most Mouth-Watering Design" honors went to Patrick O'Rourke, whose Pinewood Mini Cooper and scale race-shop garage would make Ken and G.I. Joe drool. We had lost the Passport Pinewood Derby, but not to any of our big-name pro competitors. So in order to try and salvage some sort of bragging rights, we closed the race day with our own private runoffs, pitting the best of the pros against the best of the Cub Scouts. Among the Scouts, Matthew Niblett's yellow open-wheeled Ford/Motorcraft/Folger's car took top honors, edging out Harrison Buberniak's midget racer by a car length, with brother Ben's midget in third and Andrew Shannon's Leapin' Lizard wedge car just behind him. The first pro heat matched the two wind-sensitive cars against each other, and the darty 600 Racing car managed to defeat the stylish finned teardrop from Penske. In the second heat, the sleek C/D entry defeated the dodging Darrell Waltrip car by more than a car length. In round two, the Car and Driver team was again victorious, easily gaining back the inch lead that 600 Racing's clever front wing afforded and charging on to win by a sloping pointed nose. Alas, in the grand finale, the Niblett Ford couldn't catch us, and C/D seized (what was left of) the day. That's the official end of the story--trophy case empty, pride more or less intact. But there is a humbling postscipt. After the crowds cleared, we pitted our somewhat victorious PPD car against the best preserved of my own vintage Cub Scout Derby winners. Built 19 years and two engineering degrees ago, the tired old Green Hornet could barely stand straight and level at the starting line, thanks to two wobbly wheels that were broken off in a tragic dusting accident years ago. It won by two car lengths. So much for the bloated corporate ego. Vehicle type: 0-wheel-drive, 0-passenger, 0-door block of wood Price as tested: $2318 Price breakdown: base Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Kit (includes sales tax of 16 cents), $2.75; engineering labor, $1750; exterior detailing, $550; miscellaneous supplies, $15.25 ENGINE Type............... gravity, the pull of Mother Earth, F=ma Engine-control system...............high-school physics Emissions controls...............none required to meet 1998 California ZEV requirements Power (SAE net)...............0 bhp @ 0 rpm Torque (SAE net)...............0 lb-ft @ 0 rpm DRIVETRAIN Transmission...............0-speed freewheeler DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES Wheelbase...............4.4 in Track, F/R 2.3/2.3 in Length...............7.1 in Width...............2.5 in He ight...............1.2 in F rontal area...............0.01 sq ft Ground clearance...............0.4 in Curb weight...............0.31 lb Weight distribution, F/R...............26.0/74.0% CHASSIS/BODY Type............... unit construction Body material...............wood INTERIOR SAE volume: front seat...............0 cu ft luggage space...............0 cu ft Front seats...............none SUSPENSION F: rigid two-piece axle, located by the wood unibody and a dollop of epoxy R: (see front) STEERING Type............... none, unless the alignment is screwed up Turning circle curb-to-curb...............infinitely large BRAKES F: none (sort of a rolled up towel at the finish line) R: (see front) WHEELS AND TIRES Wheel size...............0.25 x 0.7 in Wheel type...............cast plastic Tires...............Cub Scout plastic (cast with wheel), 8/83R-0.7 Test inflation pressures, F/R...............14/14 psi
C/D TEST RESULTS Zero to 5 mph...............1.8 sec Zero to 10
mph...............3.0 sec Standing 22-feet (finish line)...............3.1
sec @ 11 mph Top speed (rolled-up-towel-limited)...............11 mph
COPYRIGHT 1996,1997, 1998 Randy Worcester Material and graphics contained within these pages may not be reproduced without permission. |
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