Woodland ScenicsPine Car Derby Speed Kit

I purchased this Speed Kit to help prep our daughter's pine car kit for her upcoming Girl Scout powderpuff derby. Our derby requires using only the parts that came in the provided pine car kit - no aftermarket axles or wheels - and there are strict rules meant to prevent rail riding or running a car on only 3 wheels. Since this is her first year and I'm entering a car of my own in the adult competition, we wanted to do what we could within the rules to polish the axles and true the wheels.The value of this kit to me was in the instructions (which I didn't follow exactly), the pumice for final axle polishing, and the mandrel for truing the wheels. The snap-off, screw-on weights were mediocre and the graphite can be obtained at any hobby shop or automotive parts store (we're using a dry graphite with moly). Frankly, the nails that came in the pine car kits had fewer and smaller burrs than the nails included in the speed kit. You will also need a slim triangular file, which is not included. The instructions also reference but don't include a wheel spacer in this kit - I ended up ordering the  Pinewood Derby Wheel Spacer Gauge  because it was the only option available with Prime shipping.Instead of the screw-on weight, we purchased  Pinewood Derby Weights - Tungsten 3oz  and  Pinewood Derby Weights - Tungsten Putty  to bring our cars up to 5 oz. This gives a much better aesthetic and functional result in my opinion, because the tungsten weight can be placed in the car body at desired locations for better balance. At pre-race check in several other girls were told that their cars need to be reworked prior to the derby, because with the screw-on weights the cars did not meet the dimensional clearance requirement from the rail. I'm glad we didn't even try to use the weight from this kit.The kit is worth it for the wheel mandrel, polishing consumables, and instructions, but there are much better options for weights and lube.

This is a good kit for working on axles and wheels. The weights, however, aren’t very heavy and make it difficult for optimal placement 1” from the rear axles. I ended up using other weights and beat all cars that used these weights. You’ll also need a separate tool to cant the axles.

Definitely worth the cost. I'd buy it again if I needed it again. Using just the items in this kit, plus some additional weight, my son's car came in 1st out of 24 cars with a top time of 2.9750 seconds. Our overall average for his car for three runs was 3.0018 seconds. Speedy!

This was a good get. I got exactly what I was expecting - and what I needed. I was able to clean up the wheels, polish the axles, and managed to get a respectable average run time. I'm VERY glad I got this, and its in my "wishlist" for next year.

Had everything I needed to polish the nails, lube (with graphite) the wheels, and properly weight the car. Would purchase again.

Worked as it should. Had all the parts I was needing.

Because my son won his Cub Scout pack! First year and he was the grand champion. Perfect weight and dry graphite

Just what we ordered. Worked great!

For only £3.75 I'm struggling to knock it - with this and access to a few basic tools (saw, file, drill) you can create a car that will do okay in most cub packs: It's ideal for cubs/scouts who make their own car rather than outsource to the Dads.Even as a competitive (but not obsessive) Dad, the axel polishing kit, wheel mandrel and graphite are as good as anything you can buy for several times the price. I'm sure pro league racers would disagree, but I haven't that much time to spare on a model car.Where the kit falls down is the weight - it's 59g which is okay-ish for a chunky car, but it doesn't maximise chances - you need up to 120g for a lighter weight car, and it should be in a dense lump. This is made out of some waste metal alloy with a high proportion of aluminium. The density is less than 6g/cc - compared to the preferred tungsten weights at 19.3g/cc and lead at 11.4g/cc. Even regular bits of scrap you can find about the house would be better - tin is 7.3g/cc, iron/steel is 8g/cc and copper is 9g/cc, so a bunch of 2p coins glued on is cheaper and better - 16p in 2p coins beats the weight in this kit!Buy it for the wheel mandrel, polishing things and graphite, get a better weight, have fun.