To help to get up to speed as quick as possible I have picked up the following book from the USA to help with the Pinewood Derby design process;
“Pinewood Derby Designs and Patterns“
Troy Thorne; Paperback;
Pinewood Derby Designs and Patterns
This book is a good starting point for investigating how you build Pinewood cars. It would certainly be throwing most Cub Scouts in at the deep end and is written for an Adult audience. This SHOULD be used by a parent to assist a Cub build THEIR car … unfortunately the book also would generate the affect of a parent building the “ultimate car” for their Cub’s race for any parent not starting with the perspective that it is the Cub’s car.
“Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets:
Design and Build the Ultimate Car“
DK Publishing; Paperback;
Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets
This takes the previous book even further with all sorts of ideas for optimising cars. I am going to state up front that I think that the best use for this book for anyone running a Pinecar derby is to ensure that your rules are concise enough to specifically prohibit the speed items that you do not want the Cubs to use in your race. Yes, I am a talking about lathe-turned modified wheels and after market wheels 
This highlights another Derby option: as some of the parents really get into the whole Pinecar building process it is worthwhile adding an “Open Class” event to allow the parents to race their own speed demons so that the Cub can retain ownership of their car. We’ll give this a shot at our event and see how it goes.
“How to Book: Formula for Building & Racing PineCars“
Woodland Scenics; Paperback;
Formula for Building & Racing PineCars
I was disappointed with this book as it does not provide anything that is not available free online. This book seems to be nothing more than a glorified brochure for www.pinecar.com and doesn’t deliver as the how-to manual that it is sold as.
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