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Bish,
My son and I went overboard with pinewood derby racing. Built our own track. Won pack and District three years straight. The shape of the car has little to do with winning. You can graphite the wheels, have the coolest paint, and 5 oz. but if the car will not track straight for the first 10 feet it hard to win at the district level.
If you have a basic track build two cars. Take the faster car and tune it using the slower one to compare against until you can't get the faster car any faster. Now you can try to get the other car to run faster.
I was going to set up the track with a computer but never had time to do this so I used this two car method so I could tell if the change to the wheels and weights were helping.
Next to tracking straight, most important is the location of the weights and the surface of the nail head where the the wheels rub. It will have a ridge that needs to be honed off and polished.
You want the wheels tuned so they move out when the car roles forward not rub the wood body.
There are more tips to improve the car but I will list one more that is important. Do not let anyone handle the car but your son.
And teach him to set the car up at the start with the wheels off the body of the car and not touching the guide strip on the track.
I said we went overboard and this is getting off topic so good luck and have "fun"
Your friend, Ed
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