Cedar Point Steel Vengeance Pinewood Derby Car

Our family has built a lot of Boy Scout Pinewood Derby cars over the years, and with our oldest son being a diehard roller coaster enthusiast, has requested we build him an aptly themed vehicle to race.

With our Pinewood Derby adventure, it has never been about winning with the fastest vehicle. Rather, it has been to hand recreate the ride vehicles that my son has grown up enjoying at Cedar Fair amusement parks across North America.

We started out with a Cedar Point Millennium Force train.

In 2017, we switched parks and went with the classic Beast car to race. For this model, we really stepped up our game in details, using large Popsicle sticks for the sides and seats and even concealing the weights under the seats. It was also the first year we printed the logo in lieu of trying to hand paint it.

We proudly present our 2017 Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby car, featuring @KingsIslandPR's The Beast pic.twitter.com/pfpXGfG9nC

— CP Food Blog (@CPFoodBlog) January 14, 2017

For 2018, we kept it in the Kings Island park, with the addition of the Mystic Timbers train. This car presented the most challenges at the time with the unique curves of the lead car and trying to capture the essence of the roller coaster from distressed paint to all the right angles.

For 2019, as you could imagine, Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point struck a special cord with guests, as it did our oldest son. So that was the adventure we were on now that we have reached our first year of being a Webelo.

Due to the complex geometry of the Steel Vengeance cars, we carefully laid out a game plan for where we would make the cuts of our wood.

Once the major cuts were done, we used a Dremel to fine tune some of the details of the Steel Vengeance train vehicle.

Finally came the paint and signage on the ride vehicle. Followed by a thick coating of Modge Podge to give it a clear coat finish.

Building the various roller coaster themed pinewood derby cars has been a challenge and fun project each year. We are not in it to win it, but create great, functional models that represent the love our child has for the thrill of the hill.

Football Pinewood Derby Car

Our middle son also entered into Boy Scouts this year and built his first car, and since we have been documenting our roller coaster vehicles since the beginning, I can not help but also include his vehicle, in fairness. While our middle son loves amusement parks and riding roller coasters too, he is also the sporty one, and went with a football this year.