Scouting Show and Tell: Pinewood Derby cars

Let’s go racing, Cub Scouts! It’s Pinewood Derby time, when Scouts turn blocks of wood into fierce and fun race cars.

It’s a tradition that dates back to 1953, and today, it’s a very popular Cub Scout activity.

Be sure to check out what’s new at the Scout Shop. Your Scout can adorn their car with lights, glow-in-the-dark or black light wheels, sound kits and headlights.

Watch the videos below to see how to add these cool accessories to a car.

After you help your Scout with his or her car (and yes, it’s fine to help build it — that’s the point), snap a photo and share it with us to potentially be featured in Show and Tell, where Scouters show their favorite photos and tell the story behind them.

Send us photos of your Scout’s car this year, either during the building process, of the finished product or both. Tell us how your Scout came up with the idea for their creation and what you did to help their dream car become a reality. If you’d like, you can share any construction tips that could help fellow Scouters and parents. What tools did you use? How much time did it take? What materials or techniques worked — or didn’t work?

To share your Scouts’ Pinewood Derby cars, visit go.scoutingmagazine.org/showandtell. You can also email us at onscouting@scouting.org, leave a comment below or share via social media using #ScoutingShowandTell.

You could be featured in an upcoming issue of Scouting magazine. For more Scouting Show and Tell topics, click here. We also want to see other ways you make Scouting great, so if you have a funny skit, cool activity uniform or neat neckerchief slide, send them our way as well.


About Michael Freeman 432 Articles
Michael Freeman, an Eagle Scout, is an associate editor of Scout Life and Scouting magazines.