Name: Paul Sullivan
Message: Dear Dr Jobe:

We received our package and "big book" a few weeks ago. Thank you for taking the time to write the wonderful inscription to my son Robert.

As a first grader, Robert loves to read but has struggled with math. With your material we have been able to give him a reason. With a reason and purpose in hand, Robert has naturally found the desire and purpose to develop his math skills. His first grade teacher was left speechless when Robert tried to help her understand "Drag Coefficient" and informed her that "friction was his enemy".

His teacher was having a little difficulty with the concept so Robert moved on to "Velocity" and balls being dropped from the leaning tower of "Pizza." Each night we will find Robert with the "Big Book" in his lap and surveying each page.

Thanks to you again
Paul Sullivan - 12/04/06

Hi John:

Well, we won the District race.

Pack leaders will benefit from the PWD classes I have offered to give in the fall using your Lectures and other materials.

As a bonus, I helped a friend in a different District build 2 cars using your principles-his son won Pack and District as well. Proven success!

Thanks again for your help and encouragement this year.
Glen Barnes - 3/13/07

Name: Jim Baker
Message: Thanks for the help

We just had the pack race today... my Webelo won his den and took second overall in the pack; my Bear won his den and took first overall in the pack. Used a 40' Piantedosi track and set a new track record in the sibling race which we also won easily.

The boys really worked hard on the cars (since December) and learned a lot of physics in the process.

The cars were a modified version of the airfoil design in your Physics of the Pinewood Derby book.

Your polish, graphite, and Z oil worked great.

Thanks
Jim Baker

Hi John

I've had your Virtual Race program up and running for some time now, and I've got to tell you - it's a blast. It'll be a while before I scratch the surface on all that's in there, but I'm making good and easy progress. I put in the WIRL 42' Best Track in the program and am running all my cars on it. What an eye opener! After one afternoon of plugging in numbers my results are in the attachment.

Thanks again for your help
Jim - 4/14/07

Name: Michael Palmer
Message: Dr Jobe:

I just wanted to thank you for your excellent work on the Physics of the Pinewood Derby book. After two years of me and my boy losing the Pinewood Derby race we got serious and found your book. We built the "Simple but Fast" car to the "T" and the results speak for themselves.

Ian, a Bear, won 1st in the Bears and 2nd in the Pack. Harrison, a Tiger, won 1st in the Tigers and 1st in the Pack. At the District race both won 2nd place in their ranks.

All in all this year we have 7 trophies and we owe it to you, your outstanding book, and your Speed Kit.

Now we are upgrading to the full design potential in the Physics of the Pinewood Derby book and plan on all 1st place finishes in 2008!

Thanks!
Michael Palmer - 3/13/07

Name: Timothy Swan
Message: Dr Jobe:

We had our District derby yesterday. My stepson took first place of all 152 kids. I know it was painful for him, when we were building our second car (the first was disqualified due to the extended wheelbase), to listen to all the engineering information I explained to him. But I took your advice and kept hitting him with the jargon. When his car continued to beat his opponents resoundingly, the race officials began to inspect his car more and more and ask him questions. I was in charge of a different track and couldn't be there to prompt or help him but he answered every question with a knowing confidence. He knew that even if he didn't design the complete car, still he built it and knew the reasons behind each detail. In the final race between the final 5 finishers, it was amazing to watch is car go neck and neck until halfway down the ramp and then watch it pull ahead. In the final 6 heats, his car won every one, some by over a car length. Thank you for putting the book together in my language of engineering and with simple graphics that even the kids can understand. All the information in your publications and Lectures made it look like I knew most of it all, thanks to you.

Keep in touch
My Regards and Thanks
Timothy Swan - 3/12/07

John, Thanks!
As an engineer, I have enjoyed plowing through your book and software program. My two boys (Tiger and Webelo 1) have already gotten quite an education on the pinewood derby and the "science of speed." Your book also helps further the teaching of the connection between science and success in the "real" world.

Tod - 2/06/07

Hello Doc,
My sons and I just want to thank you for helping our understanding so many things about these little wooden wonders. My oldest defended his pack championship and is on his way to the Districts! My youngest and I participated in the non-Cub (Open) division and he beat me but one of my heats set a new track record!

Thanks again Doc, you have helped make our racing more fun than I think any of us could ever have imagined.

Best Regards and God Bless
Roland - 2/01/07

Name: Ed Wollack

Message: Greatly enjoyed your lecture series on Pinewood Derby Physics. This material has been very useful in discussing the topic with kids.

Cheers and Best
Ed - 2/24/07

Name: David Marks

Message: Using your excellent SBF plans (plus your Speed Package), my son's car won his Den ( first in 6 of 6 heats) and took second in the Pack (first in 5 of 6 heats). The reason we didn't win Pack first was one of the wheels was too tight (5 sec finger spin compared with 20 plus seconds for the others). So it was Dad's fault but we did well and are very happy considering this was our first PWD race.

Thanks again for your excellent plans and walk through instructions. The fact that we did so well while knowing so little is a testament to your methods and products.

Thank You
David & Andrew Marks - 2/11/07

From: Jim Baker
Message: Updates to Site

The updates (new lectures) to your site are great. I think word is getting out more and more and it should really take off.

Thanks again, and your information is the best out there by far! My boys and I are learning a lot.

Thanks
Jim Baker -12/15/2007

John

I placed this order, so if you wouldn't mind placing the bore polishing sticks in with this, I'd appreciate it a bunch.  Thanks for all of your advice and help through your lectures/CD, etc..  This has turned in to a much more "scout friendly" derby year than previously.  Your breakdown of info in digestible segments has worked out well for my 8 year old.  Since he starts science fair projects next year, he has developed an interest in various axle/wheel preps and its effect on friction.  I really appreciate all of your work and products.

Mark - 1/30/08

> John,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. We used your
graphite/oil combo last year with excellent results. We wanted
to try again this year in a different race with many more boys
and the potential for quite a few more races. You have answered
my question and we do appreciate it.
Bart - 1/31/08

Name: BLAKE

Message: Hello, I love your book. Reminds me of my physics books from college. Dr. Jewitt at California State Polytechnic University of Pomona almost convinced me to change my major, but I was too far along with Animal Science. I just wanted to let you know about the Pinewood Cup, The Official Pinewood World Championship. Please visit our site at www.pinewoodcup.com.

Thank you, Blake director@pinewoodcup.com
2/12/08

Hi John,
I played a bit with your VR program. Very interesting. Thank you for finally doing the physics work and putting it into useable form. I grew tired of the online 'wives tales' of why we should build our car this way or that. It's great to see, in detail, exactly how much each improvement should make.
Great work!
Don - 2/18/2008

Name: Scott
2/20/2008

Message: John: Thanks for the reply regarding the CG. I had some time this AM to load and take a look at your VR program. As I mentioned I have a degree in mechanical engineering and even though I no longer work inthat field, all the parameters were very familiar to me. I appreciated the technical "myth busting" approach very much. I read the introductory docs then explored the program. I saw where you had the ballpark values for body drag coefficients, etc., and those put me in business right away at understanding what to tweak and where to concentrate my efforts. With a few educated adustments, I produced a "base" car with what I think will be the "best case" values for my car. From there I was able to easily tweak my design parameters indivudually to see how they affected the end result.

Very nice. Kudos.

Doc Jobe

By the way, I used the z-oil for the first time on Saturday and have the following observation. Like you said, the car appears to have a tremendous kick on the horizontal run, ...it really performs well when carrying weight on the horizontal run.

Brent - 3/4/2008

To: Doc Jobe

Congratulations Tom!!!
You built a great car and won one for Grant.  Awesome showing!

Joshua and Kurt.

On 3/31/08 9:29 AM, "Stan Russell" <Stan.Russell@riverbed.com> wrote:

Grant's car blew through the all-boys, then the overall finals.  Didn't lose a single race in the finals.

Who's up next year????  We have a tribe dynasty going here....

3/31/08

Hi John,
We just got back from our pack race and wanted to thank you. Alec came in first overall, winning every heat (eight) by at least a car length. He dominated the whole event thanks to your book. The best thing is all he learned about physics in the process. We have the district race in six weeks, and I may have some questions for you on advanced wheel mods.
Thank you so much!!!!!

Steven 1/31/2009

Hi John:

Just update you we won our Pack race last wk, 5 yrs in a row using your advice. This year we had 77 cars. If you recall I've been teaching a physics class. All of my students placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Quite a compliment.

Glenn - 2/5/2009

Name: EARL Message: It's time to go derby racing again.We are going to be using your products and techniques again this year.We had great success last season using your methods and materials.We won first place in our pack,also we won first place "tigers",first place "webelos" and first place overall in our district pinewood race. Thanks for the products and advice.Keep up the good work.

Name: EARL - 2/18/2009

Name: Glen A Message: Dear Sir, First, thank you for your last phone conversation. It was delightful. Also, compliments to your Virtual race software, it was able to predict our cars place accurately. We can't wait for the new version.

Hi John,
We just got back from the district race. Alec came in second overall.
Your book is a treasure. Thank you so much!

Steven - 3/14/2009

Name: Stan and Tom
Phone #:
Message: Hey - Tom won the entire derby again in Marin County, CA. We spun up his axles in the graphite, got his weight back, did all the building tricks in the book - it was great. The little boy who was out last year with cancer is back and raced today, too. He had a CAT scan in January that was 100% clear. I don't know if you remember, but we ran our car under his name last year and won, as well. Hope you're doing well. We're having a real kick reading from the manual and following your building tips.
Stan and Tom - 3/29/2009

Name: Ryan 3/30/2009

Phone #:
Message: My son won his pack race Saturday using a design similar to the SBF. What type of shipping do you use? He has a district race on Saturday April 4th and I would like to upgrade his lube from regular powdered graphite to your Super Z products. If I place an order Monday night, when would I expect to receive the product in Western Washington State? Thanks. As an Engineer, I appreciate your approach. The lectures on your site were very helpful.

Name: John Gardner 4/22/2009
Phone #:
Message: Hi, again, Dr. Jobe, You asked that I let you know how I liked the Virtual Racing Version II program. I like it! As a matter of fact, it correctly retrodicted our results at the council races, accurately showing how fast our three cars were with respect to each other. Our cars were faster than all of the others.

Doc Jobe
I have enjoyed your book very much and the lecture excerpts.   The book's style reminds me of my Halliday and Resnick College Physics book with the style of illustration.    I have always liked the black and white technical line drawing style and your book uses it to its fullest -- even for the lathe illustration.   

Based on your book I have increased my own understanding of the race and improved my explanation to the den (now Webelo I) about where energy is gained/lost in the race to include mention of the rotational inertia effects on the car when the track transitions from slope to straight.    Our pack has an older wooden track with 3 transitions -- slope down , then flat for a few feet, then slopes down again, and then slope to flat for the final run so it is fun to speculate how our cars and races are different from the district which is a single slope to flat aluminum deal.   

I plan to use the VR program in next week's den meeting to let the kids play with the weight amount and placement and cross sectional area parameters to help them put their design decisions in pespective.

Thanks again
David Salak 11/16/2009

Name: James A. White 1/18/2010
Phone #:
Message: Dr. Jobe, This past summer my grandson and I built two pinewood derby cars as identical as we could make them except for the lubrication system. One car used your Super Z graphite and Super Z oil while the other car used the Win Derby Graphite- Moly (Hodge) system. The Super Z car proved to be the faster, so now after about 20 races, we want to renew the lubrication system on both cars using the Super Z graphite and Super Z oil system

Name: Monty Webb 1/12/2010
Phone #:
Message: I have bought everything, the book is very, very nice, and have made what should be a very fast car. Test board at low angle showed big improvement when Z-oil added after prep of axel and bore with z-graphite as per instructions. My question is: do you have opinion on Z-oil plus Hodges graphite-moly mixture used on Z graphite preped axels and wheels? Thanks Monty

Hey Doc,

Just wanted you to know that one of my kids took 1st in the overall Cub Scout Pack for the Pinewood Derby this morning. I think there were 50 cars total... My other 2 kids took a 1st and 2nd in their Den. Pretty impressive. I'll send you pictures.

Thanks again, Mark 1/23/2010

Name: Mark Heavlin 2/1/2010
Phone #:
Message: Hi, I purchased the Book and CD almost 2 years ago and would like the upgrade to the new version of the CD please. Awesome book by the way. Thank you, Mark D. Heavlin

Name: John Grater 2/3/2010
Phone #:
Message: I recently received the Virtual Race program from you. It is a wonderful program. Do you happen to have some of the virtual race track parameters for the Best Track manufacturer? My son already raced this year and we wanted to compare the program against his actual run times. We are planning on using the program heavily for next year. Thanks for your help.

Name: Dr. Tom Stark 2/9/2010
Phone #: 703-913-2886
Message: Thank you Mr. Jobe, for giving to our Cub Scout Pack! You gave to me a free version of your race simulation software. I used it to teach a bunch of under-privileged Hispanic children about Pinewood physics, and simulation-based design. Thanks to your giving, the overall level of competition in our Pinewood Derby was improved, and lots of the kids are interested in learning much more about the physics involved.

Curt Schreur 2/9/2010

Attached pics from last year...the pink car was a killer car.  Won champion and our church (70'ish cars), and then won the area council.  Same shape design as the green car but the green was .960 max thick at the rear, and the pink was .780 max at the rear.  i'm sure the virtual race CD would have told me that. )

Love your products and advice.

Thanks!

David and Clra Steele 2/26/2010

This will be a lot of fun...
I can't wait to work through some of the designs.....
You have a great site and a tremendous amount of information to absorb!

Thank you!

Name: Robert Wirt 2/28/2010
Phone #: 3023545460
Message: Wanted to let you know that having read through your website's lectures and used many of the tips, the car my son built took first place in his first Pinewood Derby, with an average time of 3.412 seconds! He was thrilled, and now he's off to the District races next month.

Thank you so much for providing these lectures, and please know that we'll be back next year to support your business!

BR, Rick 3/1/2010

Hi John, I was wondering if you had a chance to do any preliminary tests. I love the Virtual Race software. Can't wait to share it with my boys to show them how design changes affect the speed!

John, 3/3/2010

Thanks to "The Physics of Pinewood Derby" Book and some Super Z graphite and Super Z oil, My Grandson was able to win the Pack ( Car was destroyed midway in race, was 6-8 ft. ahead of all other cars. Lost all 4 wheels and bent all 4 axles in freak launch and crash off of starting gate.) and 1st for Wolf at District Races Sat 27th of Feb. In the "open" Races they had, we learned the second fastest car would have been his 4 year old little brothers car. Thanks again, Monty

Hi John, 3/11/2010

Thank you!  I'll give you a call tomorrow.  Thank you very much for putting together such an informative website, and offering such great information and VR program. BTW, what are your thoughts on a "rail rider"? Best Regards, Austin

Name: Reed Carpenter 3/29/2010
Phone #: 803-856-9693
Message: Dear Dr. Jobe, Thank you for the wonderful book! Even though I don't understand everything yet, it has given me more true insight in our Derby efforts. Thanks, and may you have many more Happy Races! Reed Carpenter

Dr Jobe 3/31/2010

Re the precision digital calipers: I love 'em!
I showed the book to another PWD Dad, it's now on his shopping list.
My wife was duly impressed with all the tools/knowledge.
Thanks again,

Hi Doc 3/10/2010

Thanks for the additional information regarding your green book. I apologize for assuming that your book was perfect bound (i.e, glued). Without taking the cover off of a laterally stitch bound book, such as yours, it is virtually impossible to tell it is stitch bound until years go by and it still holds its back together solidly.  I have been binding books for years and I totally agree, stitch binding is the only way to go when you are creating a book to last.  We are very well aware of the costs of producing such materials and are amazed that you can sell your book at that price especially considering that you do your own printing.  And, like I said, your book is great.  Not many people are willing to go to that level of trouble; in fact, I don't think I have more than three or four laterally bound books (other than yours).  You are to be congratulated! It is truly bound to last.

___________________________________________________________________________

Hello Dr Jobe - 4/10/2010

The Virtual Race Version II is awesome! We made the coasting run about 180 ft long (about 5400 cm) and ran a car with 4 wheels rolling against the same car with only 3 wheels rolling. At the normal coasting run distance of 16 ft the 3 wheeler easily won, but then at about 90 ft coasting, half-way to the finish at 180 ft, the 3 wheeler was about 3/4 of a car length ahead but the 4 wheeler then started gaining gradually and at the 180 ft finish actually won by 1/4 car length.

My 11 yr old son figured this out and ran races to show that if the wheel/axle friction is reduced from 0.1 to 0.05, then the 4 wheeler drops 0.9 car lengths behind just past half-way but still ends up winning by 4/10 car length at the180ft finish.

What a cool tool for understanding what can happen during a race.

Vincent Johnson

_______________________________________________________________________

Hi PinewoodDerbyPhysics - 6/5/2010

My son and I built the simple but fast (SBF) car according to the detailed instructions in the Car Construction e-book contained onthe Virtual Race CD. We used the Speed Package and followed the instructions in the Lubrication Section of the Car Construction e-book.

We easily won the District race by 2 car lengths.

Thanks so much for the development and teaching instructions in these items.

H Smith

_________________________________________________________________________

Doc Jobe 12/10/2010

The "Measure Parameters" e-book that comes with the Virtual Race CD is a blessing for making the car measurements and understanding the car. The electronic calipers are quite accurate and fun to use.

Alex Ridges

__________________________________________________________________________

Hi John 2/11/2011

We just received the Virtual Race version II and thank you for replaing the original Version I free.

Your automatic Help system is amazing! It's a virtual encyclopedia of the PWD race itself!

Regards

Fred Johnson