I can't remember anything about Cub Scouts except for the pinewood derby. For those unaware, this event involves scouts and/or their parents designing and creating a vehicle from a block of wood to compete with others on a sloped track, powered only by gravity. It was probably the most fun I had in Cub Scouts.
It was highly competitive then as well as now. There are many books and websites full of engineering strategies to get the most performance out of your car. I would say most often the fathers would take over the projects to have the coolest design or fastest car. I remember being stunned at the works of art that were produced while mine looked like a very fat doorstop.
Despite my present prodigious design and craftsmanship abilities, when I was 9 or 10, as you can tell by the photos I had zero design or engineering ideas and my only carpentry skill was the ability to keep my fingers attached to my hand. Believe it or not, I made this car mostly by myself. I think I had help sanding the mold lines off the wheels and drilling holes to help the car make weight at weigh ins.
There was no design. I copied the generic drawing that was in the included instructions. All the cuts were made with a coping saw which accounts for no cut being straight and no angle matching another. There are visible saw marks and gouges in the wood. I must have only had 60 grit sandpaper because the sanding marks are still visible. The inexplicable Tarheel blue painted body still has fingerprint marks where I handled the car wet. The silver stripe is painted freehand and the painted yellow headlights look like they are dripping. The wheels sport a heavy negative camber. Apparently I couldn't hammer a nail in straight either.
So how did I do? Half the time one of the wheels fell off, causing the entire car to fly off the track. But ages later I still have it. It sure is terrible, but at least I made it myself.