Yep, after a one year hiatus, Dragon Draggin' is BACK
("Hey, wait a minute, I saw you guys last year!")
Yup - it's been a year already!

If you've been, then you know. If you haven't, this is a RIOT! Pick up a wood (pine) Mini car blank, carve, engineer, weight, and decorate, and come RACING! We still have the 32 foot ex-Pinewood Derby track, the electronic photo eye finish gate, and a new runoff system to really get the crowd into it.

Did I mention that we welcome back Bubba's Homebaked Nut Rolls as our Sponsor? All the fun, we brought the prices down, and we're not interfering with the panoramic photo this year (we're on FRIDAY!).

Some business notes:
- If you registered last year and have your kit, you're good to go! Bring it on! (and yes, since we brought the prices down, we owe you $2.50 too!)
- If you've registered and are waiting for a car, give me a couple few days. I am expecting the blanks to be delivered this week and will be madly bandsawing to get the Mini kits out as fast as possible, should ship by Feb 1. I got a new job since last year and this full time work really takes away from my free time !
- Once you've carved 'em up, post pictures! Heck, post pictures from last year! We actually made MC2 magazine last year too, so you could be FAMOUS!

Any questions, post up or email me at L R D i x o n (at) a t t (d0t) net (or through the forum, you know how!)

See you at MOTD!

Leon and Colin and Steve and Pam and John from Bubbas Homebaked - and the PittStopMINI crew!

 

Is there a Cabrio/ convertible choice available? If not, it is ok to make it into one (as long as it still makes weight)? Thanks in advance for the info!

 

Uh oh... its bubba's nut roll again....

 

We supply the block and wheels as pictured, how you carve 'em up is up to you! If you check the first page of the MOTD Dragon Draggin' registration you'll actually see the pic of a cabrio! The kits are supplied, umm, "with the roof up". One of the rules is that it has to look like a Mini, though, so making a cabriolet Lamborghini may not be in the spirit of the rules!

I'm attaching pictures reluctantly - I've made a few dozen of these so I'm pretty fair with a Dremel, but others have blown me away with their creativity! Use Lego parts, K'Nex, model stuff, just nooo internal combustion engines (gravity only, please!). It's all about the fun, eating Bubba's Homebaked Nut Rolls (www.bubbashomebaked.com) and having a good time! Heck, do something really cool and your car may be memorialized in Pine!

Pics of past cars, some of which I made, some of which I didn't... the white one is the kit (supplied unpainted).

My favorite two (the brown one's stained oak!):



Some other favorites:
Snooter's:



What comes (it comes unpainted, though):


My car - can you tell the real one? (this was one of my first):

 

Good to know that a convertible car be done. I guess I know where lots of my spare time is going before the Dragon.


How the heck did snooter have the time to make that gorgeous car and still do most of the organizing for the Dragon?!?

 

Hehehe - one Snooter made was actually much better than the one above

 

Here is pic of last years entries. Nice job by everyone

 

Great job by everyone!

I cant wait to get mine to get started for this year! Heck, who am I kidding, I am SUPER-excited for everything Dragon right now. I cant wait for my first Dragon!!!!


(But, if I am being totally honest...the driving of the actual Dragon is scaring me...I need to stop looking at pics of MINIs that have had accidents on the Dragon )

 

Its my first Dragon so obviously it is also my first Dragon Draggin' too! I signed up for it when I registered. So are these mailed to us ahead of time so we can get them in the body shop! Or do we do the work there?

Kevin

 

My understanding (as a newbie that has done ALOT of reading) is that they will be mailed to us. I think they will be mailed out soon as I remember hearing someone was getting ready to mail them out soon. So can't wait!

 

Thanks smurfette26, I keep getting more excited about the Dragon!

Kevin

 

Umm, yeah, I'm the guy who has to mail them out...! Jut got the raw material today and have to cut the blanks out this week... should have the first batch sent out Friday! So yep, you'll have some lead-time to get to work on them! My sincere apologies for not getting them out sooner, life's been nutso at this end (blame the economy, my relocation, my new job, blah blah blah, in other words blame me!)

The good news is that today I can actually see and hold the kits, and it's a matter of time to get them traced, cut, packaged and sent! So far we have a BUNCH of people coming, Bubba's Nut Rolls has signed on as a Sponsor again, AND we have an additional NEW Sponsor, Group4 Motorsports (thanks Graham!).

If anyone wants Coopers (without the rear spoiler), let me know and I can send a few out a couple days ahead of Friday since I had a few left over from last year. The Cooper S's (with spoiler) are going to be cut Thursday night. Cabrios, you can get a Cooper kit and model with the roof up, or carve away with YOUR bandsaw or Dremel and be crazy!

Soooo... PittStopMINI with their 2nd event of the Dragon, Dragon DRAGGIN'!

(thanks again for the patience, just found the box with the bandsaw in it after moving households too... we'll be making sawdust this Thursday and hopefully sending 'em out FRIDAY!)

Leon

 

DixonL2--thanks for doing all of the work of cutting out the mini-minis and mailing them out! You are awesome!


I pm'd you that Coopers would be great for me.

 

Thanks Leon for the work! Its my first time so I was just wondering when we got them. Can't wait to start painting. I had no idea they were hand carved!

Kevin

 

Wife and I had a blast racing last year. Helps we both did pretty good in the race and show part!! Much better then we thought we'd do as our first attempt at it.
For the beginners be prepared to add quite a bit of weight and do so before you paint the car etc. I used a combo of fishing weights and golf club making weights.. Had to add probably 3 or more ounces which doesn't sound like much but only so much room under the car to drill either big enough holes or enough total holes to add the weight..
We even had about 8 of our local club members cheering us on!! BIG FUN was had by all..
[IMG][/IMG]
__________________
Mod list: Alittle bit of this and alittle bit of that. Has made for LOTS of FUN!!

 

Sending out this weekend, "carving" tomorrow and Friday night. It's actually more like "roughing out the shape", what you get will look like this, but be raw pine (not painted):


... and the wheels aren't attached - you get to do that part! I've been toying with doing some more hand carving and painting to match people's Minis, but really don't have the time - though I have to admit, once I have a blank roughed out I can slap out a pretty decent Dremel mini in about 1/2 hour... just don't have many 1/2 hours to put together!

Looking forward to it, all - it's 8:30, just got home from work, and grabbing the blocks to pencil in the body lines... then it's bandsaw time this weekend!

Remember: BUBBA'S HOMEBAKED NUT ROLLS!

Oh - and we have a commitment from ColinMini, channeling Chris Economake as our announcer!

LD

 

OK, let's lay off the Bubba Homebaked Nut Roll promotion...I dont want to be hungry for almost three months for something I have never even tried yet!

Just kidding thanks to BUBBA'S HOMEBAKED NUT ROLLS! , ColinMini and DixonL2 for making this event so special!

 

Need to beg forgiveness, on top of the blizzard(s) and some unexpected business travel, I finally got to the bandsaw and the blade broke. No big deal, off to Sears, and they have no more 10" bandsaw blades! AARGH! Apparently switched suppliers. I have a blade on order, and these cars WILL GET SHIPPED! I have some, mainly coopers (no spoiler) for the folks who want Coopers. Once the bandsaw's back running I'[ll even cut the roof off a few if anyone wants a cabrio blank. If you want an S or cabrio, I'll ship in a week or so, as bloody soon as I get the bloody blade I'll pull a bloody all-nighter if I bloody have to! Dragon Draggin WILL GO ON!!!

(and no, no blood will be spilt in the making of this event)

 

Thanks for keeping us all updated! Try not to be too hard on yourself...sometimes life will get in the way of MINI-related fun, it's ok I am sure we all understand.

 

Have you fixed the rules this year,there where 2 cars that cheated on the tires last year?thanks for the GREAT TIME!

 

OK let's be clear on the tires thing: As with any other dispute in Dragon Draggin', we'll go with the BSA guidelines here, which state you can lightly sand the tires (wheels) to be sure they're round, but you may not modify the tires/wheels on any other way (except for painting the centers). That means no dremeling out the innards, lightening the tires by thinning them out, buying the high-speed stuff from maximum-velocity, let's be as fair as we can! If we get enough requests maybe we can have an "unlimited" class someday, but for now we'll keep it Mini.

Bandsaw blades shipped Friday morning,should be here Tuesday, I am REALLY looking forward to getting these things to you guys for Mini-fication, and feel terrible they're not out already. At least everyone has about the same chance at making the cars, so that's a relief. I'm hoping to ship to all registrants this week.

 

BLADES CAME!
Cut out most of the Minis last night, shipping tomorrow!

 

All current kit orders are SENT! Woo-hoo!

NOW i'm looking forward to MOTD...

 

Man I'm excited about this event. Lat year I was working to hard but this year I'm setting to time to race. Hope I can get mine in the mail to work on it before MOTD. That car has a Belt sander with it's name on it.

 

dragonflyer, I haven't received any updates from Barry today so I can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that if you're registered, it's on its way! You've got a couple months to work on it so we all have high expectations, buddy!

And... with a fresh unbroken band saw blade now installed, I'll be able to send kits out the day after I'm notified you've registered. The only exception will be the 1st week of March when I'm on business travel out of country - registrations received between Feb 26 and March 7 will be sent out March 9.