It's hard enough to get a full-sized vehicle slurping gasoline and sitting on 10-inch wide rubber to reach 200 mph, so imaging trying to reach the lofty speed with a home made remote control car powered by a 29.6-volt electric motor and running on foam based tires. The current R/C land speed record is held by R/C enthusiast Nic Case, who managed 134.4mph.
This time, another enthusiast by the name of Nick Maslowski is going for 200 mph with his new X2 racer. Though the R/C car has a theoretical top speed of 274 mph, drag generated by friction from the road surface and air brings that final top speed to the 200 mph figure.
At these kinds of speed, directing the cars remotely can be very difficult. To prevent it from rolling out of control, Nic has installed a gyroscope that adjusts a pair of rudders to keep it on a straight line. We'd love to see what a R/C car would be capable of with the right facilities such as a wind-tunnel and smoother track.
[Source: Jalopnik via Pistonheads]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Fabri91 @ Jul 31st 2007 2:08PM
Wow!
Seminole @ Jul 31st 2007 2:12PM
I WANT ONE!
chairman @ Jul 31st 2007 2:12PM
Damn, I can barely keep my Tamiya M03 Mini Cooper on the road.
Jon @ Jul 31st 2007 2:37PM
This would be a radio-control car, not a remote control car. Remote-control cars have a wire connecting the car and control pad. Radio-control cars have no wire, instead transmitting signals via radio waves between the car and the control pad.
So, unless he is going to run along behind at 200mph...
m @ Jul 31st 2007 3:17PM
Is he riding along with the car while driving it? No. How does he accomplish this amazing feat? He controls it remotely. He's remotely controlling his remote controlled car.
It does also happen to be radio controlled.
streetKJ @ Jul 31st 2007 6:42PM
Does a remote control for a television have a cord?
Didn't think so.
PWNED.
Jon @ Jul 31st 2007 10:00PM
@ m:
You are right in that he is controlling it REMOTELY; however, the correct TERM is RADIO CONTROL.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_control
-_- @ Jul 31st 2007 10:53PM
Anyone else want another hair to split?
Semantics aside, that's a damn amazing R/C car.
speedball3 @ Jul 31st 2007 2:56PM
Reminds me of Oceans 11 and the race between the real monster truck and r/c one. hahaha. Losing? Run over your opponent!!
GT @ Jul 31st 2007 3:04PM
Wow! I wonder how much scale mph that would be!
Fabri91 @ Jul 31st 2007 3:24PM
200MPH*10=2000MPH
Jordan @ Jul 31st 2007 4:42PM
A regular car with 25" tires going 200mph is one thing.
A car with 2" tires going 200mph is amazing. That axel must be turning like hell!
DriftPunch @ Jul 31st 2007 3:24PM
Ogre says: "NEEEEERRRDDDSSS!!!!"
Cool stuff...
mike__P @ Jul 31st 2007 4:51PM
Story is only partially correct, actual owner posted corrections at jalopnik .......
"fastrc.blogspot.com is the website I started to follow the progress of all the high speed cars in the RC community. After months of reporting on other peoples cars, I decided to create my own high speed car. With my background in Aerospace Engineering I thought it would be a cool project.
The info in the post isn't correct, My name is Nick Maslowski and www.fastrc.blogspot.com is mine and the X2 is the car I designed and am testing now. Nic Case is the current record holder at 134.4 mph for an RC car. I just report on the high speed events and peoples cars, that is why he is on my website. His electrified nitro Associated TC3 went 134.4 mph at last years World Fastest RC car contest. This year he got 127.2 mph with an electrified Shumacher Fusion.
I use the website to post updates on my progress and post updates on other high speed contests. I started with the design phase on a CAD program called CATIA V5 (Boeing uses this program to design their planes, I work for Boeing as an aerospace engineer). I spend 6 months designing it, then 2 months ago I built it, and now I am testing the X2. My ultimate goal is to reach 200 mph by next years Worlds Fastest RC car contest held by RC Car Action magazine. What you see in that video is the first real ground test of the car. I had not gone above 30 mph before this video was shot. In that video I was able to get it up to around 80 mph. Then I had issues with the foam tires exploding due to the VHT on the surface and the coefficient of friction being very inconsistent. The car is still in the prototype stage. (you never see a new corvette being tested with a showroom floor finish, right? It always has a camo mask on and a lot of temporary aero pieces.) The whole car isn't finalized and is still subject to a lot of change before its final form. The guy taking the video is an older gentlemen and his health isn't the best. He is an expert in chassis design and suspension systems. He has helped me out a lot. The Houston raceway is the only place to open up a car like this. Its flat and I have plenty of room to wind it up and slow down.
I am working up to the cars full power from test to test. The average person doesn't know much about real RC cars and here is the info on this one: The finished power set-up will use a 12s (44v) Lithium Polymer battery from Thunder Power. The motor is a Neu brushless custom modified 2215/3y. It has a power capacity of 5000 watts (around 6.7 hp) and will be spinning the wheels at 21,000 rpms at 200 mph. The speed control is a Castle Creations HV-110 airplane controller. It can handle up to 44 volts and 110 amps continuous. No other RC car has this much power in such a small package.
If anyone else can build something faster, I'd love to see them try. Email me on my website at www.fastrc.blogspot.com about your try at these high speeds.
-Nick"
Some very cool stuff on that site.
Jonathan Fung @ Jul 31st 2007 8:02PM
Wow...6.7 hp in that tiny car...that must make for an amazing hp/weight ratio.
motorman @ Jul 31st 2007 9:23PM
how are they going to keep the foam tires for being pulled of by centrifugal force at that speed???
Carxburt4285 @ Jul 31st 2007 11:06PM
the fastest toy I ever had was a little dinky car that you had to push to move.