Comments on: Meet the world's fastest RC car

Feel the need for tiny speed? Nic Case's Pocket Rocket goes 161 miles per hour on flat land, a world record. And Case plans to take it to more than 200 mph.

[mmntech]

Ah, pick up an HPI Savage instead and get the satisfaction that you can crush this thing.

RC is actually becoming a highly competitive sport right now. If you think a 161mph car is impressive, check out what some people can do with the helicopters and precision aerobatics.

[Cooper33]

yeah HPI's the way to go. I bought a nitro rs4 evo a while a few years back. But against all my will, I let someone drive it, and sure enough they crashed it into a curb. They didn't completely destroy it but they bent the chasis and the gears always slip now.

I wished they still made they're regular kit Nitro RS4. They were amazing. They kind of stopped paying so much attention to their car line up.

[Saltiva]

GREAT- Another CNET article with typos! "The Picket Rocket"- REALLY

[Randys2cents]

This is cool. And for the real thing, you might want to check out the up-date section of the
" American Eagle" who is testing at Black Rock desert today. http://www.landspeed.com

[robertorosco]

My love for RC electronics has just reached a new chapter.

[troyoverton]

I think I might get into this, because, (1) I always loved RC cars, and I never got to have one... and (2) there does not appear to be a Mac/PC/*NIX war in this thread!

The HPI Flamethrower... does that model exist? LOL

[ncprince]

Well you know the iPhone has been the best RC car for the past 2 years LOL

(just kidding guys)

[viper396]

At those speeds I imagine it must be very difficult to control and steer since there would be a huge lag in your reaction time.

[FiatLuxIam]

You wouldn't "steer" a top speed R/C car any more than you would steer a top fuel dragster or the ThrustSSC. That is to say that the idea is to go straight. Period. Any kind of steering present would be so tuned down that you probably couldn't pull a U-turn within a football field.

[jaguar717]

If it uses engine compression braking, then it does have brakes. It's like leaving your car in gear, versus putting it in neutral (or having your automatic automatically declutch when you let off the throttle).

If you were in your (real) car out doing high speed runs on the salt flats, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be hitting your brakes at crazy speeds either--you'd probably just leave it in gear and let the engine compression bring you down to a manageable speed.

[nickmazski]

Nic's car is 4wd electric. Its power by a Neu 1521 brushless motor and 12 lithium polymer cells (44.4v).

Nic Case wrote about his setup:

Location: Southern California resident ? 161mph run at Rockingham

Car: A Schumacher Mi-3 was used as the base of this car. The wheelbase was modified (mostly to have more room for equipment) to 550mm & the width was narrowed 25mm. The Mi-3 is great platform to build from because it was able to accommodate 6mm wide belts & is very strong, efficient & tunable. By using belts, torques from the motor dose not affect the direction of the car during acceleration & deceleration.

Batteries: The batteries are FlightPower EVO 30?s. Two, 6 cell packs are plugged together in series, to be used as a 12 cell powerhouse. These packs are high quality & able to discharge at over 200 amps!

Motor: A Neu 1521 1y was the motor of choice. The Kv n this baby is 1577, has a 5mm shaft & it?s calculated that it produces somewhere between 8 and 11 Horsepower.

ESC: The ESC is a Castle Creations Phoenix HV-110. I like it because it?s easy to set-up and has a great customer service. It handles the 12s set-up, is very easy to program & has a very smooth braking routine.ESC settings Zero timing, 40% super slow brake.

Gearing: 75 x 40

Radio Gear: The radio I used is the Futaba 3PJ with the FASST 2.4 GHz module.

During my testing, I have not tried any radio that had more range than this piece of technology from Futaba. Radio settings = F- ATV 74% B ? ATV 78%

Gyro: Futaba GY240 helps the car sow down in a strait line.

Body: The body was custom made, inspired by the JCB DieselMax.

Tires: The tires are also custom made. The wheels are cnc machined by RC4WD. The tire compound is a vulcanized natural rubber.

Car Setup: I used spools front and rear. Schumacher yellow springs 150wt oil rear. Schumacher purple springs ? 150wt oil front

More information at fastestrc.blogspot.com

[jpsalerno]

As a kid, I was heavily into RC cars. (I had 4 buggies and 2 indoor cars... both of which I raced competitively.) It was a lot of fun. Not only racing them but building and modifying them...

But that's when I was a kid! I wasn't old enough to drive a real car so this was the next best thing. As an adult... no offense but, I think it's a pretty lame hobby to have. There's no visceral sensation of movement... you're just standing there pulling a trigger and turning a knob. Whoopdie-do!! For the fathers out there into the 'hobby' because their kids are... I commend you. I'll be one of you soon enough. As for the rest of you... lol well hey... to each their own.


Last but not least... this car. Yeah, that's pretty impressive I guess but in about .2 seconds it's out of sight. Ironically, that registers about a .2 on a 1-10 scale of fun.

[GeorgeLazenby]

You're missing the point JP. I'll start by saying that I grew up building hotrods with my dad, and I had my first when I was 16. RC clubs I've been involved with typically don't have any members younger than 18 (the average cost of an rc car these guys run is twice as much as my first real car costed me... maybe something to do with it). Where I live 16 is when most guys get their driver's license. The parking lots outside the a typical rc car race I go to is often full of actual AMG, Strosek, Dinan, Hamman, Carlsson and even Brabus tuner cars. This probably has you really confused! These guys just love cars, and that's all there is to it. Last week a 50 year old man pulled into the hobby shop in Toronto I go to with his bright yellow Masarati Spyder. He came in to buy the plastic model of his real car, so he could go home and paint it yellow (whoopdie-do... painting). Why would he sit at home and paint the model, when he could be out doing something with his real car? He just loves anything to do with cars. There is more than one reason I should stick to taking apart my rc Mercedes rather than my actual Mercedes. These guys aren't after a visceral feeling, and I think most kids who want a visceral feeling would probably spend the same money on a cheap go-kart instead JP lol! There's a lot of satisfaction in building, modifying and racing rc cars against other guys... why?... same reason you race anything... to be better at just one more thing than your buddies, that's why! When we're done being fastest is anyone going to be upset in there 60s after building a model railway, running the trains and finding that it doesn't feel like a real train? Some old guys just like trains man, I think that's ok...right?

Last but not least, setting a speed record with an rc car is not about how long it lasts, It's about being the fastest, and for Nic being the fastest equals having the most fun.

[luvcuba]

Hey,

Just letting you know about a typo in your article:

Instead of "Picket Rocket" it should say "Pocket Rocket" right?

[iff2mastamatt]

Hopefully Santa will give me one of these for Christmas.

[AaronCT123]

I feel like the person whose ankle gets in the way of this will be very unfortunate,

[moviegeek65]

Cool RC car but I feel sorry for the writer, RC cars are safer than bicycles(I have scars to prove it).

[rcmodels]

That looks like a nasty rc car! I'd love to get behind the remote control on that one...

Check out <a href="http://www.rc-models.info">RC Cars</a> and more...