Video: Tony Lovering on the BBC!

Link to the video

Video: AJ hits 94 mph!

Listen to this bad-ass machine shift gears. Awesome.

High res pics of Nic Case's cars

116 mph GMS dragster
116 mph GMS dragster
127 mph Shumaker Fusion
127 mph Shumaker Fusion
Prototype
Prototype air brake
Prototype air brake

Photos courtesy of RC Car Action

Video: Vega - 2 Tests: 117mph & 195mph on air

Vega is working on a speed car. Here are the details of his tests:

Today I was testing my car on air, half of it was on the table, and the second half of my car was on air (The drive wheel). I didn't find a clean and long road to test my car, but once day I will find it and I will test my car on surface.

I went through 2 tests, and here is my description for both of them:
the first test was 117mph with 30%-40% of throttle, I was afraid while I'm holding the car ad it is running, and then I stopped the car because I lost a screw that I didn't tight it very well. I tight all parts that are not tight very well.

The second test was 195mph, and the throttle was between 50%-60%. Unfortunately, I lost the magnet of the speed meter (Thanks God it didn't go to my eyes). Once it went to 195mph then the meter quickly went to 0000mph LOL, the magnet which I place it on the gear is gone...

Link to the videos

Video: Alfred Rodriguez goes 1.33 @ 100.2 mph

Labor Day Dash for Cash Sept 1 2007 at LiteSpeed Raceway San Antonio Tx. From the IMDRA forums:

I`d like to welcome Alfred Rodriguez from San Antonio into the 1.3 club and for running a string of 1.3s with 1.33 @ 100.2mph being the lowest.

This was also a Regional Event Series this weekend at Litespeed Raceway making this an official Regional Record.

Congrats Alfred! Applause

Direct download link of the video here.

John Stranahan's LiPo Fire

This isnt high speed related, but since many high speed guys are using li-po's I thought I would post this about what happened to my friend John and his li-po batteries on Sept 1st 2007:

I had a battery fire today. Makes life exiting anyway. Here is what not to do. I took an older MaxAmps LiPo which had about 50 cycles on it. At this point it was down to 2950 mA-h at the last test from a high of 4050 or so. It had been out of service for only two months, but charged every couple of weeks. They have a low self discharge rate. The battery worked the motor fine on the bench. It seemed to charge fine 2c1, then 2c2 was fine, I last inspected it at about 1250mA-h. No puffiness. Nothing unusual. Put the TC5 down just long enough to find out 3.5 degrees was too much rear toe for our track. It completely disconnected the back. Got back to where the fire extinguisher was and got a notice that my battery was acting up. Shortly after ward it was on fire. I grabbed the extinguisher, half way to the table the battery (probably the second cell) shot out a big aerosolized jet of vapor which immediately ignited into to quite a spectacular fireball. They said it was loud. As I was closer to the action, this time, I did not hear it. The flame was 2 foot high shot all the way to the edge of the second table that was side by side with this one so 4 feet long and caught the bag, which I thought was out of reach, on fire so maybe 2 feet wide. A couple of squirts with the fire extinguisher and it was out. No faster action could really have been taken on our part because if I was at the battery, I would then have had to run to the fire extinguisher and back. So here are the losses.

In the car- The receiver is melted the fan on the speed control is melted, the car stand is melted. The setup board has melt damage. It was not under the car but beside it. Chassis is probably OK.
In the bag. The big Nylon bag caught fire and melted off the body of my other pan car. Melted two stopwatches and a voltmeter inside. And there is probably hidden damage. Here is a pic. I have some pics of the scene of the crime coming, I'll post one if it come out.

Would the battery sock have prevented secondary damage. Probably most. The explosion may have been bigger though, someone did unplug the chargers. I supect the sock would have jetted out a flame quite some distance from the type of fire I saw. Aerosolized vapor already at the flash point jetted out under some good pressure.

Just a report here. Typical procedure. Chunk those weak packs. It looks like that Aluminum Shock body is melted in two.

John

Video: A Remote controlled Hydrogen powered Fuel cell Tamaya TT-01

Keith says this about the car:

Its just kind-of throw together, nothing I spent long on. Just to give you guys a picture of what this car can do (which about the same as most cars.. lol)

Video: A J Lovering's Kyosho RRR 87 Mph

From AJ:

I was testing again today. I have run in the OS .18 TZP Murnan and ran the RRR with the new engine. I clocked 89 mph running slightly uphill and against the wind with 20/56 gearing and 65mm tyres. Here is the vid of an 87 Mph run

Vega's speed run car

Some info on Vega's speed run car:

I just got my new RC car body, digital servo, speed meter.

Here are my modificaion:
The gear ratio was 2.166:1, and now it is 1.5:1.
New Body (Custom Works)
Speed meter: Venom
Futaba digital servo.

These are the specs and background info on his car:

Hello,

I have read news about the fastest RC car in world, and now I'm following the news about fastest RC car on Nic's site fastestrc.blogspot.com.

I have encouraged to build my own RC car and make it as fast as I can according to my background. I'm still reading about everything related to RC car and how to make it as fast as possible.

I have learned a lot about motor, and what factors that can make the car run fast.

My car specifications are:
Chassis: Custom Works Slider Kit.
Drive: 2W Front Drive
Radio: Futaba 3PK
Servo: Futaba S3305 (Maybe it will be changed to a digital servo)
Motor: NeuMotor 1509/2y
ESC: CC HV-85
Gear ratio: 1.5:1 (it will bechanged to 1:1 or lowerif it is possible)
Tire: BSR Purple/Jaco Purple (Currently they are under the testing)
Batteries: 8s lipo

Note:
Total Motor RPM: 1820 (per volt)x 29.6 (8s lipo) = 53872
Tire diameter: 58-60 mm

I'm taking the worst case senario with consideration of factors (weather,air, wind, surface ... etc) that may affect the speed:
Total Motor RPM: 35000
Tire Diameter: 58mm
Gear ratio: 1.5:1

The speed has been calculated according to these sites:
http://www.easy-rc.com/cgi-bin/gearratios.cgi
http://www.teamassociated.com/racerhub/techhelp/marc/JavaMath.html

Theaoritical Speed: 160+ mph
Practical Speed: ??

I took this car from the shelf, and nothing is hand made. All parts are on the shelf without any hand made.Except that I cut a small piece from car so that the motor can fit very well in its place.

Best regards,
vega

More pics and info can be found on his blog.