No rocket cars?

[Ron Olson]

I picked up the latest issue of RCCA and saw this. I missed the last one where the announcement was made about this challenge. Steve and others, it doesn't take much to stop a rocket engined dragster, just a bath towel laid on the pavement.
Butch Beebe currently holds the record with his 1/10 scale BoLink bodied dragster. He took it out for a run on Wednesday and was clocked by a Chief of Police himself at 135 MPH before his car went airborne. The car is needless to say, in the shop being repaired after hitting a tree. Downforce issues will be attended to.
I believe that he was trying to contact someone to see if they would allow him to bring his dragster to the run as an exhibition only car. I really don't see how this car or any other going at the speeds that you will see at the challenge are going to be any more or less safer when getting over 100 MPH. I used to drag race my full-sized cars and know that stopping anything at over 100 MPH is no easy task.

[Mike Keeney]

The problem I see with a rocket powered car is that you can't really shut them off once you light the candle. If it did get airborne, there is no way the vehicle could be controlled. If it has enough thrust to get over 100 mph, it would probably have enough momentum to seriously hurt someone, even if they aren't standing right next to the track.

Airborne wheel driven vehicles could also do some serious damage, but at least the thrust would cease the instant the wheels lose contact with the track.

Cheers,
Mike

[Gemini12602]

I can understand why a solid rocket engine for model rockets would be bad, but I can see turbine rockets being somewhat safer since they could be turned off and all. I think it would be fun to see rocket powered RC's :D

[StevePond]

Mike pretty much nailed that one. It's a huge safety problem to have a car that can't be shut down. Peter outlined the reasons why in pretty good detail.

Personally, I don't see much of a challenge in strapping an "E" rocket engine to a plank with wheels. I've done it before just for fun (and it's a scream), but we're looking for a little more safety and innovation for this event. Thanks for asking.

[Gemini12602]

I've thought about building a device to attach to my Nitro RS4 that would hold a rocket engine. Never got around to it though.

[T3_man]

What about using a small jet engine and modifiying it to use a driveshaft off the turbine shaft to turn the rear wheels? Would it work? Would it be inside the rules?

[surfer]

no rocket cars at a speedway for fear of injurey?

i thought they raced stock cars at irwindale lol*


*sarcasm

[Otto-matic]

Miniture turbine engines would be not practical because it's soooo much heavier than solid model rocked engines. If you are afraid of hurting somebody, or going out of control, install something like a parachute. I mean, that's what they use to slow down those cars. You will probably need downward wings throughout the car, and a vertical stablizer too. Make the car long, so it knows which way is forward. You would also have more weight in front to keep the car down right? Somebody should make this!!! Can you just picture that beast roar and terrorize everybody? Man, 180 mph right here.

[NotWalkinBlind]

This is a true story... happened at least 15 years ago. I still have this thing somewhere. I should wait to post this story until I go look in my shed and find the thing and include a pic, but you know how that goes... you put a note in your pocket at work, but ya put it off or lose the note and it never gets done. Here goes... the car was yellow with a big black wing on the rear and smaller black sidepod type wings on the nose... and a black molded rubbery plastic driver in it... the whole thing was rubbery plastic, come to think of it. I think we stuck a Chiquita banana sticker on the nose, too. Enjoy.
___________________________
ROCKET CAR

A bud and I used to sit around thinking of crazy stuff to do involving smaller than real life cars and planes... and we once bought one of those $1.69 dime store plastic Indy cars about a foot and a half long so we could stick a model rocket engine in the back of it and shoot it across a mall parking lot late at night... I got the thing fixed up so it would take the engine, and we told about 10 friends about it, and they all showed up at the appointed time.

We found out the hard way that you can’t get something like that to go straight because 1) the tires are rubbery plastic and have no grip, and 2) the direction of the thrust is always gonna be slightly off center. So when we lit it off, the thing went about 15 feet in a tight arc and it was pointed right back at us in about half a second... everybody dived onto the hood of their cars... but all it did was about 3 or 4 big firey doughnuts and it didn’t hit anything.

For the second attempt (we were using firecracker fuses to light off the engines), I figured if I lit the fuse and gave the car a big shove, the engine would kick in while it was going in a straight line, and we’d get a good straight run. I found out it’s hard to judge when the fuse is gonna light the engine... it fired about the time the car was rolling to a stop. Firey doughnuts and people diving onto their hoods again.

Third attempt... I waited a little longer to shove the car, and gave it a real hard shove, but my release was off... so the car was in a four-wheel drift when the engine kicked in... doughnuts and diving again as the car came back at us in a huge arc and shot past underneath one of the cars at what was probably about 80 mph.

Just as we got a fresh engine back in the car, mall security cruises up in a Chevy Blazer.

“What are you guys doing?”

“We’re trying to get this rocket car to go straight.”

“Hey, you can’t be doin’ that kinda stuff out here.”

“Yes sir....... but, we’re 200 yards from the mall, and it’s not gonna hit anything but maybe one of these concrete light post bases... and there’s no way it could damage those.”

“Still... we can’t let you do that.”

“Okay... but we’ve got one more engine and we really think we can get it to go straight this time. Wanna see?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

Shove..... roll..... WHOOOooooooooooOOOOOOSH!!!!!

“AAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A week or so later we went to a small strip mall that didn’t have security and took two 8-foot long pieces of angle iron with us... laid ‘em down parallel to each other... rolled the car through it to make sure it didn’t rub the sides, and then lit her off... worked perfectly.

[MightySpork]

A rocket car might work, but isn't there a rule stating that you cant have sacrificial engines?

[mgs9]

I feel that, this is the " Fastest Car Challenge" No the land speed record, theres a diffrence. It should some what look and run like a car, Not a missle on wheels

[Chris LaPanse]

and there's also a rule about "no thrust powered vehicles"

[NotWalkinBlind]

Here's the dollah sixty nine plastic rocket car... an old photo I found with some neighborhood kids admiring it... outta focus, but I couldn't find the actual car in my shed or garage. I'm convinced it's still around here somewhere and will scream again one day.

I had forgotten that she had a tailfin for her maiden voyages... it's just a 1/8" thick piece of clear scrap plexiglass... barely visible in this photo. I cut a notch in the tailwing and in that bulkhead area behind the rollbar. It wasn't needed and added unnecessary weight, so it got tossed after a few successful runs. But it sure looked cool, huh?

I cut a hole in the rear of the car the exact size of an Estes model rocket engine... you can barely see the engine sticking out... right below the trailing edge of the wing. That silvery grey thing between the rear wheels is a heater hose clamp that I ran through two slots cut in the top of the body. In addition to using it to hold the front of the rocket engine, it held a 1/32" thick piece of aluminum that deflected the ejection charge blast downwards out the bottom of the car (instead of melting Mr. Rocketman). For those of you who've never messed around with model rockets, the ejection charge is what pops the nose cone off your rocket and ejects the parachute.