Rocket or Jet powered cars?

[TT-01 Mamba]

Has anybody ever tried a jet or rocket powered car?
they can use normal nitro motors to drive the wheels but on the sides they could have two jets or rockets (one on either side) to help give some thrust.

[NotWalkinBlind]

Not allowed under the rules of this competition.

If you wanted to try it for fun, the main problem would be getting them both to fire off at the same time... if they didn't fire simultaneously, believe me, you'd have a problem keeping it going straight.

If you just like the idea of rocket engines on model cars, here's a story for you that I posted in another forum a coupla years ago.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/NotWalkinBlind/RocketCar2.jpg

My bud Dennis and I 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 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, the mall is closed, we’re 200 yards from the mall itself, 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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (with people diving on their hoods again)

A week or so later we went to another 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.

[TT-01 Mamba]

Haha nice story. to solve the problem of trying to keep it going straight point the rockets down slightly so it gives more grip on the wheels to turn. make a rig to put the rockets about 25cm in front of the car so it might go a bit better.
i'm not intrested in making one because i'm 13 and don't have the money but it might be a good way to get a car going then dropping them when the go out

[Mod Man]

Man, I did the same thing. But, my dime store car went straight as an arrow and hit a concrete wall (about 1/8 mile away) at around 70 mph or so (could barely see it, it was going so fast). We tried other cars but had the same issues you had. I went to an old RC12 with scrub brakes and Estes "D" engines.

It was fun, but got expensive going through so many engines. :)

Matt

[TT-01 Mamba]

It was fun, but got expensive going through so many engines. :)

Matt

you can make your own rocket engines by mixing 70/35 potassium nitrate and sugar with about 10 percent sulphur or glucose sryup i think

[Mod Man]

I know it is possible. But, this was 25 years ago when I was 10. :)

If I were to get back into rocket cars, I would look into making my own engines.

Matt

[NotWalkinBlind]

Man, I did the same thing. But, my dime store car went straight as an arrowOne of the problems with ours was that those tires weren't grippy at all because they weren't rubber... they were basically the same semi-soft, bendable plastic the body was made of.

Were your tires softer?

What are "scrub brakes?"

[TT-01 Mamba]

can anybody hazard a guess at the speed of a car if you put a recordbreaking motor in plus two jets?

[Mod Man]

My car had te same hard plastic "Tires" the body was made of. I think it was dumb luck that it went straight. Each susequent run (with other cars due to the destroyed first car) were not successful.

At any rate, I like producing speed by driving the wheels in a car that can be driven back to me after the run.

Matt

[NotWalkinBlind]

...in a related story...

Close race between Spyker and fighter plane

More than 10,000 fans, guests and media crowded around the Royal Netherlands Air Force base, Volkel, in the south of Holland, to catch a glimpse of the thrilling race between the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team F8-VII and an RNLAF F16 fighter plane. The event, named 'Full Throttle', saw Dutch driver Christijan Albers race his Formula 1 challenger side by side against Captain Ralph Aarts' state of the art combat plane down the base's main runway.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/NotWalkinBlind/f1vsf162007.jpg

Christijan looked to have the advantage over the first 300m as he accelerated away from the line, but over the final 700m the F16 just pulled ahead to win the tight race by only two car lengths. Reaching a speed of 450kph by the end of the straight, the F16 completed the course in just 15.5secs. Following his narrow victory, Ralph performed a spectacular flying display over the air base.

Christijan said: "It was a tight race, for the first 300m all I could see was the plane in my mirrors, but then he just accelerated past me and off into the distance - it was incredible! I'd never been close to an F16, or even sat in one, so it was really interesting to compare the performance of the two. Aside from the displays though, Ralph and his team do some brave work out there, I have a lot of respect for them."

Captain Ralph Aarts is one of the RNLAF's most experienced F16 pilots, with 1,100 flying hours under his belt, including in operational missions in Afghanistan. The 28-year-old started with the airforce in 1997 and received his wings in 2000. He then went on to join the 313 Squadron in 2001 and relocated to Volkel, the Netherlands' largest base, in 2005.

Despite Ralph's extensive experience in his own machine, this was the first time the Dutchman had been up close and personal with a Formula 1 car. "It was pretty close, but in the end I was very pleased to out run a Formula 1 car! It's great to see these two high-tech worlds of aviation and Formula 1 coming together for the first time in the Netherlands. I really hope it will inspire more young people to join the forces."

On the ground the machines are evenly-matched; Christijan's F8-VII has more than 700bhp and can reach 350kph in a straight line, the same speed the F16 will reach before taking off. In the air, however, the plane can go to more than twice the speed of sound, a massive 2,020kph. With 25,000lbs of thrust, or the equivalent of 10,000 bhp, the combat plane is also leagues ahead of the Formula 1 car. In g-force too: while the car will pull more than 5g through a corner, the F16 will pull 9g.

Michiel Mol, director of Formula 1 commented: "Both machines are incredible to see. I'm so proud we have made such a fantastic show with this project."


http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=249441&FS=F1

[NotWalkinBlind]

I shoulda known... vids on YouTube...

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Spyker+F1+vs+F-16&search=Search

This one is the only one I’ve watched so far that isn’t too long or totally useless because of the angle... it shows a right angle finish line shot, too: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vpHfY1vVa5Q

[Grant Tokumi]

Wow. Looking back, its been almost 20 years since I fooled around with rocket cars with some buddies, but the memories are still very fresh. Here's a picture of the last rendition of my rocket car which used dual stage D engines. It was a blast! Definitely good times if someone wants to try it. And always remember, safety first.

http://www.rcarchive.com/rca/gifs/RCAR.jpg

We even made a short video :)

http://www.rcarchive.com/rca/movies/rocket.mov

[Fenris]

A really good rocket mixture is potassium nitrate and dextrose. You melt the dextrose in a pan and when moulten add the KNO3 and stir, then fill the rocket while still pliable. It works well if you have some pre made rockets to fill, it doesn't work so well when you try jamming it into sections of bamboo from the local park. :D

[TT-01 Mamba]

, it doesn't work so well when you try jamming it into sections of bamboo from the local park. :D


just use some pvc piping to fil then close off an end and leave a little hole in the other

[Sorcerer001]

RCCA actually built one or two rocket cars in the past, and published the articles. Maybe someone will scan 'em and post them up.
When I was 16 (I'm 32 now), a buddy and I did something similar to NotWalkinBlind, except we cannibalized a pinewood derby kit. We actually built the car up as you would normally, but substituted the pine block for a longer piece of balsa. We then carved a cradle down the center to accomidate the body of a model rocket (not just the engine).
We then epoxied two small sections of copper tubing in line on the bottom of the chassis to use as guides to carry the car down a nylon string. Shorter section of tubing = less drag on the line.
I can't remember the exact engine we used, but I know it was a "C". So we rolled a couple of large stumps in to the road (firewood from the side of my Grandma and Grandpa's house), placed them about 100 yards apart, and strung nylon line between them. We rigged up one end with a fishing snap swivel and loop, so that we could load the car on to the line. The body of the rocket had a bit of angle to it, so thrust would be pushing the car down, and as a side benefit, directed the flame away from the cord.
We also had placed a large spring on the opposite end of the string, to prevent the car from slamming in to the stump at the end of the run.
As addicted as I am to rc, I've gotta say that building and running this little thing was some of the most fun I've had. I can't tell you how fast it went, but if you blinked, you'd miss most or all of it's 100 yard sprint. It was obvious that it would run even faster without the guide wire, since you could see it weave a bit as it travelled up the line. But we didn't want to take the risk in our neighborhood. We planned to build an rc version, but as summer ended and my buddy and I returned to different schools, life took a different direction. Maybe it's time to pick it up again...

[fasterthanspeed]

Damn. Now you guys are makin me wanna make one. lol.

[Grant Tokumi]

Go for it man. If you have spare radios and busted up cars laying around, you probably can get one going for free, well, except buying rockets and some ignition equipment. Its a good exercise of imagination on how to put one together. Mine was a combination of around 4 different cars, and used aquarium ungravel filter tubes for the rocket holders. Speaker wires, Radio shack alligator clips, a 6 cell pack, and a push button switch was my ignition. And actually, I drew up a sketch of the ignition for someone once. Here's the picture:

http://www.rcarchive.com/rca/gifs/rc/rocketlauncher.gif
If you look closely in the picture with my old school stick radio, you can see the red switch at the top left of the radio. In earlier versions, I had one of my friends essentially touch the wire to the battery to ignite the rocket. But I found it to be more comfortable for me to drive it if I could push a switch on my radio and launch on my own.