Any bets on what will be the fastest? Nitro, Electric, and how fast?

[1822]

Just curious what everyone thinks will be the fastest. Brushless motors have some smokin power and I'm sure they car get up to some rediculous speeds. What about nitro? Anyone think they can go as fast? What do you think the top speed will be?

I will guess 125 mph by Cliff Lett with a brushless something.

[WheelNut]

Probably electric with li-pos onboard. Though I suppose a nitro could do it, but you would have to build a completely custom chassis probably. It will be cool to watch though for sure!

[Combatcm]

I don't know, I am wondering why someone hasn't beat the record with a brushless motor yet. It could be the limits of the ESC's. Since they require special ESC's as opposed to a simple brushed, just put some voltage into it, motor. You could just dump 36v into a 12 turn (or make charcoal out of a 2 turn). But the Brushless ESC's mostly are good till 10 cells. And looking around, brushless 540 motors can go up till 80,000 RPM? before the rotor explodes. If I'd do it, I'd buy a bolink funny car, mount 2 8 turns on the same spur, then microswitch 2 21.6V (3 6cells) AA packs to each motor. A single motor has it's limits because of drag. Yeah, I'm no expert, but that's how I'd do it. I would also have a rocket assisted takoff because of the uncontrolled start with 43.2v at the wheels. Actually, yeah I would.

[cretin]

remember, you have to be able to DRIVE the thing.

[PeterV]

Sorry, no rockets allowed--must be wheel-powered only, gotta read those rules!

I think you'll see an electric vehicle come out on top, if only because it's easier to engineer a battery machine. And I expect it'll be direct-drive, for reasons of efficiency and simplicity. But done right, nitro would likely be the best speed solution. Electric motors make less torque as rpm increases, so there's less grunt to overcome the considerable aerodynamic forces trying to hold the car back as its speed increases. But nitro powerplants make more power as rpm goes up (to a point, anyway), and should be able to squeeze out a few more mph. Weight is a factor too; more batteries = more speed, but also a lot more weight.

[PeterV]

...but Li-poly cells are much lighter! I can't wait to see what shows up, especially the manufacturer-fielded entries. Let me see if I can post some old pics of "insane speed" cars. HPI had some wild ones...

[PeterV]

From the March 1997 issue of RC Car Action, "Inside The World's Fastest Cars". This is John Peterson's 10L-based car, which recorded an average speed of 85.23mph--peak speed was not recorded. For the World's Fastest RC Car Challenge, peak speed is the key figure. Average, schmaverage!

[PeterV]

From the March 1997 issue of RC Car Action, "Inside The World's Fastest Cars". This bad boy is the work of Robert Bartlett and Craig Stafford, aero experts who used to work for Nissan's GTP program. According to the 1997 article, it was "in testing" and no speed was given--but rumor suggests the car tended to become airborne easily.

[PeterV]

another look

[PeterV]

From the March 1997 issue of RC Car Action, "Inside The World's Fastest Cars". Here's Kent Clausen's streamliner. Speed was listed as "estimated 90+, unconfirmed".

[PeterV]

That's an Aveox brushless motor in the pod. The ESC is mounted on its side between the banks of cells.

[sosidge]

Never mind, question answered!

[MBX4RR]

Nitro would definitly beat electric

[Toyotatogo]

Originally Posted by MBX4RR

Nitro would definitly beat electric

not likely .....

[BPPSupermaxx]

Electric cars will smoke nitros if they are modified.

People think Nitros are fast because they are out of the box, but electrics are slow.
But once you modify a nitro to its max, it wouldnt be able to keep up with an electric that would have something like brushless motors.

[Prelude14WRX]

Electric WILL win. With brushless motors and lipos...its gonna be some crazy speeds. I also worry that some cars are gonna be to light and fly away

[Interstate]

I think if Pond modified his original super, it could break the 110 mark. Some bigger pullies, ceramic bearings, less aluminum.

I think nitros could beat the electics (at least in the touring car level) but it'd take a lot of custom parts, and innovative engineering. If only I had 5 grand and a machine shop... (it seems like this is coming to a who has the deepest pockets race)

[metalry101]

It's gonna take engineerig, as well as some deep pockets to win. You can spend all the money in the world on a crappy design and still not have it go anywhere. Sadly, the contrary is not true, you can't design something brilliantly and then build it on an ultra cheap budget. Speed costs money, how fast would you like to go? Ahh, the old racer's addage (sp?), so true, so true...

[MegaMe]

well i while i think electric will win, i dont think that lipoly has that much of an advantage over nimh cells... because for top speed, weight dosent really matter, all that matters is how much power you have compared to how much drag you have.(aerodynamic and rolling resistance i guess)

because in 24" you can still fit plenty of cells and still have it pretty low to the ground, aerodynamics arent changed much probably if you go with nimh instead of lipoly, so which is better depends on which kind of batteries can deliver more power, nimh or lipoly. IMO what limits the power lipoly can give is the cost of having lots of cells, they are expensive if you want to use lots of them, whareas nimh are much more common. for example with nimh you could perhaps organise with the people at you local track so a few people donated a pack each and you had a team effort for the worlds fastest car.
also possibly lipolys also cant deliver as much current as good nimh's... but maybe people can expand on that...

also people must be aware that whatever bodies they use need to give some downforce at the front... just if you hit a bump at 100mph if your car dosent have some downforce i wouldnt want to be the one to pick up the pieces...

im tipping a nimh loaded brushless to come out on top...

[crank throw wei]

I think nitro has the greater potential for the record,but I think electric is more developed. It really will depend on the entrants.My guess is electric.

[metalry101]

Combatcm~
Actually there are BL controllers that can handle huge cell counts. Here's a link Check out the Schulze 40-160. The 40 stands for 40 cells, and the 160 stands for 160 continuous amps. Not cheap by any means, but it would do the job. There are many other controllers on the market that can handles 18 or even 24 cells, and I think there are even a few others that can handle 32 or 36.

As for what will win? I think a nitro could do it. I think it'd have to be at least dual engined though. Electric, well, it's easy to strap a couple of extreme HiPo BL motors and a lot of cells in a car, but it's just as easy to strap a couple of RB 28's in a car and gear it to the moon, so I think it's just gonna come down to the designers. I really think either could win, both systems have their advantages, and actually, if stability isn't an issue, nitro would have a huge advantage over a massive BL system in weight. The real big "big blocks" are by no means light, but the real HiPo BL motors are the size of coke cans, and 40 cells, well, that's a whole lotta weight, I'd be willing to bet that's over 5 lbs of batteries. Assuming that 2 BL motors and 2 big nitro engines weigh the same, that means the car would have to have more than a half of a gallon of fuel on board to make up for the weight of the batteries (assuming a very high cell count). I think a well engineered nitro could spank an electric's ass quite handily.

[PeterV]

Any car that pushes 100mph will not be cheap, but the winner won't be the guy who can buy the most power. The real problems with going fast are keeping the car on the ground, keeping the tires hooked up, and keeping the tires on the rims. The cetrifugal forces acting on the wheels are HUGE...just look at the RPM you hasve to turn at 100mph (see our online calculator). And the aerodynamic forces are incredible. The amount of horsepower required to increase speed by just 1mph increases exponentially as vehicle speed increases. It doesn't take much power to go from 50mph to 51mph, but to go from 100 to 101 is quite a different story. Even if you have the power to get the extra mph, it'll be useless if you don't have the traction. Maybe we'll see some ELF-style, winged six-wheeler in the winner's circle!

[Chris LaPanse]

Originally Posted by Toyotatogo

not likely .....

Yep.
The world record for RC boats is held by a Lehner 1950 on 32 cells. This beat the previous record set by a boat with a .91 engine putting out around 10hp. Electrics will rule

[Chris LaPanse]

Originally Posted by metalry101

Combatcm~
Actually there are BL controllers that can handle huge cell counts. Here's a link Check out the Schulze 40-160. The 40 stands for 40 cells, and the 160 stands for 160 continuous amps. Not cheap by any means, but it would do the job. There are many other controllers on the market that can handles 18 or even 24 cells, and I think there are even a few others that can handle 32 or 36.

Only one problem:
it is watercooled
However, there are still many controllers that are air cooled that can handle 24 cells and 120+ amps

[metalry101]

D'oh
Could still work, not like adding a liquid cooling system would add that much weight, especially to a car running 40 cells. But ya, I forgot about that one, all of the really really extreme BL controllers are designed for boats. Thanx 4 pointin' that one out.