Anybody doing it this year? I captained a team to the Nationals last year, but we failed (epicly I might add) when we got there...

Should be different this year, there's a qualifying round (with no actual racing!) to contend with

We're stuck for a team name at the moment, go everything else ready to go though

o.o? Wat

Wow that is some cool shit! :o

Heh, reminds me of the buggy challenge we used to do when I was in school, teams had to design and build an R/C to do a range of tasks, but once it is built you can't modify it, so it had to be able to drive "off road", drag race, circuit race and be able to move weights around.

Was much fun, naturally my school always lost because we were the least technically advanced school in the area so no one knew what they were doing, but it was fun taking part.

This looks like a lot more fun, purely because of the whole flying around the world thing.

my class mates got into the german final.... they got third... they nearly did it to the world championships... I couldn't compete with them, as it is restricted to those guys at our school who chose the technic course.

Here's the car we used last year (D-type, was our first year), apparently it was clocked at 120km/h on our last run I took this one home, as we made two Unfortunately I can't race it without the C02 canisters we used

What a machine! Maybe try making a more streamlined one and that may be able to get up to 121km/h!

This year we're doing R-type (as opposed to D-type, which we did last year), and we're allowed to make proper tyres, axles, aerofoils, etc., (D-type requires everything to be milled from a single piece of ballast, and using the supplied regulation sized axles and tyres) so we should squeeze a bit more juice out of em

Wow, maybe you can bolt a food mixer engine in it and see if it will drive upside down.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

This year we're doing R-type (as opposed to D-type, which we did last year), and we're allowed to make proper tyres, axles, aerofoils, etc., (D-type requires everything to be milled from a single piece of ballast, and using the supplied regulation sized axles and tyres) so we should squeeze a bit more juice out of em

Invest in a decent set of bearings, it'll retard friction. That is assuming the extra weight wouldn't be an issue. But really you need to work on your finishing, the body of your D-Tyre was rough which doesn't help aero, finish it off properly and you're more likely to get through qualifying.

The D-type was finished terribly, we did it like the day before the first race It wasn't sanded down properly, then acrylic was slapped on (literally, it's a couple of mil thicker where the flames are!) and then lacquered over. This year we're getting the whole thing professionally done, and it should be perfectly smooth.

The bearings, I've already suggested to the team. We're going (hopefully) with four 5-mil ball bearing sets to fit inside the wheels (which we're also getting professionally done, budget allowing, so we can custom-shape the hub to house the bearings. I also want proper rice-rice alloys ), for a differential-type effect The D-type had a piece of tubing around the axle, with butter on the inside to act as the bearing. Thinking about it, it's a wonder it went anywhere at all

I also suggested magnesium spoiler(s), and slick tyres, for optimum grip (even though it is a straight line race with the wheels not actually being powered...). We're hoping to win extra marks for details like that

We also need a far better display. Here's our stand last year. Quite a fail (especially the ghey way the photographer made us stand...) (woohoo I'm second from left!)

Wouldn't you want very thin tyres, since you don't want grip, you want as little friction as possible?

A lot of those details you could skip, grip will increase friction which will slow you down, so skip rubber tyres. As you don't need to cool brakes or get grip go for thin solid wheels (land speed record style).

Don't waste money on professional finishing, if you take the time out you could get a smooth finish with a couple of hours work.

Butter? Hardly a good lubricant, but if you came third the rest of the entries couldn't have been all that super.

The rubber tyres may not be the best, yes... Maybe solid plastic tyres instead?

We'll need the professional finishing though, this is what was beside us last year...It was like glass, and then it was on top of some of a rotating Evo (supposedly) gearbox. We were there with our sandpaper-like car on a black box...It's a wonder we weren't simply kicked out for taking the piss

Our decorating skills consist of wallpapering and acrylics, so we'll definitely need the professional touch...We can have it done for about €50 though, with an airbrush, so that should be OK.

The butter seemingly held up for the regionals and nationals. I considered re-applying it, but I decided to leave it cook I even suggested a blast of WD-40 as an alternative to Flora, but no...

that is some cool sh!t, id like to do something like that