The World's Fastest Remote-Control Car

A shrunken speedster revs up

By Gregory Mone Posted 07.06.2009 at 9:58 am 9 Comments

Pocket Rocket The latest run of Nic Case's car topped his previous record by nearly 30 mph John Gilhooley

After a motorcycle crash, Nic Case found a safer, but still thrilling, hobby: building radio-controlled cars. At 161 mph, his latest just smashed the world record.

The 46-year-old eked out extra mph any way he could, including adding an 11-horsepower R/C motor and a 12-cell battery pack normally used in hobby airplanes. He made sure his handcrafted carbon-fiber chassis would generate enough aerodynamic downforce to keep the vehicle on the track, and he designed an all-wheel-drive system to further increase traction. He also used a high-frequency receiver to ensure that he never loses control of the car.

Underbelly of Foam Reinforcements: John Gilhooley

So far, Case has raced it only twice, and he thinks he has a good shot at his ultimate goal: 200 mph. "The car's got more," he says. "I left a lot on the table."

How It Works

Time: 6 months
Cost: $4,000
Handling: The car has no brakes, so Case dials back the power to the motors to decelerate. To prevent flipping, he added a gyroscope-based steering-correction system normally used in remote-control helicopters.
Tires: Case designed oversized tires to improve the airflow beneath the vehicle. Instead of relying on glue, he had the rubber vulcanized to the aluminum rims, "It's one less thing to fail," he says.

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9 Comments

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blackers44

07/06/09 at 9:45 am

I would like to know what is the fastest electric car without all the money and gadgets added. I'm talking about an RC car using the hop ups maybe and making ones own tweaks to add to the performance. Anyone can take $5000 and make a RC fly. Not to say I'm not impressed with the 167 record it would be nice to know who holds the record of an out of box RC. I have a rustler that does 10 over the 70 mph from tweaking the chassis and gearing but if I put $5000 into a $300.00 car I'm sure I could add some speed to it.

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whitesites

07/06/09 at 2:50 pm

Very impressive. It would be cooler if he added a small radio camera so you could see what it looks like moving that fast at only 1 inch off the ground.

http://prosportnutrition.net/?a=633808700294218750

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helmet5

07/09/09 at 11:03 am

if he added a radio camera it could knock it off balance and slow it down plus it could wipe out the battery

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ultimatenerd22

07/10/09 at 5:25 pm

that is cool, i might try to make it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHTQMWLn2m0

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sciencegeek14

08/03/09 at 10:31 am

very very very cool 161 mph! thats just crazy fast thats faster than a lot of cars thats cool how the world is making stuff never thought possiblea couple of years ago go america yah

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runninron69

08/14/09 at 1:16 am

That is indeed pretty cool.What is the world record for a "nitro" (glow fuel) powered R.C. car? Maybe I could take three or four jet engines,put them in a full size streamliner,hook radio controls to IT and put the record so far out of reach no one would ever break it.Surely that wouldn't be considered cheating,would it?

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steve28

09/06/09 at 4:41 pm

out of the box RC cars are not designed to go that fast , the point is he had to solve all the problems associated with going that fast with a minature RC car . Its sweet

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quasi44

10/16/09 at 12:16 am

great point, steve, and right on the mark.this is probably worked up on nothing more sophisticated than my Unix based pc, and the data is just as relevant as the bigs. wonder if he has tried to interest anyone in his data, like Team N.A.E. is doing. great work, Nic, and great point, steve28.

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rc-models

11/11/09 at 6:06 am

That looks like a nasty car! I'd love to get my hands on the RC of that one...

Check out more RC Cars at www.Rc-Models.info