Many of us want to make our cars a little faster. That remains true even if they’re smaller, battery-powered, and operated by remote control. Guinness World Records has recently confirmed a new R/C speed record that’s faster than most real cars can go: a blistering 234 mph. We’re not talking scale speed, but actual speed in the real world. That’s an R/C car than can go a mile per hour faster than a C8 Corvette ZR1.
Like many of us, Stephen Wallis dabbled with remote controlled cars as a kid, reports Citizen Tribune, which eventually led to a career as motorcycle engineer for Royal Enfield. When his son, Rory, took an interest in R/C cars, dad decided to take another crack at it himself. This time, he set his sights on competing with the Radio Operated Scale Speed Association (ROSSA) for top-speed honors. Over more than a year, he’s been working on his homemade R/C car called Beast, named for its Beast-class electric motors that are typically used for large aerial drones. The car has four of these motors directly powering each of its wheels, and bears no resemblance to the donor drone that originally kicked off this project.
Uncharted territory
The car’s overall design is quite simple, but Wallis told BBC that the car’s electronics were the main challenge. His YouTube channel details the entire process, if you want to get into the details, but the main issue was fires from the high level of current when the car runs at full power. To avoid this, he reprogrammed the controller to run less current at slower speeds when it isn’t needed, meaning a shorter run time at maximum current during a speed run. That makes for slower acceleration (0-60 in 3.5 seconds isn’t bad, but a Tesla Model S Plaid can do it in 1.99), but this is a top speed run, not a drag race, so maximum acceleration isn’t necessary.
Even the tires get special treatment, just like on a real land speed record car. Wallis uses a tire truing machine to shave the foam tires not only perfectly smooth, but also to a smaller diameter for slightly better acceleration, and so they don’t shred themselves before the run is finished. He even had to upgrade his truing machine with a more powerful motor because the original couldn’t handle the job.
Setting the world record is a huge achievement, but even that isn’t enough for Wallis. A recent video reveals that James McCoy has already set an unofficial new record with a 238-mph run, so Wallis has set a new goal to hit 250 mph and reclaim the record. That would equal the top speed of the Koenigsegg Regera and McLaren Speedtail.
