Testing today - another blowout!

Carnage from tire failure
Closeup of damage
Data from fastest passes of session 1
Data from fastest passes of session 2
Data from tire blow out pass.

Pass 1


Pass 2


Pass 3


Radar pass 1


Radar pass 2


Radar pass 3


Blowout

Well, I had some higher speeds today and good traction. But I also had a tire explode. This is exactly what I wanted to fix since this happened last July. This is why I made my own tire. The way this new tire failed is exactly how the last tires failed. The X2 even made the same sound right before the wheel exploded.

I do have another set of tires that I custom made that might work . These wheels are a solid piece of aluminum with a setscrew to hold onto the motorshaft. They dont use hubs. I want to try these out next testing session.

Im not sure why this failure is happening. I dont know if the tire is out of balance. I made sure to accurately balance these tires.

Testing today - better traction

X2 testing on 2-17-08

X2 Testing 2-17-08 video 2
This picture shows the locations of testing on 2-9 and 2-17. Running on the drag racing surface was very slick for foam tires. Running on the bare concrete in the shutdown area yielded much greater traction.

Pass 1

Pass 2 and 3

Pass 3 and 4

Pass 5 and 6

Sunny and I went to Houston Motorsport Park to do some more testing. This time we did our testing on the shutdown area of the 1/8 mile track. The shutdown area wasn't covered in rubber and VHT. It was found that the drag racing surface too slick and yielded no traction. The concrete surface yielded much more traction. I was able to get a few runs in to hit about 50 mph. I didn't push the X2 too much. We ran out of time for testing this day so next time I can push the X2 even further.

Testing today - no traction

Data from pass 1

Data from pass 2

Data from pass 3

Data from pass 4

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Rudder system and steering system with gyro stabilization.

My friend Sunny and I went out to Houston Motorsport park (1/8 mile course)to do some high speed testing. It was a disappointing day. There wasn't any traction to be found on the drag track. When you watch the videos you can hear the wheels just spinning and not getting traction. A new location needs to be found for further testing. My car gets much more traction on regular asphalt or concrete. These new tires are a much harder compound than the soft drag foams I was using.

Boycott Dymond

It has come to my attention that Helmut Goestl of Dymond Modelsport has a class action lawsuit against Castle Creations and Thunder Power batteries.



These two great companies, Thunder Power and Castle Creations are my sponsors. The have supplied me with components that work flawlessly during my testing.

The class action suit has to do with Mr. Goestl saying that Castle Creations products and Thunder Power products aren't made in the USA. They represent the best of American technology. I support Castle and Thunder Power 100%. Please do Castle Creations, Thunder Power and myself a favor and boycott Dymond Modelsport and anything Mr. Goestl is associated with. Read the links in this article to get the whole story. Thanks for everyone's support.

New wheels installed, "X2" ready for high speed testing

"X2" with new wheels installed

These new wheels are now the correct diameter and trued for high speed running.

New wheel on the left, old wheel on the right. You can see there is much less sidewall of foam. Hopefully this will reduce the likelihood that the foam will fly off the rim. The new aluminum wheels are much heavier than the plastic ones, but they are much stronger.

Data from a slow speed test using new wheels. High speed for this run about 28 mph.

Weight of "X2" with all electronics installed except for the body, 6 lbs 8 oz.