Making a Rocket Car

Something always has to go wrong 🔥😂 Looking forward to building off this initial experiment with a much improved MK2 car in a future video. Leave any questions here and I'll answer with an FAQ edit to this pin!

You properly Richard Hammonded it

Hehe, it's a great first start. Although the carbon tubes I think are too flexible. Also without suspension you will never be able to keep straight at high speed. But still looked like a fun project.

My dad built me a very similar rc rocket car 25 years ago, we got a multi page feature with it in 'RCMC' magazine. He used 2 shallow shelf brackets side by side as the main part of the chassis for rigidity, with the elecronics inbetween. Its a jet dragster design with a funnycar body for aero. We used 2x D-12 to start with then moved on to a single 5 second burn distress flare rocket motor. It also has full suspension and servo activated parachutes. We ran it at santa pod dragstrip after dark (usually getting a few runs in before getting kicked off) and although we had no timing equipment, we estimated well over 120mph. I still have it and plan to get it going again sometime soon. May I suggest mounting your rocket/s in front/over the rear axle and angling your rocket exhaust upward a few degrees to give instant downforce and increased stability

Add a gyro to help with steering. Find an airfield that will let you do some runs. That road is way too narrow.

Get a Gyro and get some rocket motors without ejection charge. They are mostly indicated by having a number like B10-P with the P standing for plugged. So the top is plugged and there is no ejection charge. The -0 engines have a 0 second delay time and more often than not don't have an ejection charge. Check the description.

Rocket motor vendors love him!

Very interesting projects you do. Hats off. For a while I have been experimenting with rc cars with the drive directly attached to transversely mounted electric motors. One for each rear wheel. I mount the motors on swing arms with expansion springs for the suspension medium. So the suspension is swing axle, which is fun. Standard size high torque 550 motors as used in crawlers work with small road car wheels. Going up in size 775 industrial motors such as used for replacement electric drill motors work fine for larger wheels, though experimentation for the optimum size wheel is needed. Im using two 775 motors with 3 inch wheels. The lack of a differential can be an issue on bitumen or firm surfaces, and I have made a steering operated micro switch and relay affair which idles the inside wheel to reduce engine strain and understeer. I am working on a simpler in hub supermagnet clutch for the same reason. The wheel attached to motor without gears creates a very silent rc car with, according to wheel size used, great acceleration or top speed. I have tried a quite large 895 industrial motor which a large amount of torque, however it draws a lot of current and surprisingly they are easy to burn out. At the moment the 775 seems to be the best brushed motor to use. The use of industrial rather than rc dedicated motors makes it cheaper - and easier to set up than brushless motors. I'll supply photos soon. I use 18 volt makita batteries, again lots more bang for buck esp if one uses cheap chinese makita copies. I'm a cheap skate, and I figure I'm not the only one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpEmHajlCt4

You deserve more than a million subs One of the most underrated channels...

Get a gyro and some aerodynamic steering on that bad boy :) maybe a touch of downforce on the nose too

James, Hello from Florida. You are living the dream that I wanted to do when I was young. I am 72 years old and now have watched several of your videos. Even at 72 it makes me feel great to see the thing you come up with. I know what you mean by a wet country because I was there in 1967 and thought I was going to grow a set of gills to breath. I live in Florida and we also have wet weather during the summer along with some serious thunder storms. Also you may try a bigger set of wheels and a bit wider with a foam rubber on the rims. Those gravels in the road make that car jump around and hard to control. Just a thought thrown your way... Thanks for the video Dave

Haha! I strapped a d stage Estes engine to a remote control car back in the 90s in my teenage years. Proper good fun buy very uncontrollable!

Although your intention wasn’t to create a little crash and fire, the result was truly spectacular! It’s always a great video when even the little disasters make spectacular viewing!

Need a tighter press for the bearings. For plastic I would aim for 0.001-2” interference

Great start. I really enjoy these ProjectAir vids. About 30 years ago we built a rocket car in school which used a single Estes' engine. The biggest difference is that we ran a long wire on the ground (fishing line maybe??) and the underside of the car had 2 or 3 eye hooks for the line to thread thru. This kept the car going perfectly straight. This is was more than 30 years ago, so I don't recall too many particulars like did the line burn? What happened when the ejection charge fired? etc. However, I do recall it sure was a lot of fun for us kids in the schoolyard. (no way would they allow this in school today)

If you are using a programmable R/C transmitter, you can calibrate a RC car ESC to have forward and backwards throttle to use as breaking.

You should use the chassis of a decent RC Car, since those have great suspension which is vital to keep the vehicle stable at high speeds

So happy to see your channel growing and your content quality continuing to increase! I've been hangin out since back when you were working for Flite Test, and I'm enjoying your videos ever since. Keep it up!

I lost you for awhile, but just found your channel again today. I really loved watching your single rocket motor test run, Actually ILMAO !! I'll be watching for more laughs. Love your channel and builds.

Absolute vintage Project Air! "It looks worse than it was" but "the whole car was written off." Keep working on these projects - love them. There's nothing else on YT quite like this channel!