Jul

Video: The World’s Fastest Remote-Control Car

Friggin’ nuts. If you wish to live a long life, you should never drive a car over 100 miles per hour. But remotely controlling a vehicle at blazingly fast speeds sounds pretty rad. That’s the idea behind Nic Case’s Schumacher Mi3, who holds the world record for fastest R/C car with a max speed of 161.76 mph.

How the heck did he do that? For one, installing a gyroscope-based steering-correction system normally used in R/C helicopters. Also, you’ll notice the car looks like a wingless jet. That’s because it kind of is: To give his Schumacher some extra mph oomph, Case added an 11-horsepower R/C motor as well as a 12-cell battery pack — normally used in R/C airplanes. And to keep the car from flying off the track, Case crafted a carbon-fiber chassis to generate enough aerodynamic downforce, and he engineered an all-wheel drive system to increase traction.

As you might have guessed, this isn’t a cheap hobby: Building the car cost Case $4,000 and six months of his life. Still, that’s a pretty amazing feat.

Too fast, too furious to get a good look? Popular Science posted some still images of the Schumacher, so check those out.