Small model motors are great engineering pieces, and RC cars don’t always matter your age. [Keith 5 Ke000] Both crossed the summit, a very impressive hybrid RC car built around a custom 125cc V10 engine.
[Keith 57000] began manufacturing the V10 engine back in 2013, completing the 1/4 scale V8. The construction is documented in a forum thread with lots of illustrations of his beautiful craft. Most of the mechanical components were forged on a manual lathe and a milling machine. No CNC, just lots of pictures and measurements, clever use of splitter heads, and accurate runtime readings. The engine also features electronic fuel injection with a mega scream controller.
The rest of the car power plant is just as impressive. The body is a bent tube with bent brackets and carbon fiber suspension components. Two electric motors have been added to the skateboard to give it a bit more power. The 3-speed gearbox has also been customized, as it was built with gear cleaned from pit bikes and angle grinders. It uses two small pneumatic compressors to execute the transmission, with an intelligent servo mechanism that mechanically replaces the valve. For more details watch all 14 videos of his channel.
An amateur project of this complexity is never without speed, which [Keith 57000] elaborates in video and thread builds. It’s been seven years now, but this is without a doubt the most impressive RC car we’ve seen. His skill in using handheld machine tools is rarely seen in the CNC era. We await the final product, and hopefully, shout around a track with an FPV cockpit.
