WHAT! Could a RC car actually be faster than a super car?

After an hectic day of hustling and bustling in the streets of Lagos, I got home and decided to watch some TV(yeah...I know some content on TV actually reduces ones IQ, but my need to relax trumps logic) so I tuned to my favourite autoshow "Top Gear" and what I saw made left me awed... a miniature RC car beats a lamborghini in a drag race!source

Yes I know it might sound unbelievable and preprosterous but I saw it with my own eyes and you can too here (not exactly the video I saw but closest I could find). And immediately I picked my smartphone and entered the most visited website in the world "Google" (thank God for Larry page) and what I discovered blew me away like a leaf in a vicious storm.
Don't worry my friend, I'm not going to be selfish and keep my discoveries to myself as long as you don't stop reading, Deal?

What Is An RC Car?

A RC Car is nothing but a radio-controlled or remote-controlled car hence the acronym "RC". source

In the radio-controlled car, attached to the miniature car is the receiver and the controller contains a transmitter which transmits frequency from the controller to the receiver of the car which makes it quite controllable from quite a distance. Some RC controller can transmit frequencies with range as far as 100km, cray cray right?
On the other hand, in remote-controlled cars the rear of the car is usually attached to a remote control by an electrical wire, limiting the range distance significantly. It is due to this disadvantage that the radio-controlled car has dominated the remote-controlled car.
As you may have guessed, it is not just cars that can be controlled using RC, there are trucks, boats, trains and other vehicles including a model airplane.
RC cars has been around since the 1960s. Mardave, a British company were among the first establishments to make commercially viable RC cars and as they say "the rest is history". Nowadays, people have started building and racing RC cars as a hobby and it has rapidly evolved into an addictive kind of sport.

Types of RC Cars

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There are different types of RC cars each specifically designed for different purposes and environment.

• Buggies: these are specifically designed for off-road racing. They can be designed to be a 2-wheel drive or a 4-wheel drive type car each can be differentiated easily by just the size of its tyres. They are kind of versatile such that they can reach high speeds and easily climb a hill without as much a hiccup, so are mostly used both on-road and off-road.
• Monster trucks: these are insanely awesome for off-road bashing and climbing even in muds. They are almost indestructible and can overcome almost any obstacle in its path.
• Drift cars (dragsters): these are highly powered RC cars in which the body design and engines have been manipulated for top speed racing.

There are many more examples like the crawlers, rock racers, semi-trailers and so on. So of all these types, which actually is the culprit of the lambo defeat? The answer is quite glaring if you have been following. The Dragster!

What Could Make A Miniature Car Go So Fast?

Some RC drag cars can accelerate to over 120mph in under 1.12 seconds. Unbelievable right? Just click on the link and better still, some have acquired a top speed of 329km/h.
So what could be responsible for such great speed on a small body? Together we'll find out but first what are they made of? source

Just like a normal sized car, a RC car consist of a body, tyres and an engine.

• Body : this is the surface of the car that encloses the engine. In dragsters, the body are streamlined as much as possible to reduce air resistance when in motion.
• Tyres : this helps in the movement of the car and also balances the car. In dragsters, the tyres are designed to absorb a lot of the heat produced by friction during the race.
• Engines : here is the most important part of an RC dragster car or any car for that matter as it is the engine that produces the power for movement.
  A RC car could be powered electrically or by the conventional burning of fuel. For more clarity, I'd explain them individually starting with the "fuel engine" powered RC cars.

Fuel Engines :
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these are engines that are powered by burning some type of fuel usually gasoline. But the speed and power generated by burning gasoline is quite small to compete in a drag race (except you are competing to lose then go for it), due to this slight disadvantage posed by gasoline, "top fuel" engines are being built into RC cars in order to generate more power and simultaneous speed. Sometimes they are also referred to as "glow engines" (not because they glow, silly) because they utilise glow plugs instead of spark plugs (for gasoline).

In top fuel engines, a more combustible fuel, nitromethane is used instead of gasoline. Nitromethane is an organic chemical compound that is highly combustible and very toxic and dangerous. It has a chemical formula of CH₃NO₂ and used in a percentage between 10% and 40% although percentage as high as 90% has been used (high percentage has been discouraged because of fatal accidents prevalent due to the frequent explosion of nitromethane). Nitromethane is sometimes mixed with methanol and it burns with little or no air (self combustible)

You typically need about 15 pounds of air to burn 1 pound of gasoline, whereas you need only 1.7 pounds of air to burn 1 pound of nitromethane.

The burning of this top fuel by the engine produces very high horse power which in turn gives the car "mad speed".
Using a "nitro" fuel engine is very expensive as one could spend about $5000 on just a race on a 1000ft track.

Electric engine motor : most RC cars use electric engines as it is very much safer than fuel engines. It's major source of power as suggested is electricity which are stored in a battery.
An electric motor consists of two types: Brush DC and Brushless DC Motor.
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Brush DC motor : a brush DC motor consist of a rotor, a commutator, an axle, brushes and a field magnet and of course yes the battery is added to generate power. The properties of the motor could vary dependent on the nature of the material, amount of coils wound around it and the density of the coils.

Brushless DC Motors : the name couldn't make it anymore obvious they don't have brushes. Here, four or more permanent magnets are placed in some sort of cross pattern surrounding the rotor and because of this arrangement, the rotor is like the "Queen" of Brushless DC motor which doesn't need the axle, commutator and brushes unlike brush DC motor.

When it comes to efficiency and speed, Brushless is chosen over Brush DC motors. But having the "Queen" on your side comes at a "price" literally meaning it is expensive compared to Brush DC motor.

Conclusion

My ever attentive friend, may I indulge you in a bit of a question? I'm going to ask anyway, so which engine do you think powered the RC car that beat the Lamborghini to a race? "Nitro" powered engine or Electric engine. Not that I'm psychic(but would love to be) or "God" but I'm pretty sure 90% chose the nitro-powered engine. Sorry to burst your ever inflated bubble, it was an Electric RC Car that gave the Lamborghini a run for its money. In 2014, the current world's fastest RC car popular known by its name R/C bullet broke and set a new guiness book of record clocking a whooping 196mph and it is fully electric (shocker).

Now before you go running to the nearest mall to go buy your own RC car or build it (if you are more of the building type of person), first decide the purpose of getting one. If you want to go old school, you could get a top fuel "hot rod" RC car but If you want speed, you better choose an Electric Brushless DC motor over the Brush DC motor and if you are buying one just for show off, a miniature Bugatti Chiron could be a "panty-dropper".

Thank you for taking the time to read and peace to you all.

References

1. "how fast do RC cars really go?" by Michael James.
2. "Engine fuel" by Joe S. Wilkins Jr US patent 5,607,486 1997.
3. The Anatomy & Development of the Top Fuel Dragster by Tony Sakkis motorbook international , 1993.
4. High performance: the culture and technology of drag racing by Robert C. Post John Hopkins Univ Pr , 1994.
5. Nitromethane on wikipedia
6. The Difference Between Brush DC And Brushless DC Motors? by Mat Dirjish, 2012.
7. Top Fuel Racing Engines – Containing the Explosions by Randy Rundle, 2017.

All image sources are cited beneath each image