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According to
Guiness World Records, the current holder of the record for the fastest
model car is the "Radio Controlled Bullet," by Nic Case, having achieved a speed
of 202.02 mph (325.12 km/h), in 2014. In 2019, Estonian Ando Rohtmets set the
tethered model
car speed record of 215.92 mph (347.49 kmph). All modern speed records are
set using electric motor power, unlike these models reported on in a 1948 issue
of Popular Science magazine which used liquid fuel and internal
combustion engines (ICE). However, not all of those ICE powerplants had pistons.
Mr. Frank Brennan showed up with a
DynaJet-powered model car, purportedly fashioned after the Nazi V-1 "Buzz
Bomb" (remember this was only a couple years past the end of World War I). It
did a blazing 150 mph, with the noise having been heard up to eight miles away.
Model Racer Sets 128-m.p.h. Record
 The
rabbit-size cars that go so fast will have to go still faster to beat the
mark set at this year's meet of miniature racers. A record 128.57 m.p.h. topped
the performance of models based on real cars among 750 entries at East Meadow,
N. Y.
Barely visible blur (arrow) is 100 m.p.h. car held to track by wire from
central pivot (right).
Big attraction was Frank Brennan's jet job. Its pulse engine, patterned
after Nazi buzz bomb, makes 150 m.p.h. speed - and noise heard eight miles
away. It did not race standard models.
Removal of cover shows motor of record-breaking Challenger. Motors like
this turn at 36,000 r.p.m. - pleasure cars do only 3,600 - on fuel mixture
of methanol alcohol and castor oil.
Stopping racers is delicate job. Here owner trips fuel-shutoff wire with
his cap. Car, doing 120 m.p.h., is blurred even though picture was made at
1/1000-second shutter speed.
Lt. Col. John Coppage displays his 128-m.p.h. Challenger, winner in prototype
class - models copied from full-size racers. Other class, called streamliner,
permits any design to boost speed.
Posted August 17, 2024
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