Ft myers graveyard
 

check this out, i hope the attachment worked

graveyard
 

just wanted to clarify the explosion that took place. there was a upside down car at the end of the backstraight. I hit him full throttle!! His car had nothing except frequent flyer milage lol!!!! the head and sleeve stay attached to the car by the muffler springs and the carb. was held by the fuel line and the back plate was there with the two lower screws. the crankshaft and the clutch and gears were forward thru the fence 40 feet from where the car landed. We still have not located the piston and conrod but someone heard something clang the bleachers at the begining of the straight. who knows maybe it will turn up. got jb weld!!!! loll!!

IT HURTS JUST TO LOOK AT IT

Those must have being flying everywhere.
Next time I needed to look for parts at the track, I call u :D :lol:

quite true, we found some the next day and sure would like to locate the piston just curious to see what it looks like

:cry: The death of a beautiful engine.... :cry:

I think they get at least one of those a year in ft myers we will probaly see another at the winternats in feb

another picture
 

heres the car picture except the crank and gears weren't on it

Speedy
OMG that is exactly what happened to my car in 2002 at fort myers. same scenario exactly and the RB in my car looked just like that.Except it was not in the car any more. Just the bottom of the case. wow thats like deja vue.

Dave Cambell got it that way in 02 to.

that doesn't make me feel better, but i know exactly how you felt that day. i'm defenitely over it now and just smile when i think of it. there is one lesson to be had from the experience, when your on the drivers stand and waiting to be marshalled even if you think your off the main driving line, always let your fellow drivers know where you are. REAL LOUD!!!!

Every once in a while we will see pictures like that, usually all 21 big blocks, and usually (almost all) are cracked/splited at the same SPOT on the case....and all are during hard impact (someone get nailed or nailed by someone)

I am wondering....what made the IMPACT so bad that will cracked/splited the case all the time...? Is that the internal PRESSURE from the nitro exploded the block like that...? Not really the IMPACT but pressure inside..?

I hope that won't ever happen to me ouch! :eek: :weird:

Sorry to see that bro, seems like .21 engine's case is too soft / or bitter?? heard of this happen to our local racers too. But not the .12.
By looking at the pics, it doesn't seems like an explosion. The case cracked unpon the huge impact.

Just because the cars are not that big, it doesnt mean then inpact force is not big. The cars are probably traveling at around 70-80mph or more, and the cars carry a lot of mass behind them. We see how small the cars are and think the inpact can not be that great, but its an incredibly big inpact. Add to that the fact that cast aluminum is rather brittle and you get what happen to that engine. The .12 probably dont have that happen because TCs use foam bumpers, therefore minimizing the force of the inpact. 1/8th cars dont have foam bumpers, they just have that plastic bumper that transmits the full force of the aluminum chassis behind it.

I still dont know of the engine that broke is the one on the car that got hit, or the one on the car that did the hitting.

That is exactly my question, it is very odd that the ENGINE is the one that took the most force from the Impact (compare to parts like chassis, arms, and bumpers...etc) but my guess is NOT really the IMPACT cause the split of the block, it is the internal pressure of those 2.8HP + engine that break the case themselve....simply exploded....kinda.

I doubt its the internal pressure, if it was, the engines wouldnt last very long.
The engine is the tallest part on 1/8th scale cars. With the wedge body, when one car hits another, the car that was hit probably hits the engines head, and thats when the crankcase breaks IMO.

You also have to take into consideration the inertia forces invloved, the car that is coming down the straight stops pretty quick when it hits the car other car.

It would be neat if some RC car company would be willing to donate a car to see how hard a car traveling at those speeds hits. I've heard of people breacking legs when they get hit.

I read the post to say that the other car was upside down. His car hit the upside down car. The upside down car just go punted while his car got the motor case busted. I can see this happening. The lola body leaves the engine open for direct contact. Happened to a friend with a 235mm. He hit a 4x12 board straight on at the end of the straight. His car blew a hole through the wood about 2 inches tall. The hole was too low for his engine so it tore the head and the top half of the case right off.

If an 8 lb bowling ball hit the side of a car at 70 what would the car look like? my guess is there would one hell of a dent in it.

Peter, why don't you finish the story of the weekend by including the rod that Billy broke while borrowing your .12 RB?

Tough weekend...

G/day Guys
Just some quick calcs. to dispell any internal explosion myths !
The force from dissipating the energy in a crash with a 2600 gram (2.6 kg) car travelling at 75 mph is :-
stopping in 1 sec - 9kg.
stopping in .1 sec - 88kg.
stopping in .01 sec - 888kg.
so if it hits a solid steel barrier that doesn't budge - 1000kg would be possible. Hitting another car could be anything from 50 to 200 kg of force! That's why the engines shatter.
It's also why I used to hate marshalling the straight or turn off the straight !
Regards Richard

Lol that sucks but is funny

Just talking about this aspect, an R/C could quiet easily break your leg then couldn't it... ouch...

yeah its a heck of an impact, the roll bar in front of the engine left its imprint on the head. i mean a straight line on every cooling fin, now thats an impact, oh yeah never did find that roll bar either. Peter

may be we can look at it from another angle. At 16.8mm stroke, assuming that the piston is traveling in constant speed (which it is not, as in each stroke there is a change of direction). At 35,000rpm, your piston is traveling at 70.6km/hr inside your engine. Add that to a serious impact, almost any crank case is going to crack.

Novarossi did put out a disclaimer in the Serpent Veteq days... where they did not design their engine to be part of the stress member in the chassis. If the impact is on the engine, it will give the same effect.

Hmmm.... this sounds silly, but anyone thought of installing a little roll cage for the engine....?? :rolleyes: Some aftermarket made them for 1/8th monster truck.