Monday, July 11, 2011

DeJa Vu Summary


The good people at Deja Vu put together this interview and hightlights.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Photos

















Lots of thanks to everyone at Deja-Vu who facilitated and interpreted into German during the day and wrangled all the participants.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

3D Stereoscopic Photos








long exposure, night time stereoscopic photos of launches at rocketcar day linz.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Rules

Rules

Who Wins?
The car that travels the farthest in the finals wins.



General: while you can make any kind of car, sticking wheels onto a rocket will incur some sort of shame demerit. Similarly, sticking a rocket onto a car is equally subject to frowning.



Materials: Whatever, In the interest of safety please ensure that metal components are kept to a minimum and as safe as possible.



Weight: Avoid very light cars. they are prone to spin around and shoot into the spectators and innocent bystanders.



Body shapes: The event demands something interesting to look at and shapes aimed at aerodynamics solely will be poo-pooed. Formula One style, saloon car, land speed record types, all types welcome. Plus anything new you can come up with. You have to make your own chassis.



Motor types: B6 size rockets only in the race. Whatever the delay you like. Only one motor to be used. No clustering or staging. These are .75 inches in diameter and fit nicely into a Romeo y Julieta no 4 cigar tube. Engines will be available on the day.



Wheels: Three at least but more are permissible and all must be in contact with the ground on the start line and every effort must be made to keep all on the ground during the run.


Testing: You can learn a lot about how good your theories regarding rocketcar design are from watching your creation pickup and fly out of contol towards someone. if you can : test your car.

Remote Control : is not allowed due to it working one year.

Gyroscopic control : is allowed due to it never having worked yet.

About Rocketcar Day

Rocketcar Day is a participatory event in which we build little cars out of anything they can, power them with model rocket engines and race to find out who gets the farthest.

It’s (essence/attraction/appeal) is in it’s unique blend of stupidity and applied physics (or perhaps applied genius and intuitive engineering).



You can build a car beforehand, giving you time to test concepts and theories of how best to create a straight, fast running car which can handle the power of the rocket engine.... or build one in the supplied workshop on the day using whatever creative powers you have at hand. Bring along something and see if you can turn it into a car. The RCD workshop will provide some materials and access to rocket engines and launchers (and some sage advice as well.)



If you don't want to build and race, come be an innocent bystander. The sight of multiple cars barreling haphazardly down the track is invigorating to say the least. When combined with plumes of acrid smoke and the feeling of imminent doom, it will have you ducking for cover and grinning from ear to ear.



The rocket engines provide a 6 second blast of power, after which the car is at the mercy of sheer luck and the competing forces of physics.

Thursday, March 3, 2011