CO2 Dragsters

[Omnis]

anyone make them? i do. we made a couple in tech class.....and i am thinking about making them a personal hobby of mine. (that or just join tech club in HS) lol. i have pics too but they have yet to be developed.

 

[MazKid]

I made one in 8th grade. Everyone was making this thin, light wieght crappers, so I made one similar to a NSX...it was the same length and width as the block thingy, but I cut out the top and bottom to look like a car. And you know what? I won in my class. People think that lightwieght=speed, but with CO2 you run out of power, and then you need momentum. Light cars don't have a lot of momentum.

 

[Jpec07]

Carbon Dioxide Dragsters? WTH...

 

[MazKid]

Jspec, they are lightwieght wood "cars" on plastic wheels...you put a CO2 canister in the back, then put it on a wooden track. There's a computer(usually) that smacks out these pins that puncture the canister. The compressed gas propells the car.

 

[Jpec07]

oh, basically a balloon car then (balloon filled up on the back of a wooden thing with mouth pointing toward the back propelling the car in much the same way)? I would say that if you were to make one that you should put some kind of spolier on it so that it doesn't fly off the track (or make it heavy as heck, momentum will keep it moving and it will stay on the track). Get some mechanical pencil refills, grind them up, and use them as a grease on the axles (works alot better than most other things, mainly because it's dry and is the closest thing to a ballbearing there is).

 

[MazKid]

Well to keep the cars we made on the track there was a fishing line under the car running the lenth of the track, and we put 2 eye-screws on the bottom of the car. There were a few that were too cheaply made that either broke on the track or the screws came out and the car went flying. I had a few problems, but never a huge or damaging malfunction.

 

[halfracedrift]

I also made one in grade eight... too bad some jerk decided at the last moment to make some cracks at the bottom where the screws were.. i never found out. next day... my car launches.. wam! lol

 

[Omnis]

wow maz, how long was your track? was it the standard 60-70 ft.? because if it was then momentum shouldn't have anything to do with it. you need momentum from the start...weight doesnt help that.

but if you were running a 100 footer or something then that is understandable. although i think you might've won through areodynamics.

anyways....my car was the most aerodynamic (windtunnel testing) but for some reason it kept bottoming out on the track. i built it nice and low (bout a milimeter or 2 above ground...with a slit down the back portion for the line to run). so for the first couple of runs, i never finished. the 3rd time my eye screws popped and i decided to make some serious adjustments (because i didnt want my car flying away again). so, i took the long eye screws and put em in there. and i made these special wheels from pin (badge, whatever you wanna call em) faces, which raised the significantly....

but, again, i will shut up now. maybe have pics in a week or something.

lol, peace...and sorry about those who's cars bit the dust!

 

[Josh]

Originally posted by MazKid
And you know what? I won in my class.

When I did them in 9th grade, me and this kid named Stephen had the two fastest cars in school. We built them in this tech. class, and all of the classes raced, and the fastest of each class raced each other. We had the fastest out of all of the classes, and we raced each other 5 times. I won 3, he won 2.

We got all crazy with our cars - wind tunnel testing, 1500 grit sandpaper to get the wheels, and bodies, extremely smooth, really fine graphite powder(kinda like what Jpec was describing) in the cars where the axles rubbed against the balsa wood, etc.

 

[MazKid]

We put straws in the balsa wood for the axels to go through. It worked pretty well...I still have my car in one piece, but before race day someone took a screw driver to it and left little gashes in the windshield/roof.

I think the track was like 60ft...The CO2 ran out a little over half way though so momentum helps. Also, I think if you shake and drop the CO2 canisters, it gives it more power. That's what I did a little bit.

 

[Omnis]

yeah, graphite lubes it good. and we use straws too.

60 ft. should be short enough to not have to worry about momentum. maybe your canisters were small.....i dunno. lol. our run out of juice maybe half way or like 3/5 the way down the 60 ft. track. still, it isnt enough to worry about it. our canisters are about the size of my thumb. and if you warm it up before you use it, they go faster. (like rubing it in your hands and breathe on it and stuff....expose it to friction, i dunno. lol.)

well thats pretty cool. my car was 4th fastest because of my predicament. but i still got best car trophy and most unique car trophie. (she gave 3 trophies...the other was fastest.)

 

[MuddinPede]

Any pics?











MuddinPede

 

[Omnis]

coming soon.....

lol, i guess i can take a few shots of my new car that's in the works as well....

p.s. - when i get my hands on a scanner, look out for some other pics of various cars too. (i like taking pictures of nice cars down by the weekly local auto-gathering thing)