How to go really fast Interview with Tony Lovering

Forget about squeezing a little more power from your engine, filing the ports or any of that nonsense. There have been some quite extreme RC machines before now and none more so than Tony Loverings 3 engine monster.







He managed to squeeze 3 engines onto an 1/8th scale on-road Kyosho Evolva (I think 2 chassis and a hacksaw were involved) and flew from the UK to last year to compete in the world fastest RC competition at the California Speedway in Fontana on the 28th of July. He picked up the trophy for the fastest nitro RC car with a speed of 88 MPH, but has since gone as fast as 103 MPH in speed trials in the UK.

Zero RC: How did you get into speed trials?






Tony Lovering: I got into the worlds fastest RC car after watching a film called The Worlds fastest Indian. Its about a guy called Burt Munro from New Zealand, who built a motorbike and took it to the Speed Week held every year at Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA. He manages 206 mph. After watching the film I thought I would build an RC car to beat the land speed record. I found out later there was an event in the USA for the fastest RC car so after building the car I went to the event at the California Speedway in Fontana near Los Angeles. I managed 88 mph and that was a record for a car powered by an IC (internal combustion) engine.
ZeroRC: What are the plans for this year?
Tony Lovering: The car I used last year is a 3 engines stretched 1/8th RC car but it had a vital flaw. It got stuck in 1st gear. This year I will be building a new car with special engines and a special gearbox called a Constant Variable Transmission. Its being built in Canada by CVTech-RD. Hopefully we will try to beat 150 mph this year.
The world record for any car is held by Nic Case with 134.4 mph with his electric car. There are classes for standard kit cars and if anybody is thinking of having a go then Tony suggests you enter the kit class. Its apparently very simple to get a kit car and convert it to go fast.
This years world championships are to be held on September 20th-21st 2008.









Links:
More pictures from last years event
Tony on BBC TV
Tony's destructive 88MPH run on youtube
Tony's personal blog
Pictures used with kind permission from Tony Lovering.