Estes Blurzz Rocket Car 24mm mod

[billeblurzz]

Here is an attempt to show how we modified the Blurzz Rocket for 24mm Estes E-motors. We used a 4in. plugged Estes motor tube. The wing is cut away here with a razor saw.

 

[billeblurzz]

A second cut is made at the first line below the wing and the parts are saved.

 

[billeblurzz]

Once the ridges inside the intake are ground down, the 24mm motor tube will slide in to the ring-stop inside the intake.

 

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The ridges inside the wing and cutaway parts are ground down.

 

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Smoothed out like this.

 

[billeblurzz]

The motor tube and parts will together like this.

 

[billeblurzz]

When the wing section is cut away, the wheel girder structure is weakened. A bulkhead is made from 1/16 balsa and tube cradle from a motor tube ring cut as shown. This structure will slide into the slots left from the discarded "blue A10-P motor piece". This braces the rear structure and secures the motor tube

 

[billeblurzz]

This shows the new bulkhead and cradle slid into place and an additional piece cut from 1/16 balsa to make the rear end rigid and brace the new floor piece to attach a new rear line guide.

 

[billeblurzz]

The additional floor brace is placed here.

 

[billeblurzz]

A new rear line guide is made with an Estes launch lug and to brass parts called 1/4" ferrules from your hardware store in the plumbing dept. It is attached to a new floor piece made from 1/16 balsa which will slide between the tabs on the bottom of the car.

 

[billeblurzz]

Here is how the rear guide looks and another tube ring pushed up against the rear assembly.

 

[billeblurzz]

Here is a view all parts in place. The wing is epoxied to the motor tube. The bulkhead-cradle, braces are wicked with CA.

 

[billeblurzz]

An additional 1/4" ferrule will slide into the front guide. The higher speeds from the 24mm motors will quickly wear the plastic if this is not done.

 

[billeblurzz]

Here is the car with new 3/32" axles from piano wire and Dubro 11/4" front and 13/4" rear tailwheels. The gaps left on the "jet engine" from the larger motor tube can be covered with a balsa strip CA'd to the side. Additional dressed-up cars can be seen in earlier threads in the kit reviews section. I know this was long, but some members wanted to see this. thankx

 

[lalligood]

2 encouraging comments:

1) I think CTulanko has some serious competition when it comes to photo documenting projects...and his name is billEblurzz. (See the Upscale Tres thread going on in the HPR forum for a prime example of Carl's work.)

2) For all the time you took here, let me encourage you to submit your work to EMRR as well on this project!

Keep up the excellent work billEblurzz!!

 

[mkmilion]

I highly appreciate you putting this on here. I was curious: What exactly is a razor saw? I'm not familiar with this tool. Where do I get one and approxiate price?

 

[Neil]

Holy cow! You *ARE* going to lenthen the track when you fly this thing, right?

 

[Neil]

Oh, BTW. WHat are you going to fly this on? The new Ellis Mountain G37??

 

[billeblurzz]

Hey Neil, yes the length of the guide line is approx. 380' with the 3-sec burn Estes E9-4 and it uses all of it and stops with a nylon chute just within this length. I ran it again last Sunday and it chucked one of the front Dubro wheels. So these wheels have lasted for 3 runs on the E- motor. In trying to determine just what the effect was that was really scuffing the front wheels, I have been video taping the runs and playing back in slow motion. The first run was taped from the rear; did not give any information. The second run was taped from a distance and from side halfway down the track; showed some strange rocking back and forth at rear wheels. I guessed that as the car rolled and lifted right, then left front wheel; each time each recontacted asphalt surface, the wheel would be scuffed as a jet plane does on landing. For my latest run Sunday, I set camera right down on asphalt about one foot away from guide line about 1/3 distance down run and facing back toward start. What I captured in slow motion this time answered my front wheels scuffing problem and is AWESOME!!!! WHEELIES!!! 45 deg. WHEELIES!!! at possibly 80-100 MPH. Hard to believe, but there it is!

 

[wwattles]

Of course, now you're required to post some of those pictures...

To solve the wheelie problem (which isn't really a problem if you don't mind changing out the wheels as often as you are), you might need to add a horizontal fin on the front to add some downforce when the motor is at max impulse and the airspeed (groundspeed?) is getting up there.

WW

 

[billeblurzz]

I guess I shouldn't make what sounds like outrageous claims without some pictures! I only have a non-digital camcorder and have taken digital pictures from the television playback. A digital camcorder would probably give sharper videos, but you really can see the wheelies, about 3 distinct ones within the 380' run. The left rim is still on the car; somewhat burred because when the car passed the camera, the tire can be seen missing. The car shape will actually let it run on only three wheels. The car has survived a snapped guide line on a D12-3 run (end over end and airborne), and a chucked tire and wheelies on E9-4 runs. The only visible damage is some scuffing under the nose when the left tire came off! There is a small horizontal down fin on the nose, but I guess at these much greater speeds it is really ineffective. It does need some more downforce. These runs are really awesome, the modification technique seems sound. I would like to hear from anyone else's efforts too.

 

[lalligood]

Instead of and/or in addition to the previous suggested front airfoil, I would think that weight would probably help. I don't have an easy solution (but epoxying BB's onto the front would work, albeit look U-G-L-Y!) The additional weight is also bound to hurt overall performance (although you want it to be safe, right?!?)

Also, I was in my local Wal-Mart recently & saw that they have a new Blurzz vehicle that resembles a Ford Mustang. Enlarging the MMT might be more difficult than the dragster model, but keeping the front end down should be easier!

 

[billeblurzz]

Thank you for your reply. I am going to try to post a shot of the E-powered wheelie as best I can a little later. I am also interested in the Rocket Tuners racers but have not seen any in person. I was curious as to how they could be modified too and was glad to hear your comment that they are constructed differently from the dragster design. This car is SO fast, the only way to see what happened on each run is to video and play back in slow motion frame by frame. After each run, the car comes to a smooth stop with the chute; giving no indication that any thing out of the ordinary took place. When you play back the video, you are totally surprised! Some wild-real top fuel dragster runs are not as spectacular as this!!!!

 

[Neil]

guuuuuuhhhhhhhh thunk. *neil passes out* uhhh my head... you put E in there? E in car meant for A? guhhhh...


Man! I really wanna see some pics now! You are pretty good at grabbing audiences, you should go work for Hollywood! You could afford a 29MM version! Now! The next challagne! canted 18MM motors! Like a horizontal duece!

 

[billeblurzz]

Ok, here is the best I can do with my available equipment. If you don't sit too close to the screen the image is better. Compare this image with the ones to follow. In the first pic notice the relation of the front wheels to the red guide line and the ground. This is an image of the video running in slow motion.

 

[billeblurzz]

Now here is pic #2. Can you see the wheels in relation to the red guide and the ground?

 

[billeblurzz]

Well, I wish I had a digital camcorder. It probably would be clearer. Here is pic #3: no wheelie here.

 

[billeblurzz]

Here is last image of car speeding past camera. If you can pick out the wheelie, it does about 3 wheelies along the 380' run!