son of son of natural

Darwin RCDNT NT. Son of Son of Natural, going awry. I think the fern drogue might not have been straight enough (plus the wheels weren't "straight" either, but jesus, you wan't expect everything in that heat)

GO YODA GO!

What a great world.

yoda

previous winner of rcd nt. Last year, he went 220ft, this time though went backwards.

Rocketcar Day NT 2!

The second round of Rocketcar Day NT has been announced. Check ot the NT Page for more info. I'm heading up for the event. hell yep.

Date: Sunday the 26th of November
Location: Same as last time, email for details.
Also coming soon: video of the first NT RCD.
Spread the word and start building your machines!
D & E

More photos of Rocketcar Day Seven

Some sweet glimpses into the adjacent stuff that makes rocketcar days so great. Thanks to Ang for getting these to me. She is like an angel (people who haven't sent any photos, why not send just your top 2?).

Found here.

Rocketcar Day Seven T-shirts

Now for sale with paypal. How amazing are these internets? Anyway, 30 bucks including postage to australia. Send your size and address and i will send you solid gold (in t-shirt form) Our model here is jimmy, usually you cannot even look at him he is so hideous, but see how a t-shirt can make anyone look great.

Rocketcar Day : The Documentary

Anna and Dave recording precious moments by the butt load.

Merch Merch Merch

Cow rocket themed t-shirts. For the first time ever, ready well before the race. They look great, even on jimmy (thanks jimmy). Don't forget to order a t-shirt from me

Proud winner

Simon takes home the trophy.

Dog and his car

Monarch's car went pretty well. We may need to ban dog entries.

The heat of the race

This is the top 3 cars in a final race to decide who takes the prize. After a lot of hitting the gutters, bouncing back onto the track and running over each other the winner emerges: "the finger". (that's the one in the middle)

Multicar Spectacular

5 times the thrill.

Launcher and Trophy

The trophy, run over by a car at rocketcar day the third now glued and mounted onto a classy stand with winners names.

Mutlticar Challenge

Always a crowd pleaser. 5 cars at once battle to the death in a display of the sweet blend of design, chaos and luck.

Big Wheel

From Phil. Large wheel at front, 2 trainer wheels at the back.

Rollergirls

Lea and elise fetching cars.

Innocent Bystanders

We had our first police drive by. I think the well behaved crowd and the cute children convinced them there was nothing to see here...

Car line up.

We had the greatest turn out of cars this time. 16 engineering masterpieces went head to head in a great rocketcar day.

Photos online

The Bullet of deat racing team have put some of their snaps online. Thanks team BoD. Check em out here.

Please send photos

Please send me some photos so we can share them with the world. Don't be shy, send em now

Get yer t-shirts

Some people said they wanted to get t-shirts after the race. Email me here and I'll post one out to you. Rocketcar day 7 t-shirts will doubtless be collectors items as they have the wrong year on them just for tha exra level of specialness

What a great day

Thanks very much to everyone who turned up to race or just spectate yesterday. 70 people turned up and 17 cars raced. The police did a drive by but were nice enough not to enquire.

The winners were:

• Overall Distance winner : Simon, "The finger".
  
• People's Choice winner(s): Sandy "McSketchy" and Vikki "Rocketcar"
• with special kudos to Monarch the dog and the kids who raced
  

There were many highlights: dogs launching races, the final show down between the top 3 cars to decide the over all winner, the wilting rocket car, the brass detailing on the finger... so much greatness.

Thanks to the racers:

• Ivy "Ivy's Car"
  
• Eddy "Wocketcar"
  
• Austin "Lightning 1 + 2"
  
• Me "The Farm" and "Son of Natural"
  
• Phil "Wheel"
  
• Simon "The Finger"
  
• Simon "Milk Crate with Tonka"
  
• Sandy "Fyling"
• Sandy "McSketchy"
  
• Will "Bullet of Death"
  
• Mark, "The Can, Man"
• John, "Hover Car" (broken)
• Wombi, "Rocket Shamen"
• Vikki, "Rocket Car"
• Monarch (the dog) "Scoobie Doo"
• Marty "Not banned yet"

It's on Sunday the 27th. Yerp.

Not long to go now people. Book in Sunday 27th of August. Sydney Steel Lane Marrickville. Get there before 12.30 pm or die trying. The Day goes until about 3 or 4 depending on turn out. Bring beer and snacks for the BBQ. Bring rocket engines and extra fuses. I will have some rocket engines for sale (at an exorbitant price no doubt).

Damn, i can feel the excitement welling up already (cue someone in the peanut gallery yelling: "IN MY PANTS").

At any rate, look forward to seeing you all there.

Rocketcar Day 7 : Some new rules

Basically the only new rule is "no re-running old cars". This is mainly a rule to stop me running "Mr. Natural" again but applies to a couple of others too.

I think i might also add a "people's choice" category the winner of which will take home a carton of delicious beer. The winner of the trophy naturally wins the trophy plus the respect of the nation.

The first rule of rocketcar day is "there are some rules"
- You have to make your own car (attaching a rocket to an existing model car is frowned upon)
- The cars are powered only by C size engines (these are about the size of your thumb)
- They have to be safe(ish) to race. A good way to find out if your car is safe, is to test it. you learn alot when there's a rocketcar bearing down on you.

There will be the following events / :

• Distance race (individually launched)
• Top 10 showdown (10 cars race at once)
• People's Choice

Rules and Guidelines

testing: You can learn alot 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. That said, there are 2 race categories. one for tested cars and one for first run cars.

General: while you can make anykind of car, sticking wheels onto a rocket will incurr 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 vey light cars. they are prone to spin around and shoot into the spectators and innocent bystanders.

Body shapes: Up to you but not just a single body tube. The event demands something interesting to look at and shapes aimed at aerodynamics solely will be frowned upon and may not be laughed at and drowned. 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 (lego is totally acceptable, but glue it as well)

Motor types: C size rockets only in the race. Whatever the delay you like. C6 rockets seem to be cool. Only one motor to be used. No clustering or staging. You can buy them from hobby shops if you look trust worthy (swarthy types, trim beards first).

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. A car, which is bouncing and/or whose wheels are leaving contact with the track too much, at the judges discretion, will be banned. The wheels can be inside or outside of the car body. The car must end up on all 4 wheels or come damn close.

Running off the track: The cars run ends when it goes off the road (this includes down drains, under fences and into trees)

Remote Controls: no remote controlling cars. So far internal gryoscopic control is still allowed but only because it has yet to help anyone win a race.

Rocketcarday NT. Amazing

Our northern brothers have begun a Rocketcar Day and have set up a subblog here. The inaugural RCDNT is going to be on the 6th of August. They've got a crazy looking plunger. Good luck twisted cousins of doom.

Rocketcar Day 666 - T-shirts

After seeing this image of t-shirt girl with the new t-shirt on i am expecting to be inundated with orders for this lovely t-shirt, so email in your orders right away (in case our servers crash under the load etc).Also, i have lost everyone's orders from the actual day, so people who think they've ordered one already, you haven't. Email me. They are 25 bucks. Send me your size and address. w00t. Don't make me call each and everyone of you.

Rocketcarday Seven Announced

Ladies and Gentlemen
My swollen heart is bubbling with excitement to announce that Rocketcar Day Seven has a date.
Book in for Sunday August 27th 2006 in an industrial alley near you for the next installment of the worlds most tiny-cars-powered-by-rockets event... Rocketcar Day.
We are not doing Newcastle Electrofringe this year due to stuff, so pour all of your creation and attendance credits into this badboy.

Included features:
remote control helicopter camera
all new-rocketcars (no re-running old-cars chaps)
old-timey logo with inspirational message
a live broadcast musical simulcast on FBi (all rocket themed songs and announcing etc)
more greatness provided by YOU

Meanwhile I have entirely voided my bowels with the arrival of the extremely awesome Rocketcar Day 666 t-shirts at last with the haunting sexy-devil-racing-chick sitting atop “Evil just got Eviller”. These are available at a sweet 25 bucks (which is nothing in the scheme of things) and all proceeds go to this years remote control helicopter camera.

So, if you have already ordered one, your order is in and I can post it out to you if you give me cash and postal details. If you haven’t, set your wallet to stun and email me your size.