Mock Nitrous in my Xmod!
 

Okay, so I haven't done this yet, and it sounds crazy but...

I was watching the Fast and the Furious, and then 2 Fast 2 Furious, and I saw Nitrous being used, which I had never seen before... I remembered I had a few A3-4T model rocket engines (about the size of a AAA, but with a bigger diameter) laying around, that I never used... I thought of putting them on my car, but then it would look stupid... Then I thought of rerouting the thrust using aluminum tubing bent and manipulated to look like exhaust :D I thought about it for a few minutes, and I couldn't do my homework because I couldn't stop thinking about the idea. I almost gave up when I couldn't figure out how to ignite them remotely, then I looked at my BCG...I figure, I'll hook up the pcb in parallel to the AAA's, and use forward for one boost, and backward for the next. I'll use two diodes hooked up to the igniters, so it only ignites one at a time... I can't wait to start...

I'm okay if you all think I'm crazy. It is a crazy idea. But just imagine the look of your opponent when they see (I forgot what came out of the model rocket engines, it's been a while! Smoke? Won't look like nitrous!) coming out of what they thought was a mock-exhaust...

Well, given that you are probably going to seriously screw-up your car, just pop a G40 or G80 in there, no one will notice:rolleyes: :D

besides the fact that your car will be melted into the concrete the second you ignite the rocket engine.. you may have something here....engine exhaust wrap and aluminum insulation *may* be sufficient... but the second thing, would be to make sure your engine is completely parallel to to your car. i hope you try it, or i may even try it.. if i knew how to ignite the engine.

It's done electrically, you get these igniters with the engines, and you hook them up to about 5-6 volts and they glow red while some kind of black coating on them burns off. I think the wire is called "nichrome", like what they use in toasters.

I still have to draw up my "exhaust" before any production can begin... I sure do hope that my car doesn't melt :( But if it does, hey, it was only $50 and there will probably be some parts left to salvage...

Or, instead of using a rocket motor, you could use a smoke bomb (4th of July leftovers). It doesn't get as hot so it won't melt up your car as bad.....

I think that you forgot about the small fact that they explode when they reach the end of the powder.

Rocket engines don't explode, per-se... They do let out exhaust towards the end of its reaction that pops the nose of the rocket and the parachute out to slow the fall.

Heatshielding will be interesting.

Thanks for pointing that out Bugman, I'm not going to use fireworks... About that ejection charge... Estes makes some larger engines without the reverse charge to pop out the chute for, I think the RC gliders? Or something else... I am hoping they also make them in 1/2 A size, like my A3-4T's.

Oh crap, no, they don't make them without the ejection charge :( I can always reroute it to maybe the bottom of the car... To make it look like it came out of the hood and the engine blew lol

I put two rocket engines, about the size F25/50 thing, on a 1:18 Corvette a few years ago. The ignition system was totally independent of the other circuitry, the whole deal was installed as a unit, and they both lit successfully on the first try. The car went about ten feet before the rockets gave out, and it probably didn't break 5mph. I don't know what kind of models those are engineered for, but rockets are typically a lighter than cars, and it showed in my experiment.

Despite the size difference, we lightened the Corvette, so it probably only weighed 50% more than an XMOD. And keep in mind, there were two rockets. But good luck! It'd be cool to see it work.

I am planning to use an independent ignition circuit as well, but I will use the rocket engines in conjunction with the motor. You know, like a boost to the car, not propelling it independently. I forgot to take into consideration the weight though! Oh well, if it doesn't add too much speed, or none at all, at least it'll look good:D I just need to go down to my local hobby store to get some tubing...

Actually, Estes does make several motors without ejection charges:

-A10-PT
-B6-0
-C6-0
-D12-0
-E9-P

Hrmm... b/c you plan on using a little exhaust-type setup, you might be able to make the thing pretty much fly! :D With the exhaust style setup, as long as you tune everything just right you could get it to work great ... rather than having the exhaust parallel to the ground at the end, have it pointing about 5 degrees up for some down force (it's an XMod, not an Airplane) and it might work good. Also, don't go to small on tubing, backpressure would make it explode (bye bye, poor XMod). I'd love to see how it turns out

Is that A10-PT in the mini size? Because that's the biggest I want to go... I'm assuming it's not:(

It's the same size as the A3 you have. The T stands for a 13mm [diameter] motor