A mechanical engineer from Rugby has used nearly 25 years’ experience working with PTC technology to help him design and develop the world’s fastest remote-controlled car.
Stephen Wallis, who honed his engineering skills at companies including Royal Enfield, Triumph Motorcycles and Greenjets, took just eight months to create, build, test and then run ‘Mach Reaper’.
Designed using the power of PTC’s cloud-based Onshape solution, the car clocked 250.67mph through the timing traps at a ROSSA (Radio Operated Scale Speed Association) speed event held at Llanbedr Airfield in North Wales.
This incredible achievement broke the previous Guinness World Record and makes Stephen the first person in history to push a remote-controlled car to those speeds.
Just a few weeks later he broke his own record, reaching 256.47mph at an unofficial speed event.
“At these speeds everything becomes difficult. Aerodynamics, tyres, electronics and reliability must all work together and there have been many iterations along the way to fine tune performance,” explained Stephen, whose engineering-based YouTube Channel attracts tens of thousands of regular viewers.
“I first used Creo while studying mechanical engineering at Imperial College London in 2002 and have continued to use PTC solutions throughout my career in motorcycle and product development.
“When I started the Mach Reaper project, Onshape gave me the flexibility, accessibility and design capabilities needed to move quickly from concept through to testing and refinement.”
Stephen, who is currently supporting his son Roy’s own record-breaking RC car attempts, highlights Onshape’s ease of use and intuitive nature as key drivers in designing the majority of the forty different components used in Mach Reaper.
Plug-in apps, including an aerofoil creation tool, helped him significantly enhance his initial design, with the cloud-based nature of the platform ensuring he could continue working on the project when away from home.
Whilst most of the components were manufactured in-house by 3D printing or by hand, outsourcing aluminium and carbon-fibre parts was made straightforward thanks to Onshape’s fast file-sharing capabilities.
“Finite Element Analysis has also been a major advantage for simulating different suspension and aluminium wheel designs. This helped me refine the end model and, importantly, ‘eek’ out that extra bit of speed without damaging the car,” added Stephen.
Wallis isn’t stopping with his world record and is exploring plans to create a remote-controlled car capable of exceeding 300mph.
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