benmorg

it's on wednesday 11th, I think around 4.25. In the end they filmed richard doing the wall of death with a micro-t in a big blue peter bucket complete with blue ship on the bottom. The bucket was perfect - the sloping sides are not completely vertical which gives the tyres more friction and grip. Also much taller than a biscuit tin. With a bit of practice you can make the car go up and down the wall or fly out of the top, but as richard was fairly new to doing it he just ran the car for a second or two. They also did a race between richard and two of the presenters using more conventional RC toy cars (though sporty looking ones with headlights), attempting to do a straight line (with varying degrees of success). The cars were weighted so show that small cars have better acceleration, so the small car won.

plan now is to film this week and broadcast a week later, so look out for it on BB midweek next week. thanks again all

thanks all. we're thinking we could perhaps race 3 micro-ts but weight them differently with something. Is that possible? what is a lipo??

inside the studio

... also forgot to ask: anyone know a good RC model shop in the London or SE area? Modelsport UK looks like the perfect place for us to go and see the cars but as it's in w. yorkshire it's a bit of a hike.

Update on this Blue Peter item, which is still scheduled for 4th June. First, thanks for all your suggestions which are very much appreciated. We are now planning to do up to three items with RC cars. First will be wall of death with micro-t in a biscuit tin to demonstrate centrifugal force. Second will be a short straight-line race between a lightweight car (micro-t) and something powerful but heavier (any suggestions welcome!!) to illustrate that lightweight cars have better acceleration than heavy cars (power to weight ratio, which is a consequence of Newton's second law). Richard Hammond will probably race one of the Blue Peter presenters and win. Third possible item is a RC grand prix, with two BB presenters racing RC cars round a twisty track, for fun. Again the lightweight car would have the advantage becuase it not only accelerates faster but has less inertia and hence corners and handles better. A bit of skidding and drifting during the race would add a bit more to talk about. BB are going to order a micro-t for the small car, but we're not sure what heavy car to pit it against. Can anyone suggest something that is ideally more powerful than the micro-t but so much heavier that its acceleration will be significantly worse? Also any tips of setting up the grand prix track (possibly like a Micro National) would be much appreciated. How to do you make the barrier?? If anyone involved in the Micro National can offer me any extra help or tips please feel free to PM me your contact details so I can call back.

I found a couple of RC drifting videos on youtube. They look fun and would probably work well, so definitely worth considering. The science element isn't so clear though. With the "wall of death" it's easy to demonstrate G-force/centrifugal force (actually the same thing - both fictitious forces caused by inertia, or real forces if you take a rotational frame of reference), and then use this to explain why Formula 1 drivers etc. have to endure such punishing g forces. The science in drifting is a more subtle combination of inertia (which causes the wheels to break grip) and friction, with two different types of friction involved: static friction (when the wheels grip) and dynamic friction (when the wheels slide). I don't think the scientific content here is quite as much fun for kids. We have a page in the book where we explain what goes on in a variety of stunts/tricks such as powersliding, handbrake turns, j-turns, doughtnuts, fishtailing, and police-chase PIT maneouvres. It might be fun to demonstrate all these with RC cars...But do you think all these can be done or would it require a huge amount of skill? thanks again

Would be great if you could put in me in touch, as the rig he's built obviously does the job and being transparent the cage would look good on camera. thanks in advance.

do you mean powersliding etc.? Can you do that with RC cars? Can you tell me a bit more? thanks

brilliant, thanks. What kind of car is that? It looks bigger than the micro-t.

thanks. I hope so, but not sure the car can get sufficient speed to create the G-force needed to hold it on the wall. I would try it myself but don't have any remote-controlled cars, so hoping someone on the forum might be able to help out! Failing that BB will probably just get him to drive a posh car into the studio and then talk about science, but it would be more fun to set up some kind of fun stunt with RC buggies.

Hello there, I'm posting this message on behalf of Richard Hammond/Blue Peter. I am an editor who has just produced a new book with Richard, called "Car Science" that comes out in a few weeks published by Dorling Kindersley. Richard is going to appear on Blue Peter on 4 June when the book comes out. We are thinking of setting up a stunt on Blue Peter with radio-controlled cars. I would appreciate it hugely if anyone who has tried the stunt below, or is willing to set it up and try it, could let me know how feasible it is. Or even post a video on youtube so we can see it?? If the stunt works well, we may ask you to do it on Blue Peter. The stunt we want to set up is the "Wall of Death": But we want to do it with a remote-controlled car, e.g. something like a micro-T would be ideal. We'd need to build a wall of death in the studio with cardboard/lino/carpet etc. You can see micro-t's riding round biscuit tins on youtube, but we'd like to do it on a bigger scale. Doesn't have to be a micro-t - any fast car with very good grip at the tyres should do. If you succeed in getting this stunt to work please let me know! thanks in advance Ben Morgan Editor Car Science Dorling Kindersley 80 Strand London