Pre-Race Notes

T Minus... Etc
Oh baby. The day is close at hand. The weather is sweet. The
We've tested the multicar launcher. It is awe inspiring. There is flashing lights, a siren and a plunger-style switch. Wile E Coyote's gonna spew blood out of his eyes.


Car Design:
We need to protect the track surface which means cars which have engines that are too low or pointing down won’t be able to race this time. So, move your engines up higher, put bigger wheels on your cars. Do whatever you can to get your car race ready. Having tested your car will reassure the safety dudes that your car won’t flip and set fire to the track. Sounds crazy? Crazy like a fox.

Engines:
only use c6 engines. Norell at Frontline Hobby store in Newcastle should be able to hook you up 255 hunter st. They are out of stock at the moment but should be getting some freshies in this arvo. To be safe, maybe buy a pack before you head up. HobbyCo in the city has “heaps”.

Where is it?
It is on smith street, Newcastle west. Oopposite no.2 sports ground.
http://www.whereis.com:80/whereis/mapping/emailedMap.do?maplinkId=226368&brandId=1

call me if you need instructions, i won't be able to give you directions because i will be lost too, but someone near me might be able to help. 0425 222 598. I am Mark.

Engine Attatching tip # 183 Cigar Tubes

A great way to attatch your rocket engine to your chassis is in a cigar tube. From memory a Romeo + Julieta no. 3 works best. Not only is this a great cigar and you'll love smokig it slow at the race, but you can screw the tube onto a chassis and it's safe as houses and reuseable. Delicious and efficient.

Call For Entries

Rocketcar Day Five. This year’s rocketcar day will be held in Newcastle as a part of the 2005 Electrofringe festival. It promises not only to have the best track yet but also the greatest turn out of all time.Imagine screaming fans in a grandstand overlooking a 10 lane athletics track! Remote-control cameras! Simultaneous car launches! The sizzle of food and some stiff competition from old-timers and a hoard of new-comers.

call for entries

If you want to race this year, you should start thinking about your car soon. While we’ll have a workshop the day before the race, this will mainly be to make enhance designs and make sure cars adhere to the totally relaxed racing rules.What are the 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)
- There will be the following events:
- Distance race (individually launched)
- Top 10 showdown (10 cars race at once)
- Judging will be based on distance and style points (the stupider the car the better)
- Cars that are too light won’t be allowed to race, because they’ve been shown to tend to fly into people’s heads.There are more rules beloW

DATES

There is a car workshop on saturday in the “project space” from 11am to 1pm. Bring your cars and we’ll prepare ourselves for the impending race.The race is on Sunday, is at the athletics track and runs from 11am - 3pm.

The races will probably start around 12pm.What you need to do

- contact me if you are interested hello@rocketcarday.com
- read the rules at the bottom of the website
- if you can, test your car
- bring your car to Newcastle and race it!

- you can call me too, if you're freaking out about something 0425 222 598

The Dates, The Dates

Saturday 1st of October
BUILD WORKSHOP
11am to 1pm
Rocketcar Afficiandos will be hanging around the Project Space in Newcastle tweaking peoples cars so they can enter the race on sunday. I don't know where the project space is, but Newcastle isn't that big. I think.

Sunday 2nd of October
11 am to 3 pm
ROCKETCAR DAY 5 : MEANER SMARTER FASTER
At the Athletics track. Races will start around 1pm. Noodling around before hand with beer and food.

Rocketcar Building Primer

Basically get something, stick wheels on it, attatch a rocket engine to it.

We've had cars made out of a plastic schooner glass, a frozen chicken, an Erkyl, a bit of bamboo and a dust-pan. The best entries are crazy but fast.

The finesse comes with the theme and how fast and far it goes.

The main problems you'll have is keeping it straight when the rocket engine ignites. Here's some basics:

- longer wheelbase makes it harder for cars to spin
- position of engine at back
- oil your wheels
- line up the engine with the wheels
- If the car is too heavey it will not go very far
- if the car is too light it will go far, but you won't know where
- a little drogue goes a long way
- having a little toy man as a driver seems to help


Again, testing your car is the best way to hold your head up high on the track. Also, check out photos oh previous years.
If you have any questions, email me.

Great venue confirmed

Thanks to the raw organisational power of electofringe, we're racing on a 10 lane athletics track, overlooked by a stadium. Nice smooth track, great viewing area.. best location yet.

The Rules Yeah

What are the rules?
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)
• Judging will be based on distance and style points (the stupider the car the better)
• Cars that are too light won’t be allowed to race, because they’ve been shown to tend to fly into people’s heads.

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 pronbe 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.

rocketcar day merch

It is a simple fact that the best thing about anything, is the t-shirts. Imagine how proud your anscestors would be if they found a photo of you in a RCD5 shirt while sifting through your "do not open until 2020" capsule. They would be very proud.
Here is last years t-shirt. And we had great "i heart doom" caps

T-shirts are 25 bucks, caps 20. You can get a deal if you buy caps and a t-shirts (both for 40). Plus you might be able to get some collectors edition stuff from previous years. email me

Rocketcar day archives

Check out some previous Rocketcar day pages. Lots of reliving of peril and doom moments, through the magic of photography.

• Rocketcar day 4 : Got doom?
• Rocketcar day 3 : The classiest rocketcar day ever
• Rocketcar day 2 : RCD2 the race from space
• Rocketcar day 1 : great stunt photography from Stillgherian