RC Lego Racer

For several weeks I was bringing different RCs to the track. It’s fun to bring along some of my older cars and trucks to try driving on the track, and it’s all stuff that many others either haven’t seen before or haven’t seen in a long time. (I’ve most enjoyed the Lunchbox and Bullhead!) Something jogged my memory, and I remembered the Lego Hot Flame Racer, and so I wanted to bring that one night, too.

I opened up the big tub of Legos and found the remote, steering and drive assembly, and instructions, intending to assemble the Hot Flame Racer as the directions showed. However, after sorting through thousands of pieces of Legos to find a few specific (and tiny) parts, I knew I couldn’t have it built in time. So, I just assembled something minimal to play with, and the result is what you see in the above photo.

It was a blast to drive! With fresh batteries, it was faster than expected. Yes, the six AAs that powered it were strong for about five minutes, but after that began fading. Everybody suggested I get a LiPo battery wired in to it — that would certainly help extend run time and keep the power strong!

I intended to run this in the “mini” class, however besides the batteries running down quickly… well, it’s Legos. They aren’t meant to go off jumps (even small ones) and a few pieces would pop loose each time. After getting through most of one lap we’d realize that one of the rear (drive) wheels was dragging more than pushing and it’d be time to fix it again. Even so, it was fun to drive it for a bit, and I have small aspirations of rebuilding it with shocks in the front (like I used in the rear) and perhaps even finding some ways to make it less breakable.