You can buy all sorts of RC cars off the shelf, but doing so won’t teach you a whole lot. Alternatively, you could follow [TRDB]’s example, and design your own from scratch.
The Lizard, as it is known, is a fun little RC car. It’s got a vaguely Formula 1-inspired aesthetic, and looks fetching with the aid of two-tone 3D printed parts. It’s designed for speed and handling, with a rear-wheel-drive layout and sprung suspension at all four corners to soak up the bumps. The majority of the vehicle is 3D printed in PETG, including the body and the gearbox and differential. However, some suspension components are made in TPU for greater flexibility and resistance to impact. [TRDB] specified commercial off-the-shelf wheels to provide good grip that couldn’t easily be achieved with 3D-printed tires. An ESP32 is responsible for receiving commands from [TRDB’s] custom RC controller running the same microcontroller. It sends commands to the speed controller that runs the Lizard’s brushed DC motor from a 3S lithium-polymer battery.
The final product looks sleek and handles well. It also achieved a GPS-verified top speed of 48 km/h as per [TRDB’s] testing. We’ve seen some other great DIY RC cars over the years, too, like this example that focuses on performance fundamentals. Video after the break.
Nice design. I wonder if the builder is aware of the OpenRC project, which encompasses many builds similar to this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=OpenRC
Not to detract from the coolness of this project, but the performance of this car is not even close to that of the commercial equivalent. The modern world may be terrible in many ways, but one way that it is not terrible is the availability of cheap RC toys with incredible performance. I have a 300 dollar traxxas buggy that can do 112kph out of the box. It’s extremely tough, and every singe part is available as a spare. Traxxas is a premium “boomer” brand. No-name chinese RC is much cheaper with the same or better performance, but the parts availability is not as good.
Also, hate to say it, but RC cars are probably not the best application for 3D printing. These cars break often even when made out of exceptionally tough materials.
If you were to buy a cheap chinese RC car and adjust the power level down to that of this 3D printed car, it would be indestructible.
I have a brick wall that disagrees about the indestructible comment
Speed is largely just a function of the electronic components you choose to put in it and how big a space you have to drive where you’re not going to explode a pedestrian’s ankle.
Anyway, I don’t think anyone’s positing that this is some record-breaking car. As with most 3D printed anything, the point of it is the self-sufficiency and the accomplishment of doing it yourself. It’s not really about driving the car, it’s about having gone through the whole design process and being able to continue to modify it and experiment.
after market suspension arms, diffs ,oil shocks . A brushless motor and esc . And ya got a winner