Dragster

Dragster

Here is Dragster! This is my first Solarroller. He's made of paperclips and an old microcassette mechanism. I bought a bunch of these microcassette mechanisms for $1.00/ea awhile ago but I can't remember where. To find surplus outlets, look on my LINKS Page. There are numerous links to get lost in.

Dragster (Left Side)

Dragster (Right Side)

The framework of Dragster is meant to resemble a Top Fuel Dragster in the NHRA. I am a big fan of Drag Racing and thought this would be a neat theme for a solarroller.

Dragster (underside)

Dragster uses a 1381 J solar engine, a 3300uF cap, 2 24x22 solar cells, and a 4.7uF timing cap. He only pops about every 25 seconds under my 60 watt desk lamp at 18 inches away and travels about 1 inch per pop. He's got a "wheelie bar" on the back which doubles as a stand for static display. I made a small paperclip "jack stand" that I slip under this "wheelie bar" to keep him from running wild all over the house. The white mark on the wheel serves as an indicator to let you know when the SE fires. On real drag cars this mark can be used for calculating wheel speed during a race.

Dragster was fun to build and I'll probably build a more refined version of him in the future.