Hybrid electric nitro 1/8th scale!
 

thought that you guys might be interested in this! it's pretty cool..

http://www.prolineracing.com/blog/un...ecial-project/

an 1/8th scale that can be run on electric or nitro...lol...i know i know...why bother with nitro..... but nevertheless, it's pretty impressive...

Got to say, its a cool idea, but i think a waste of time. Most hybrid designs are a compromise due to lack of full conversion tech, not combining both worlds. We all know either will be more efficient, and lighter than the whole setup shown. If they wanted a true hybrid (productable and realistic), They should have used a .12 and a 540 motor. That should produce the power of a 1/8 buggy, at about half the cost they had

Did I see that they were using only a venom 3s lipo? Feeble....

Interesting, but really doesn't seem too complicated. The real question to me is why?

Seems to me there are better places to place the creative energy of proline, but hey, I don't own the company either.

They do it to learn about mechanics and build their problem solving skills. It is through projects like this that things that were once thought to be implausible or impractical can be turned into something that can really work well. People used to say "why bother?" or "it's a waste of time" about lots of the stuff we take for granted today. I think it it's awesome regardless of how useful/useless it may be.

I guess you didn't notice that its was a group of college students - they do this kind of stuff to learn.

looks like thunder power

http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/a...3&d=1273841884

Is it me or does the nitro engine not like it`s brushless counter part when it`s running electric mode?The noise the nitro makes sounds terrible

nevertheless, its a pretty cool project....i'm sure Monster mike heard the same thing when he did his nitro to brushles conversion ie "Why the F**k would you waste your time and energy converting a NITRO buggy to run electric?"..lol...i'm sure glad he didn't listen to those people.... :)

Venom:

http://www.prolineracing.com/blog/wp...oads/Wpro3.jpg

Guess they had more than one pack to play with.

My take on it is that its an interesting concept, though kinda unnecessary really; if you were to run a decent 6s 30C 5000mah lipo with the BL system, you could ( on paper ) have a setup capable of around 3.7kw peak poweroutput- far higher than the nitro engine and undervolted motor ( 3s, seriously? ) running together. Using the nitro to supplement a fully powered BL system might be interesting to try and boost max power, but to use a half powered BL system... nah.

Hardly, everyone knows BL is far more powerful than nitro, so converting power sources completely due to lack of rtr BL vehicles makes perfect sense. Back then I guess BL was mainly a boat and plane thing, but still, those vehicles could outpace their nitro counterparts I imagine...

No I didn't notice it was college students. However it's still impractical and pointless to me. My opinion, take it or leave it.

It is also hardly a comparison to what Mike started and still does as Neil so finely pointed out. I challenge anyone to make a business and name for themselves as Mike has making brushless/nitro cars that run off both.

The venom looks like a 2s and the TP looks like it`s either two packs or more than 2S.My guess is the venom died a horrible death

I really do have to say, what a waste of time.

Throw a 4-stroke Diesel engine and Hydrogen power-system on there and you have a 4-way hybrid!

I don't see how college students learning mechanical, design, and problem solving skills is pointless. Yes, the RC car is not really contributing anything to society, but they will take the skills and lessons learned from this project out into the real world and apply them to things that really can make an impact. IMO saying this project is a waste of time is very short-sighted. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion too.