Tony Lovering has been racing remote controlled cars for a while now and he's attempted a few speed records, however he now intends to go for the big 200 mph. We asked Tony to tell us a little bit about his bid and how he got into this in the first place...

If you have ever had a remote controlled car, the first question you get asked when racing around in a public place is "How fast does it go mister?" Well this is a question I had always wanted an answer to and so early in 2006 after many years of racing remote controlled cars I built myself a car just to see how fast it would go. This car had 3 interlinked engines and was called The Alien.

That year an event was held at the California Speedway in Fontana near Los Angeles to find the fastest RC car in the world and so using my accumulated air miles I was off to the USA to fly the flag for GB. I managed a miserable 88mph and was decisively outgunned by a guy called Nic Case who managed 134.36mph with his electric car.

After the event we became friends and we talked about how fast an RC car could go. We both wanted to get to 200mph and so the race was on to see who could top the magic 200mph barrier first.

In September 2007 I managed to better my 88mph with 103mph with the same 3 engined car, but it was clear that the electric cars had the upper hand. Nic then managed 161.76 mph in 2008. He was getting too close for comfort and I realised the IC car was not going to cut it. I was not interested in electric cars so the other option was jet or rocket power.

I decided on a hybrid rocket motor. This is a rocket motor with solid and liquid fuel. The solid is plastic and the liquid is an oxidizer such as Nitrous Oxide. This seemed a safe option so I started a development plan to build and run a rocket powered RC car.

The car is now built and the engine tested and the plan is to run the car at the UK RC Car and Bike Speed Championships being held at Shakespeare County Raceway, Long Marston near Stratford Upon Avon on 12th and 13th of September 2009.

Although the shell is still being built, here is a picture of the chassis of the rocket car still in development.

The car still needs to be finished but I am hoping the first few runs will get me over 100mph and with further development over the 200mph mark.

Nic has a head start on me but he is now getting to the limits of speed an electric car can achieve so I am hoping I can leapfrog him and be the first to 200.