- Who
- Owen Kuwayti, Tobias Mikkelsen, Shiven Patel, Ishaan Batra, Ryan Lee
- What
- 116.40 kilometre(s)
- Where
- United States (Palo Alto)
- When
The greatest distance by a battery powered remote-controlled (RC) model car on a single charge is 116.40 km (72.33 mi) and was achieved by Owen Kuwayti, Tobias Mikkelsen, Shiven Patel, Ishaan Batra and Ryan Lee (all USA), in Palo Alto, California, USA, on 26 July 2021.
Tobias, Shiven, Ishaan and Ryan are all high school students who are interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
On the day of the attempt, the team faced several hiccups: the first issue occurred when the aerodynamic body for their car cracked and began dragging on the ground, causing them to have to stop and remove it from the car, increasing the drag on the car by an unknown amount.
They reduced the speed of the car to compensate but were forced to re-estimate how long our battery would last for the attempt.
Next, one of the components connecting their wheel to the car failed not once, but three separate times, using all of their spares for that component and forcing us to switch the entire wheel to an extra that they just happened to have brought with them.
Finally, the field in the middle of the track they had reserved was kept open for public use and they had several near misses with joggers and errant footballs.
"It was a long and eventful day to be sure, but it is certain to be one we will look back upon fondly", they say.
Despite all of the hiccups, the team's hard work and resilience paid off.
