OWIKit Air Powered Racer

After watching the video produced by my favorite hobby shop Everything Hobby in Rochester MN about building the OWIKit Air Powered Racer, I just had to purchase one there and build it. Jason that is featured in the video warns you this is an advanced build that could take several hours to complete. I thought it would be a fun challenge which it was, and somewhat different than other project kits I have assembled. On my http://www.ideas-inspire.com website, the project that uses water pressure, the Syringe Hydraulic Arm has been one of the most popular; the air powered racer would give me the opportunity to work with air pressure.

OWIKit Air Powered Racer

Air Gauge

 Looking at the contents of the kit, there are many plastic pieces and also tiny O-rings. Everything fits together and some parts are secured with tiny screws. I purchased a high-quality Philips screwdriver from the hobby shop which really helped in the assembly. The instructions consist mainly of drawings with very little text; at times it just wasn’t too clear how parts assembled, this require some trial and error fitting. 

Testing the Valves

The part that gave me the most trouble was getting the tiny O-rings in the check valve portion to seal properly. This is a spot in the construction where you must test what you have assembled by pumping it up against an air pressure gauge which is part of the car to see if it will move the gauge at least a certain amount, mine failed this test miserably. Jason helped me with this but I had to do additional fitting of the O-rings to get enough pressure.

These O-rings were a Pain Also

Total construction time was probably around the 4 hours that Jason estimated. I pumped the car up but could never get it to the high pressure indicated in the instructions. It did function and could power itself but so far has not gone as far or fast as the car Jason assembled. I did try replacing one length of included red tubing with model engine fuel line. This was a really tight fit and the car still seemed to be leaking. I tried putting soap where the tubing attached but really couldn’t detect any bubbles. 

I really feel a sense of accomplishment that I was able to assemble the car but a little disappointed that it doesn’t function better. No doubt I will take another look at this in the future, just getting a little too frustrated with it now.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com

Everything Hobby Video of Air Racer