Loopwing toy car runs on wind power

We're big fans of both alt-power and silly toys, so Tamiya's latest kitcar, the Loopwing, pushes all our geek buttons. The build-it-yourself kit car comes with its own windmill, and five minutes of charging in a five mile wind powers the three-wheeled racer for three and a half minutes. We have fond memories of building a Tamiya RC10 kit when we were kids -- hopefully the $30 Loopwing will inspire kids to think about windpower the same way our kit inspired us to think about taking apart everything we owned.

[Via TokyoMango]

[Kennyb123 @ Aug 31st 2007 11:22AM]

I'm not going to call shenanigans on this quite yet... but 5 mph wind for 5 minutes = 3.5 hours of run time? That sounds insane...

If it is really that efficient, than this next idea isn't really useful... but if that windmill was connected to a capacitor... it could be ready to charge the car at a later time even if there was no wind.

Thoughts?

[Kennyb123 @ Aug 31st 2007 11:27AM]

Okay... research done... Engadget, get your facts straight.

5 minutes of 18 km/h (11 mph) equals 3:30. 3 hours and thirty minutes? NO!

THREE MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS.

[hickhamt @ Aug 31st 2007 1:01PM]

WOW!!! sorry engadget... i check your site about 5 times a day... but i gotta say, PWNED!!!

[tchiseen @ Aug 31st 2007 11:29AM]

ruh roh someone didn't read the article before blogging it.

[LikesGadgetsWillTravel @ Aug 31st 2007 2:29PM]

And this surprises you, why?

[ak @ Aug 31st 2007 11:39AM]

The rechargeable vehicle runs for 1-2 minutes for each 5-10 minute of charge, according to this post. Also has a video.

http://www.transporttrends.com/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=1569

[David @ Aug 31st 2007 11:41AM]

Another correction:

it's a Team Associated RC10 kit car. ^_^ Unless you grew up in Japan.

I'm a hobbyist.

[LikesGadgetsWillTravel @ Aug 31st 2007 2:36PM]

That seems like about 15 minutes of fun. For 3500 Yen = $30... that's $120/hr. You could get one of those mini-RC racers Geeks and friends sold for $5 each, and stack up a pile of batteries.

Not a toy. Demonstration, maybe.

[StaffordshireBT @ Aug 31st 2007 3:30PM]

David, nice call on the Team Assoc RC-10. Hey remember when speed controllers had servos with wiper arms?

[bigbrainblue @ Sep 3rd 2007 12:28AM]

RC10 is NOT a Tamiya. It's from Associated. Tamiya had the Hornet and the Frog which were also very popular.