This is my newest racing teapot, which will hopefully first be raced in 2024 at the Portmeirion Steampunk event. This is the third year we have recreationally built racing teapots for the Portmeirion event.
The first year, we made a rather large single racing teapot, which was just a bit too cumbersome for the course. It was made from a big brass teapot bought from Facebook Marketplace, and also, now famously, caught fire at the side of the course, which we needed to quickly remedy. The second year we tried to race, my daughter and I made a couple of separate teapots, using the two remaining brass teapots from our Facebook Marketplace find. We used a couple of tracked robot chassis’ and basic brushed RC components to build our second and third racing teapots.
So why is my third racing teapot called ‘Sixty Four’? Well, we managed to find a few basic rc cars at a Smyths toy shop, which were 4×4 rock crawling models. They would be need to be stripped down to the chassis of course, and a suitable teapot found to be mounted on the top. I initially hoped this would help me get around the course at Portmeirion with a little more traction, however, upon closer inspection at home, it appeared that the bottom of the suspension held a fortuitous design.
Essentially, the chassis was a frame, and the front and back suspension systems both mounted to that frame. The front section held a motor, and the steering, while the back section just held a motor. However, where they connected to the frame was identical. So I hatched a plan, bought another car from the toy shop, and fitted my frame with two steering sections. I now had not just a motor and steering on the front, but a motor and steering on the back.
The rear section would need to have both the motor and the steering wiring reversed, but it would be possible to create decent four wheel steering as well as four wheeled drive. So that’s what I did, and it was honestly surprising. It worked really well, and its turning circle is now much smaller. It’s fidgety to drive, and leans more, but it will be interesting to see it on some of the more difficult bends in the course.
So, it’s four-wheel drive, and four wheel steering. 4×4×4 = 64 (Sixty Four).
So, that was sorted, but there were still a couple more issues to sort out. I needed a teapot to give it some character and to make it a teapot racer. As a wheelchair user, I also had to figure out how to navigate the notorious tunnel obstacle that I simply could not see through, and ultimately impedes my run every time.
So first off. I managed to find a camera system that I’ll be able to install, that will transmit to my mobile phone during the run. It’s one of those cheap action cams, but it has a Wi-Fi function. The only problem is, there’s a delay, which might leave me struggling. So, I am currently looking at a system suitable for FPV drones, that I can possibly use on a photography field screen. We shall see.
The teapot was the next issue. Being now fresh out of brass teapots, I thought about power to weight ratios, and how I might construct something to represent a teapot instead. It would need to be brass, but light enough for me to make a good run on the course. The solution I came up with was copper brake pipe. Unfortunately though, while I did manage to make something that looked excellent, it was too unstable (spring like). It’s included in the images below, and may appear at the event, just to show it off.
Just after I made this, and concluded it would not work, a visit to the Cancer Research shop local to us, yielded a lovely stainless steel teapot. While a lot of the designs for racing teapots are intricate, and Victorian looking, I cannot help but aim for that really clean look, so I bought it. I cut off the bottom to save weight, and height, and I attached this clean looking teapot to my chassis, using old bits of Meccano, and brass stand-offs. Giving that lovely brass and chrome look.
So ‘Sixty Four’ is now a stainless steel racing teapot, with four wheel steering, four-wheel drive, headlights, flashing lights ‘spoiler’, and if I manage it, a streaming HD camera. It’s likely not going to be my final offering to the teapot racing world, however for now, I am hoping this will give me a chance of doing moderately well on the course. Even then, we only do this for the novelty, and the opportunity to design something silly, not to win.
Emma.
