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While scrolling evilpay, I happened to stumble on something I wasn't looking for and that immediately caught my attention: a CO2 engine RC car designed by famous Luigi Colani, a German industrial designer.

Here is a short extract from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Colani):

"His long career began in the 1950s when he designed cars for companies such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen, and BMW. In 1957, he dropped his given first name Lutz and henceforth went by the name of Luigi. In the 1960s, he began designing furniture, and as of the 1970s, he expanded in numerous areas, ranging from household items such as ballpoint pens and television sets to uniforms and trucks and entire kitchens. A striking grand piano created by Colani is manufactured and sold by the Schimmel piano company.
His unconventional designs have made him famous, not only in design circles, but also to the general public. He has received numerous design awards, although his unconventional approach has left him largely an outsider from the mainstream of industrial design."

He is namely reknown for his work on race cars and aerodynamics. Here is some of his work on cars:







This one is my all time favourite:









His virtual museum: http://www.colani.org/luigi_colani_Product_design_museum/Home.html

Quite special indeed, I think most people either love or hate it. I personnaly like it a lot as it really departs from anything else existing in the design area. It's also so typical from the 60's and 70's.

So I stumbled on the auction that had a low starting price and placed a low ball sniper on it. Afterwards, I looked for more information on the web and there was actually not much to be found about these cars.

A YouTube video showing the screaming CO2 engine: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3VlMEQf6-0I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

A TamiyaClub gallery of a new built one: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=2649&id=313

An eBay auction at a ridiculous price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Hitek-CO2-Colani-Design-Racing-Car-kit-NIB-NOS-From-1985-Not-Tamiya-/151541696530?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item234896c812

I have read somewhere that only 100 kits were produced, but wasn't able yet to cross-check the info. These were produced in the mid 80's (probably 1985) in Switzerland by a company called HYTEK, which I had never heard of so far. The car features a real ball diff, many aluminum parts, some being anodised red, a C02 engine that is quite unique and of course the awesome 4-parts aerodynamic lexan bodyshell, the moulding quality of it being up to teh Swiss standards. I will have a real hard time not to build this kit, and in fat as I will turn 40 pretty soon, I thought it would be a nice self-present to build it I was already thinking of customising it by anodising some further parts and use chrome vinyl on the wheels
Anyway, here is a first batch of pictures:

The same company also produced these apprently:

A hop-up to lenghten race times:



As well as a non RC car kit that is quite cool (from this Tamiya gallery: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=48823&id=7854):





If anyone has more info/history about HYTEK and what they used to produce, I would love to read it!

Those look crazy cool

Now I'm really trying to make up my mind and decide whether to build it or not? These things seem to be quite uncommon and I couldn't find any info about the Hitek company anywhere. It is mentionned somewhere on the web that only 100 of these kits were produced, but I have difiiculties to believe it as the serial number on mine is way off the other ones I've seen so far. Part of me wants to keep it NIB, but there's also that little devil whispering "build it, build it!". What would you guys do?

in this case you don't need to build it but want to. I'd go with your gut and I'm thinkin your gut is saying your wants outweigh your needs .

Todd

Made up my mind and decided this thing was meant to exist and not live in a box, so I went ahead and opened up the intriguing kit. Instructions were less than complete especially as I barely understand a few words of German. Drwaings are scarce and uncomplete which didn't help either. In the end it took me two full days probably to bring this little gem to where it stands now. I spent countless hours fitting the lexan lower body, massaging here and there, filing, cutting, derusting, sanding etc. It was definitely worth the effort and enjoyed the guessing and understanding of every step; the kit really demands some Swiss precision and is built and designed like a clock. No wonder you get tweezers included in the box!



The rear end is quite simple, regular ball diff with treated steel axle mounted on bushings that are serrated into the rear pod plates.
One of the pains of teh kit is that you cannot mount the wheel covers without the wheels actually mounted on the axle, each wheel cover requiring no less than
tiny little screws!



The front end is bolted onto the chassis rails using four nuts that secure on each part 2 steel blade control arms that act as a front suspension.



This is as far as you can build the thing before securing the lower body to the chassis, otherwise it doesn't fit in no more. That was non-builder friendly gfor sure



A bit further...



The steering linkage wasn't an easy step either!





No onto the CO2 engine. The system is quite basic: a micro cylinder goes up and down in an alloy cylinder body where the CO2 is released through a micro pipe. The cylinder is connedcted to a crankshaft that in turn rotates a first gear connected to a second one fitted with a weight, using the inertia principle. The shaft of that last gear is also the one where the outer small white nylon gear is connected etc. The cylinder headcap is bolted and when slightly opened when unscrewed, releases the pressure inside the head and moves the cylinder.



This thing even uses a disk brake as a stop-and-go system since the pressure from the CO2 cartridge is constantly released! Note that the clutch parts are not to be used and oonly used for the smaller CO2 car kits.







Finally looking like something real! I plan to wire it up in a next step, just need to find some period electronics. Probably some ROBBE elements...

That is too cool! Looks awesome! Glad you decided to build it.

Cool

SFC K wrote: That is too cool! Looks awesome! Glad you decided to build it.

Me too! Seeing the actual car come together gives us ALL a chance to enjoy such an odd, off-the-wall RC car! Looking at a box and parts in baggies? Not so much...

Good job, that certainly looks like a challenging build, as it's so unorthodox.

This kit is definitely a RC freak specimen of some sort, the more I look at it the more it intrigues me. Especially because there is so few info about them. Then the fact that Colani was part of this and the fact that it features a CO2 engine delivering, according to the instructions, a 70N force is just the cherry on the cake.

I imagine you'll probably keep the body clear, but I'd LOVE to paint a body like that. It's too cool!

I'd missed this one. Very cool! Cooler than my Air Jammer Road Rammer...

.

I stumbled on pictures of the original car this model is directly inspired from, now I know how it could be painted. Quite a concept car!

Any updates? I recently acquired one myself and am curious to see how it turned out.