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| The ducting feeds cooling air to the brake caliper. The billet blocks attached to the uprights were built by RMR to move the upper ball joint/spherical bearing inward to reduce the scrub radius and torque steer. Notice that the steering tie rod is perfectly in line with the upper control arm and its pivots line up with the spherical bearings that the upper control arms pivot on. This is eliminating bump steer as much as possible. The push rod is cut boxed and sectioned to avoid the front drive axle. |
To see the car in action is awe inspiring. We were privileged to attend the cars first test trials at the old El Toro Marine base. The P580 is so fast it is hard for the eye and camera to follow when you are in close proximity. The car’s engine comes on boost and it simply disappears, all 4 tires scrambling and clawing for traction. Seeing the car in action makes us really respect Rhys’s courage and car control capabilities as the car is a Beast! We shot many digital frames and minutes of video trying to capture the car. Our Pikes Peak action shots did not come out at all!
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| Like the Sierra Sierra EVO, the PM580 uses electric power steering for its light weight compactness and simplicity. RMR discovered that the electric power steering from an off road quad works really well and is inexpensive. |
Late breaking news. The RMR team was disappointed with the result, an 11:07 run that was hampered by a balky transmission control system. A glitch in the system resulted in a mishift and a spin followed by difficulty in getting the car restarted and moving back up to speed. During Rhys’s run, the mountain also got mad and dumped rain and snow on the upper part of the course.
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| The PM580’s front suspension is very sophisticated, easy to adjust and easy to maintain. |
However car showed great promise in practice and the time is pretty amazing considering what happened on its maiden run and the cars extremely compressed 4 month construction and testing time. The RMR team has a whole year to develop and perfect the car for the next event and it is going to be a major force to be reckoned with. We believe that the car will break the 10 minute barrier and go on to set a record that will stand for quite awhile in the Millen tradition.
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| This tiny 7 lb Braille lithium ion batter has enough power to operate this heavily electrically dependent racer. The black round things are the coolers for the differentials hydraulics. |
We would like to thank Rhys, RMR and Redbull for allowing us to putz around the RMR shop, graciously answering our many probing question about systems that many teams would consider top secret and following the team around on test days. The result is that you our readers get to see a close up view of this amazing machine like no other publication. I hope you enjoy and go on to support Rhys in his endeavors. The P580 will be back in anger next year and we predict records will fall.
Check out this cool video from Road and Track were Rhys takes you on a walk around tour of the car!
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