A remote-controlled (RC) vehicle has officially set a new world record, reaching speeds faster than an F1 car.
Built by Royal Enfield motorcycle engineer Stephen Wallis in his home garage, the custom-built, one-metre long ‘Mach Reaper’ tore down the runway at Llanbedr Airfield in North Wales, reaching a peak speed of 256.47mph (412.7 km/h). This broke the previous 234.71mph (377.73 km/h) Guinness World Record Wallis set earlier this year with the predecessor car, The Beast.
Wallis’ childhood interest in RC vehicles was rekindled in 2024 when he set himself the goal of building an RC car capable of breaking 200mph (321.87 km/h). At that time, the outright Radio Operated Scale Speed Association (ROSSA) speed trap record stood at 218.47mph (351.6 km/h).
Rather than taking cues from the vehicle that set that record, he found inspiration from the high-power motors that are typically used to power quadcopter drones.
With this idea, he started engineering his design digitally using Onshape CAD...