CARWOW GETS IN THE ACTION WITH THE DUTCH DRONE GODS AND THE FASTEST CAMERA-EQUIPPED FPV IN THE WORLD.
Just the other day we brought you one of the coolest pieces of content from the brilliant Red Bull media team, adding to the reasons why we love Red Bull so much. The creative team there do some of the most amazing things off-season or between races with most of the professional athletes that are part of the massive Red Bull team. The last content we showed you was amazing in every way. A year back the team came up with the idea of following the new Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 Formula One car with a first-person drone. The problem was that while the various FPV drones on the market are fast and can be piloted at speed for short bursts, none of them had the speed or battery power to keep up with an F1 car, especially one driven by a three-time World Champion over a long distance. Red Bull commissioned Dutch Drone Gods with the task of following Verstappen around the iconic Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, and the company used its drone expertise to create a brand new drone that was more suited to the task at hand. The new drone was initially created and built at their Eindhoven workshop and it showed that it could do what was needed, but the weight was a little more than needed, so the design was taken to the Red Bull Advanced Technologies team which is the high-performance engineering arm of the Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. Here the new drone was improved on, the F1 techs did what was needed to help the DDG-designed drone work as needed by manufacturing lightweight aerodynamic fairings and structural motor mount arms, a process that helped reduce the total mass of the custom-designed drone by approximately 10%. The new lower weight helped increase the acceleration and top speed of the drone and also ensured the batteries would be able to last for a long lap of the racetrack at close to its maximum speed. The result is the world’s fastest camera-equipped FPV drone with the ability to reach 300 km/h in as little as 4 seconds with an unbelievable top speed in excess of 350 km/h
With the whole segment filmed in the UK, it makes perfect sense that the drone would have caught the attention of one of the country’s biggest automotive YouTube reviewers, Mat Watson of Carwow fame. This clearly sparked an idea for some different testing that the Red Bull chaps didn’t do. Some of the channel’s most popular videos feature heads-up drag races where the world’s fastest cars are pitted against each other to see which is fastest over the usual quarter-mile distance, and sometimes even further depending on the cars chosen to do battle. We already know the drone from the Dutch Drone Gods is stupendously fast, and that it can keep up with a Formula One car in the wet, but Watson added in one of the fastest EVs in the world to the drag race challenge, a Tesla Model S Plaid. This version of the Tesla is rated at a whopping 760 kW with a monstrous 1,420 Nm of torque, but it does weigh over 2 tons. The main difference with the Formula One car used in this test is that it’s the RB8 from 2012 and not the new RB20 that was used in the Silverstone lap. The RB8 has 560 kW from a Renault V8 and weighs just 1,379 kg. As per the circuit drone footage, the weather was typically cold and wet UK weather, so the conditions weren’t 100% ideal, but at least it was still a level playing field for all concerned. Well two of the three anyway, the DDG FPV drone wouldn’t be affected by the wet surface and lack of traction that the cars would. The pilot chosen to get in the RB8 was another Formula One legend, David Coulthard, so we’re guaranteed As per the original testing, the all-new FPV drone was piloted by Ralph Hogenbirk from Dutch Drone Gods, a.k.a Shaggy FPV. While the drone is the smallest competitor in this drag race, it is the fastest if you look at the numbers and should be the clear winner. Should be - but you never know what happens on the day. No matter what happens, at least one thing is guaranteed, there will be excellent footage of the proceedings.
Take a look at the YouTube video from Mat Watson and the Carwow crew as they also test the capabilities of the world's fastest FPV drone from the Dutch Drone Gods. This time round the drone and Shaggy FPV's skills are pitted against a Tesla Model S Plaid and the retired RB8 Red Bull Formula One car. We're sure the drone will be the fastest thing ever "tested" by Carwow, but have a look for yourself: Tesla S Plaid v 200mph F1 Drone: DRAG RACE | carwow
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