Tuesday, October 21, 2014

1:9.4 Scale


When we talk about RC cars and how real they are, there are many limitations that result in a scale. but is it 1:10 scale or 1:9.3 scale?


Different manufacturers of RC bodies play all kinds of tricks to make the cars look realish. Three of the biggest players, Yokomo HPI and and Tamiya have very different views on RC bodyshapes.


Getting the cars to be the "Right" size always comes back to the wheelbase. so should you get a 250mm M chassis or a 290mm L chassis? Well, that depends on how crazy you and your friends are about scale.


But there's all kinds of other things that make a car took longer or shorter , wider or narrower than it should.

Here are three toyotas that contrast well.

RC Wheelbase is around 260mm.
RC body width is around 180mm and with an over fender perhaps190mm


The 1/10th scale ABC Hobby Toyota Supra MA70 is about as close as you will get to 1/10 scale.

MA70 Wheelbase = 2596mm 1/10 = 259.6mm or 260mm is almost spot on.
Width of the Supra = 1745 which relates well to the 175 or 180mm wide bodies 

While the Yokomo Droop AE86 is almost spot on 1/9th scale.

Why 1/9th lets have a look.

AE86 Wheelbase is 2400mm. to get that to 260mm from 240 mm requires a 20mm or 10% increase in size. the 1630mm width also requires the 10% increase for 1/10 size 180mm shells.

The Mark II JZX100 is at the other end of the scale at about 1/10.5th scale

JZX100 wheelbase is 2730mm, so to reduce this down to 260mm the result is 1/10.5
the 275mm wheelbase RC shells are a result to get this body to the right size.
so the 2730mm JZX yokomo shell on the 275mm chassis is exactly right. 1/10


Here is a basic rundown of different cars and their ultimate scale.

I have calculated width also,but as width can be adjusted by fenders or manufacturer size, I'm just going to concentrate on the 257~260mm wheelbase in this comparison.

Body              Actual          RC        SCALE

Nissan

GTR34 2665 260 10.25
GTR33 2720 260 10.46
GTR32 2615 260 10.06
R31 2615 260 10.06
C110 2610 260 10.04
C10 2640 260 10.15
S13 2474 257 9.63
S14 2525 257 9.82
S15 2525 257 9.82


Mazda  
FC3s 2430 257 9.46
FD3s 2420 257 9.42


Toyota
AE86 2400 257 9.34
ZN6 86 2570 257 10.00
MA70 2596 260 9.98
MA80 2550 257 9.92
JZX100 2730 260 10.50
JZX100 2730 275 9.93




 So these two cars represent a very very realistic view.

a widebody D-Like ZN6 on a 257mm chassis and a 275mm MarkX are pretty close to 1:10
they are also quite narrow in their manufacturers interpretation of scale measurements so the results are good.



however you look at it. Scale is in the eye of the beholder. I don't see much relationship between my Fd3s and my RC HPI FD3s with Stage D 205mm widebody kit. Or do I?

1 comment:

  1. That's a nice list of rc drift bodies that are close to real car sizes! I was "googling" about it and found this 2014 post :D

    ReplyDelete

Got a question or a comment. It doesn't hurt to ask.