ShadowAu

iTrader: (7)

... and why are we stuck on the whole 4 door sedan thing?

This might sound like a "who cares" type question, and there are certainly bigger issues in RC at the moment... but this thought occurred to me today after reading a thread on the muscle car classes that are starting to be run. It lead me to explore the HPI site and the amazing collection of 200mm bodies available.

I admit I am not a touring car fan... I am a dedicated Le Mans/ALMS/Sports car lover and while creating copies of the prototype cars is not really feasible, there are many 200mm versions of Ferrari's (360 and 430), Corvettes, Saleens, Lambos etc etc.

So a few questions for those that have bothered to read this far -

1 - Why don't more people want to race these sorts of cars? They certainly look far more exciting than shoe boxes with wings, and for most people probably don't handle any worse,

2 - Why was 190mm decided as the width for electric cars?

3 - Why hasn't 200mm been accepted or suggested as the "standard" for 1/10 4wd Cars? It certainly seems to work for Nitro cars.

STLNLST

iTrader: (32)

4 doors in the real worl is a sedan and 2 doors would be a coupe. As for the other issues......maybe someone from Roar can chime in on this.

corallyman

iTrader: (101)

Maybe instead of asking this questions to the masses of people who have already invested heavily into 190mm stuff since the beginning of the class roughly in the mid 90's, why don't you encourage HPI to make the "exciting" bodies in 190mm.

Steve

PS, we don't need anymore stinkin classes or dividing the few people at the races into more catagories of cars.

tony gray

iTrader: (7)

190mm I understand was chosen as a 'compromise' It wasn't exactly 1/10th scale (relative to the chosen wheelbase) but for most cars it was close enough.

Having been involved in the production of r/c bodyshells, I can tell you that even 190mm is too wide for a 'scale' car.
The few that I've done we've had to widen to fit a 190mm chassis. To get them to fit on a 200mm chassis they need to be widened even further.

Basically it all spun off what Tamiya did with their original sedans because that's where Touring Cars started essentially.

We may as well go to LeMans or sports cars now because to call most of the current crop of shells '4 door sedans' is stretching the truth a long long way....

Centerline Racing

iTrader: (47)

Its called evolution...Heck, I can't go down to the local car dealer and buy a true NASCAR based vehicle the way it was in the 70's and 80's.

corallyman

iTrader: (101)

Tony,

With all do respect, who cares if we are not perfectly into scale deminsions (sp). The cars are sold in huge numbers, switching them into a smaller size would be even more wrong than making them bigger so they fit one manufacturers bodies. Leave things alone and concentrate on the bigger issues.

Steve

PitNamedGordie

iTrader: (8)

I know what you are saying but...

1. Full scale Corvettes per say race in the GT1 class, not in a touring car class.

2. I think that 190mm is "closest" to 1/10 scale width. (Corvette Z06, 75.9 inches wide = 1927.86 millimeter/10 = 192.8mm; Mazda Speed 6, 70.1 inches wide = 1780.54 millimeter/10 = 178mm)

I think a 190mm Corvette body would be cool to race but then we wouldn't be racing touring cars.

ShadowAu

iTrader: (7)

I agree with that last comment Tony... I was at the QLD On-road Titles last year and I saw a Mazda 6 body that had such a small cabin and such a long boot deck that it was starting to look like a Pagani Zonda

Guys I am not actually suggesting changing the rules or suggesting we split things up even further... I know we are "forced" to run these 4 door bodies but my query was do people actually LIKE running 4 door sedans?... are there people like me out there that think the idea of sports car bodies are cool... like corallyman says if enough stand up maybe the companies will give us more options

I will add however that, IMO, the current rules we use to govern bodies in 1/10 electric racing no longer reflect their original intent which was to be a scale reflection of full scale touring car racing.

tony gray

iTrader: (7)

You got me wrong Steve.. I was merely explaining why they started out as 190mm (and have continued along that line) I certainly wasn't pushing for them to made narrower.

As is fairly obvious to most people I'm really only interested in Minis anyway!

Although as an aside, one reason I like Minis is because they do look like real cars. Something a lot of the current crop of Touring Car shells don't do very much. But that's not necessarily anything to do with the width, it's a whole new can of worms!

corallyman

iTrader: (101)

Tony,

Thanks for correcting me. For the record this is a small sore spot with me. I used to run my cars in front of my house many, many years ago because there were no tracks around me any longer. I craved to go racing. Over the years it became obvious to me why the cars changed the way they did. They needed the downforce to run the speeds they do.

Today's TC's are no different, I was asked to run in a 3 hour enduro with a Porsche 911 body, that was the hardest race ever for us. BTW we were the only team running that type of body, everybody else was using "real handling" bodies. We were giving up a ton. Anyways my point was sometimes the bodies don't resemble the cars that they are called. To a scale guy that might matter, to a racer who just wants to have fun racing hard against others then lets just be happy with what we have.

By the way I do happen to like the looks of the HPI Saleen body and at the appropriate time it would be fun to run them at some smaller local races for a change of pace.

Steve

corallyman

iTrader: (101)

Do you know that because of the similarities of the RC bodies and the full size bodies and also the names like "Stratus" some full size manufacturers have asked for huge royalties from the RC companies. I say it just doesn't matter much to me at least, if we are not carbon copies. What if the bodies went from 25.99 to 65.00 to pay for these exact copies and the royalties involved. No thanks.

Steve

ShadowAu

iTrader: (7)

I'll say it again...

This post is NOT about questioning the rules or trying to imply that they must be changed just because I, personally, like something different... or saying that people should be willing to pay more because I would like to see a "Brand X" body....

Its about asking people if they have any similar interests and a little bit of fact finding about some bits of RC that I'd never really considered before today

If you don't have an interest thats fine, you are entitled to your own interests... If my posts have misled you in anyway then I appologise... if its because you have some sort of chip on your shoulder then thats NOT MY problem

Syber Serulean

iTrader: (28)

yeah i too have wondered why nitros are 200mm and electrics are 190...and have often wanted a cool looking body that was available for a nitro but not an electric, though the DNA 2 seems to have qualmed me. I like how it kinda looks like a "super car" to me. :P

and damn, corally, calm down. The question in the subject line of the thread is "why" and an answer should be "this is why..." and not some rant.

Superkarter

iTrader: (2)

I think nitro is 200mm because of there high center of gravity. They need a wider track to be more stable.

Team Ash

iTrader: (22)

I for 1 would love to race with some different bodies ie more sporty types. If you search around you can find some like the saleen mustang in 190mm.
I dont have any now because I cant afford to waste money on something I cant race.
Terry