This is the first of what I hope to be an occasional series on the scale aspects of the hobby. Am I a rivet counter? Well, not much of one, really, not literally. I have counted how many rivets to put on a scratchbuild or two, but don’t go counting the little bumps on an RTR car.
One of the things that that attracted me to the slot car hobby is the idea of racing scale models. Scale models. Wing cars, thingies, and the like have never held any appeal, but seeing a little Lotus 49, or Chaparral running on the track is still. Thrill, even after so many years.
Which brings me to the “scale” part. A scale models is a rendition of the prototype. There are any number of compromises, aesthetic or engineering decisions which can affect how faithful a model is to the prototype, or how the model “presents”.
Two highly regarded slots car companies have released their own versions of the Datsun 510 two door sedan. Both outfits are well regarded for both their mechanicals and aesthetics. Two companies, two versions of the same car, in the same scale, yet they are markedly different. So what gives?
A little background. I have been a scale modeler for decades, and even produced scale figures for slot cars or a number of years, so I have a good deal of experience scaling things down, and translating between scales.
The first thing to do, if possible, is find a dependable set of measurements of the prototype. Here, we are in luck, ditch a set of dimensioned drawings from Nissan. We will be using four measurements: wheelbase, width over all, length overall, and track. We could be more exhaustive, but this should give us a decent basis for comparison.
Track is measured this case from the center of the wheels from L to R. The simplest way to measure this on a model is to take a measurement from the inside of one wheel, to the outside of the opposite wheel. This gives you the center-to-center dimension. Wheels and ride height are another matter, as they are different from the stock dimensions in the dimensioned drawing. I have it on good authority (a friend of Pete Brock) that the BRE 510s ran 13×7 zero offset American Racing Libra wheels.
Dimensions are as follows, prototype, and dimension scaled to 1/32.
Wheelbase: 2420mm. 75.6mm
Width overall: 1490mm 46.5mm
Length overall: 4120mm 128.75mm
Rocker to roof 1200mm 37.5mm
Track 1280mm 40mm
Wheels 10.3 x 5.58
So, let’s get started with the Revoslot 510.
Wheelbase: 76mm within 1%
Width overall 51.5mm Plus 10%
Length overall 125.3mm Minus 3.3%
Rocker to roof 34.83mm Minus 7.2%
Track 44.62mm Plus 11.5%
Wheels 11.4×8.2 +10%, +47%
And now, the slot.it 510 510.
Wheelbase: 79.3mm Plus 5%
Width overall 52mm Plus 12%
Length overall 130.2mm Plus 1%
Rocker to roof 37mm Minus 2.4%
Track 42.5 Plus 6.2%
Wheels 13.2 x 8.8mm +15%, + 57%
Okay, those are the numbers, but what do we make of them?
With the Revo, Wheelbase is spot on, but the body is at once shorter, and wider. The track is significantly wider, as is the height from the rocker panel to the top of the roof. It is unmistakably a Datsun 510, but the proportions are a bit off ; the overall impression is aggressive and “chunky”.
The Slot.it, on the other hand is pretty much oversized, but more accurately proportioned other than being very slightly too short from the Rocker to the roof. Strange, because it still looks quite tall compared to the Revo. The overall impression is maybe closer to the prototype car. The back end of the slot.it looks clearly closer to my eye, but the crisper detail on the Revo’s front end has the edge. The Revo looks better coming, but the slot.it looks better going.
It really ends up in subjective territory. I like them both, and I’m glad to have them. I can’t recommend one over the other.
I’ll leave driving impressions to others with more skill in that arena. But I am enjoying running both. My club, The Austin Slot Car Club has a Revoslot SCCA B Sedan series this winter (That’s group B to you lot across the pond) so I will be getting a lot more seat time with the “Chunky Style” 510 in the coming weeks.
Enjoy the ride!