Real cars v rc cars

[El Gecko 1344]

You could call me a gearhead, and you wouldn't be wrong, but circumstances of life have forced me to refocus my energies--1:1 cars are too big and expensive with too many parts and too much to go wrong, kind of like nitro/gas RCs. Plus, I like variety and I would never be able to make enough money or have a big enough garage to house all the beautiful cars that have been made over the last century. I'm glad that Tesla and others have been making inroads into making viable electric cars, because I feel like once they really start to become commonplace, you will see people modding them out like RCs with higher power motors or batteries, etc.

[Badcrumble 4203]

I've told this story here before but I'll tell it again 😃. I'd had plans for a 1:1 kit car, Mrs BC liked the idea of a classic Mini (her first two cars were Minis) but el kid came along.

My boss got himself a Hornet for his 40th and the bug bit me. I could have so many 1:10s for what a 1:1 kit would have cost.

I've always loved cars and car design, my dream job as a kid was motoring journalist. I follow F1, watched rallying as a kid. I used to help my grandfather with 1:1 maintenance on his and my Mum's car. But I could never justify spending out on 1:1s and only got a garage with the most recent property. I'm 45 and my car history is Fiat Uno, Alfa Romeo 146, Ford Focus and Ford C-Max. I live my car dreams in scale!

[moffman 5752]

45 minutes ago, El Gecko said:

You could call me a gearhead, and you wouldn't be wrong, but circumstances of life have forced me to refocus my energies--1:1 cars are too big and expensive with too many parts and too much to go wrong, kind of like nitro/gas RCs. Plus, I like variety and I would never be able to make enough money or have a big enough garage to house all the beautiful cars that have been made over the last century. I'm glad that Tesla and others have been making inroads into making viable electric cars, because I feel like once they really start to become commonplace, you will see people modding them out like RCs with higher power motors or batteries, etc.

Yeah I totally understand how a car works but I just don't have the interest in 1:1 cars it's just strange that I find rc cars absolutely fascinating to build and a lot of rc car components are the same as 1:1 but obviously miniature? As for Tesla vehicles they just sums up why I find a 1:1 car unappealing they look completely boring and stupidly expensive? But each to their own if we all like the same things in life that would be strange!

[markbt73 5316]

I like 'em big, and I like 'em little, and I like the little ones either RC or just made to look pretty on a shelf. And I'm onmivorous in my tastes: I'm just as likely to go nuts over a beat-up old Honda CIvic that happens to strike me as cool as I am a brand new Corvette. I cherish my time in the garage with the real cars, as well as workbench time with the RC and static models. I do sometimes wonder if my love of cars has lasted because I never did make it a career; it has always been "I want to" and not "I have to." (Though even for the three or four years I was working in a garage/filling station, I was car crazy.)

One thing that people do find odd about my vehicle preferences, 1:1 or RC, is that I don't care at all about going fast. I like to wring a car out on a back road, and I love the feel of running it up through the gears, but I have no desire to make it faster, or seek out higher horsepower cars than I already have. The "slow car fast" mentality has always worked just fine for me.

And I think there is probably an upper limit to the number of cars I would want, again, both in the RC world and the 1:1 world. If I had money and garage space, I could see having 5 or 6 real cars, but I wouldn't want to maintain more than that. (Sometimes the three I have feels like too many.) And I'm currently just about topped out at around 25 RC models. There are a couple more that I really want, and then I think I'm probably done buying.

[Wooders28 4723]

I loved 1:1 before I loved RC.

Seemingly, I used to sit by the front bay window of our house, which was on a steep hill, on bin day, and wait for the turbo whistle of the bin lorry going up the street, we left that house when I was 3.....

I've found most RC racers are car guys, or have an interest, guys that work at the sharp end of F1 teams, Motorcycle racers and even Cecil Schumacher was a gearbox engineer for Cosworth!

Strangely though, on road RC I have no interest in!?! 

Although, my interested has dwindled over the last 2 decades or so, as new cars are just.....samey and meh🤷‍♂️? 

I had a discussion with a mate who works in a Car manufacturing plant, and we've cone to the conclusion, that cars have lost their , unique appeal (?), since they've been designed on a computer, tap the same numbers in, you'll get the same answers.

It's a sad sad day, when a car manufacturer puts speakers in the exhaust, to make it sound right..😢

I still have a 69 1000 mini, 81 1276gt, 81 TransAm, and 2 diesel dailys.

 

[mud4fun 1696]

I have had a 1:1 vehicle project on my drive pretty much since I was 16, most of them being classic Series Land Rovers (currently have 3 on the drive and in workshop), have built a few from bare chassis. I have also built a 4.6L V8 Defender (boingy), a 3.9L V8 110, part restored a 2.6 straight six Rover SD1 and have rebuilt more engines than my kids can remember.

Not sure this has anything to do with RC cars though, my Father was a mechanical engineer and owned his own engineering business so I grew up immersed in engineering. The wages in engineering was dire compared to IT so I switched career from engineering to IT, earnt twice as much for half the hours. If you can program a CNC machine it was not that difficult to move to programming IT systems. However I found IT boring, soul destroying and the stress was high. To compensate I bought old classic cars to restore. The 'getting hands dirty' physically building mechanical things is a great antidote to IT stresses and I love spending a few hours in the workshop with an angle grinder and wire cup brush removing rust from an old axle case.... 

RC cars is just a cheaper more convenient way of doing engineering that can be done in the house, in the warm and with minimum mess. However I have enjoyed them since aged 11 when I got my first RC car for xmas, a Tamiya Sand Scorcher. I enjoy driving them most of all.

 

[El Gecko 1344]

1 hour ago, moffman said:

As for Tesla vehicles they just sums up why I find a 1:1 car unappealing they look completely boring and stupidly expensive? But each to their own if we all like the same things in life that would be strange!

My hope is that Tesla or similar will make an electric conversion kit, so I can drop it into my dad's MG (or some other beautiful old car). Style meets functionality.

[El Gecko 1344]

40 minutes ago, markbt73 said:

I like to wring a car out on a back road, and I love the feel of running it up through the gears, but I have no desire to make it faster, or seek out higher horsepower cars than I already have. The "slow car fast" mentality has always worked just fine for me.

Amen, brother.

[Wooders28 4723]

1 hour ago, El Gecko said:

My hope is that Tesla or similar will make an electric conversion kit, so I can drop it into my dad's MG (or some other beautiful old car). Style meets functionality.

Yep, there's a company in Wales, that'll do the conversion kits for your classic, or do the conversion for you. Some of the cars they've done are stunning!

 

https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/

[Saito2 6686]

1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

I don't care at all about going fast. I like to wring a car out on a back road, and I love the feel of running it up through the gears, but I have no desire to make it faster, or seek out higher horsepower cars than I already have. The "slow car fast" mentality has always worked just fine for me.

And I think there is probably an upper limit to the number of cars I would want, again, both in the RC world and the 1:1 world. If I had money and garage space, I could see having 5 or 6 real cars, but I wouldn't want to maintain more than that. (Sometimes the three I have feels like too many.)

The old adage "its more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow" fits. My first Foxbody Mustang was all about going faster. My second and current uses a stock 90,000 engine. Its slow by todays performance standards but had adequate power to keep up in most situations. All the work went into stiffening the chassis and improving handling without increasing NVH. In many ways, one of my first cars (the one I learned stick on and forever will be driving a manual until I expire), an 4cyl Pontiac Fiero was perfect. It was dog-slow but great fun to toss around the twisties. My non-sunny day driver is a base Chevy Sonic hatch with a 5 speed. Its all I really need in many ways.

Before my wife, I frequently had over 10 cars. Now the limit is 5. Even 5 cars can be too hungry, sucking money from wallets. They need insurance, oil changes and tires and that adds up, not to mention keeping them washed and waxed. I would love to get rid of some but the ones I have mean a lot to me so which "kid" do you sell off?

[Problemchild 2149]

I’d have thought if you like messing move 1:10 mechanicals then you’d be into 1:1 mechanicals

i love cars and I’m an engineer which was driven by childhood playing with RC

my 1:1 fleet is become more RC (electric with too many remote controls)

and my play thing I’ve owned and worked on since 2007 

[Blista 1519]

I think people just see one part of your personality and interests and assume that's something to talk about.  I'm sure my nephew has outgrown his dinosaur phase but I'll never know until I ask.

I like 1:1 cars, both modern and classic, but everything that goes along with them is too exhausting (excuse the pun).  Space, time and money are the main considerations, however I also can't stand the muppets you end up dealing with.  Cars attract some really good guys but also a lot of idiots and shady characters.  Know-it-all blowhards on the various forums (especially if you dare look at the off-topic politics threads).  Thieves and vandals.  People who act aggressively towards cars that aren't their brand of choice or whatever the problem is they perceive.  Kids who want to race you at traffic lights.  Disreputable workshops and parts suppliers.  The list goes on.

[ACCEL 2014]

One is bigger than the other

[t3garett 268]

I only got into rc cars because when my son was born my wife forbid me to go into the garage or to partake in any of the rallies that season (2013) so my copilot bought me my first rc car ... a tamiya tt01. But my real hobby is this :    

[ACCEL 2014]

8 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

But I could never justify spending out on 1:1s

It's the Fargin registration and Insurance, i know, i use to own up to six cars and trucks at once, now down to three. and went through twenty two through out my life.

I build homes and pop's was a mechanic so hand packing bearings was a staple in my childhood i never work on other peoples cars, but i've done every possible repair and maintenance on all my own. Newer cars are nothing but job security, thank goodness for the www.

 

[t3garett 268]

And building these !

[t3garett 268]

And building roll cages !

[t3garett 268]

And doing ralliés with silly mechanical joke t shirts 

[TurnipJF 9192]

In my younger days, when I could spend hours on my back on cold concrete, or bent at funny angles in an engine bay without feeling significant discomfort afterwards, I rather enjoyed wrenching on full-size cars. I restored a Morris Minor, converted a Beetle into a Baja Bug, did all of my own maintenance, worked as part of the pit crew in a small Formula Ford racing team, did a bit of amateur off-road racing myself, etc.

However nowadays, I am more than happy to engage my car interests on a smaller scale, sat in the warmth on a comfortable chair in front of a desk or table, spending less money, pulling fewer muscles, getting fewer cuts and bruises, etc.

Oddly, even when younger, I never followed full-size motorsport all that much. Apart from the Formula Ford team that I was actively involved with, I didn't follow any other teams or championships all that closely. I still enjoy watching motorsport when I am in the mood for it, and that ranges from Formula One to monster trucks, but I wouldn't be able to tell you the names of the top drivers or the current championship standings in any full-size race format off the top of my head.

[t3garett 268]

A last one of my pride and joy : 

 

[Wheel_Nut 322]

I always found that 1:10 scale models were a lot easier to store.   The other benefit is they don't need registration or insurance.

[berman 5315]

I have two 1:1 toys (and a nana car to get me the 70k's to work and back), but I spend all my play money on RC, so the 1:1 toys are getting no love. Also time is a major issue. I can work on RC after the kids go to bed if I feel like it, my 1:1s are noisy and can't even get right down the driveway or into the garage, let alone doing that without waking the kids😄

[Mad Ax 9312]

I've been a petrolhead for my entire life.  My parents would probably say my first word was "car".  At age 8 I could recognize almost every make and model of car in the dark by the shape of their headlights.  That was back in the 80s, when you could look at a car's headlights in the dark without having your retinas burned out.

I told my parents I wanted to be a mechanic (I must have been 6 or 7) and they were pretty angry about it, telling me I should do something less strenuous and better paid.  My dad did physical jobs all his life so I suppose he was trying to save me from that.  In may ways they were right - my current job pays well and now I'm with the right company the stress is low and the work is good (if a bit lonely right now while all the offices are shut).  But maybe if I'd stuck with my guns and studied hard I could have been an engineer at a race team instead of a minimum-wage wrench dog in a back-street garage - they're both mechanics, right?

Anyway, I grew up in a rural area so I had my first dirt bike when I was 7.  At age 11 I started competing in motocross, although I was very small for my age and when you're a kid, everything is graded by age - that meant I had to be on a big bike with the big boys, and I didn't really have the strength for it.  I crashed - a lot!  My competitive spirit hadn't really developed at that age either, I didn't race hard and always finished in the bottom 5.  I gave up after a year but always missed the excitement of being on track.

I always knew I wanted to play with big cars.  I grew up on American movies, always loved the sound of a V8, would still love an American muscle car.  But my income never supported my ambitions, when I was old enough to take out loans I did just that, filling my parents driveway with various wrecks.  I ended up in heaps of debt with nothing but rusted metal to show for it.  I had some nice-ish cars but nothing I could ever afford to maintain.  I got into motorbikes too, I actually did some fairly cool ratbike builds, but in the end I sold everything to try to pay off some debt.

When I got into RC in the mid-00s, I realised it could give me that desire to tinker, that urge to have a huge fleet and that refusal to settle on one thing, for much less money and space.  So I ended up with a huge fleet of RCs.  During that time I still had some interesting 1:1s - my Primera GT was easily the best all-round car I ever owned and probably the best-handling mid-size car I've ever driven, my Mitsubishi FTO GPX was way more practical than it had any right to be and made me feel like a prince when I was driving it, but just didn't have the power it deserved, my Mazda MX-5 was superb fun and unbelievable reliable (apart from the dreaded rust) and if I had space and funds for a third car and it wasn't so impractical for kids then I'd have another.  I had a few motorbikes but in then end I downsized.

Now we've got a bargain-basement diesel runabout that the wife has personalised with a variety of scrapes and dents, we've got my Nissan Elgrand camper that I converted myself and still seems to be going strong after many years, and I've got my GSX-1400, which is almost completely standard - it was my dream bike when they first appeared on the market so it's something of an adult goal to have one in my garage now.  The GSX and the Elgrand both represent the longest I have ever owned any vehicles in a state of roadworthiness and I've no plans to sell either any time soon.

There was a time when I got really bitter about it - the year my wife got pregnant was the year my workmate bought a '79 Camaro Z28 for a bargain price.  I hadn't really thought about it but when I looked at our finances, we could have afforded it.  Seriously dude, we could have had some classic Yank muscle parked on our drive and not noticed the cost, but my wife wanted a baby instead.  So while he was out changing 10" wide Coopers, I was stuck at home changing nappies.  It took a long time for me to let go of that bitterness.

As for motorsport - I've always enjoyed watching it but found TV coverage to be too hit-and-miss to really get into it.  I watched a few F1 seasons religiously on BBC and then ITV, and took out the F1 package when Sky got involved, but the cost just got stupid - I was paying a huge amount of money just to watch some overpaid hoorays race around in circles for an hour every weekend, so I pulled the plug and haven't looked back.  I'll watch the odd race re-run on youtube, race highlights, driver interviews and the like but I don't really follow any motorsport now.  Often I just like having it on in the background if I'm working.

In the Before Times, a local friend was converting a BMW Mini Cooper S to do hill climbs and time trials, and it was fun helping him out with that.  To be able to do the work in someone else's garage and come home when the day is over was so much nicer than having to work in my own space.  He had a few income problems so the project got shelved, but hopefully if we can return to some form of normality in the next decade or two then we'll actually get it finished, tow it to some hill climbs and go racing.

[moffman 5752]

11 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

I loved 1:1 before I loved RC.

Seemingly, I used to sit by the front bay window of our house, which was on a steep hill, on bin day, and wait for the turbo whistle of the bin lorry going up the street, we left that house when I was 3.....

I've found most RC racers are car guys, or have an interest, guys that work at the sharp end of F1 teams, Motorcycle racers and even Cecil Schumacher was a gearbox engineer for Cosworth!

Strangely though, on road RC I have no interest in!?! 

Although, my interested has dwindled over the last 2 decades or so, as new cars are just.....samey and meh🤷‍♂️? 

I had a discussion with a mate who works in a Car manufacturing plant, and we've cone to the conclusion, that cars have lost their , unique appeal (?), since they've been designed on a computer, tap the same numbers in, you'll get the same answers.

It's a sad sad day, when a car manufacturer puts speakers in the exhaust, to make it sound right..😢

I still have a 69 1000 mini, 81 1276gt, 81 TransAm, and 2 diesel dailys.

 

That's the problem I have at the moment🤔 my 1:1 car I've had for 5+ years I bought it almost new 5 month old just so I could run it service it to give me no problems! Which as it goes has worked perfectly I've had no trouble at all but now it's done over 180,000 miles (still going good) but I'm now probably banking problems so it's time to look around and it's like you just say.......samey and meh??? I did go on a little scout around a few days ago but after 2 dealers I got bored and went to the golden arches for a burger then went home!.🙄

[YGBSM 14]

I love 1:1 cars, love the driving experience and working on them.  Been through many phases including Jeeps, American muscle, and BMW M cars.  Did road courses and driving schools for about 15 years.  I've had a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T for 21 years: