RC10L vs RC10LSS - which would win?

[j.costick]

As it says really.

I understand the L is a 235mm car, and the LSS is 200mm? So what does am extra 35mm make?

[V12]

The narrow car has less drag and therefore slightly higher top speed. But the wider car is more stable and have more downforce (with the same type of body) so could corner faster, overall faster laptime.

[Phin]

The 35mm doesn't make anything by itself, and you'd need to define more variables like whether you're racing oval or road coarse; Stock or Mod motors; how many battery cells; etc. etc. before you can answer which car would win and lose.


Way I see it, with pan cars being so light, downforce is pretty important to putting the power down onto the track, and if a narrow body has enough downforce to keep the car's power planted then it will go faster in a straight line because it produces less drag. However the faster you want to go (i.e. faster motors + larger batteries) the more downforce you'll need to stop the pan car from lifting off the track, and that'd make a wider body more beneficial.

Though then you'd also have to consider things like larger batteries will add more weight to the car, and faster speeds will need longer distances (tracks) to reach, and a better driver to control.

[markbt73]

The narrow cars came about for "superspeedway" racing, on big banked tracks like Lake Whipporwill in Florida, or bicycle velodromes. Very high speeds, very long races, the RC equivalent of Daytona or Talladega. Aerodynamic drag does come into play at those speeds, especially when endurance racing on those old 1200 and 1700 cells; if you could go longer before having to pit to change batteries than the other guy, maybe make one fewer stop, that was a huge advantage. Since there was a rule about maximum width, but not minimum, they decreased the drag by narrowing up the cars.

On a smaller track or a roadcourse, there probably isn't much difference.

[j.costick]

Nice piece of history, thanks...

I guess 1/6 more body width obviously gives 1/6 more downforce.
I'll have to weigh both together also...

Thanks

[V12]

For oval racing the narrow car might be really better because of lower drag, but for onroad racing it is an disadvantage. At the 1996 Onroad worlds wide and narrow cars had been used by Associated and the HPI team and in the end the wide car was faster for both teams.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

The one I'm not driving.