RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

This question maybe has been discussed before, but I like your view on this matter any why.
When you building/renovating a vintage car to become a runner/race car.
Where do you draw the line using new parts like wheels/motor or/and fabricating new parts? Is it still vintage if you are keeping the old design or with you one design?

This question is so subjective that I suspect that after a 1000 post thread there will be no consensus

I'm no expert, but I'd say that if it is a runner using modern running gear is not a problem at all. I don't see the point of running NiCds when there's better more readily available technology around. In terms of crazy powerful brushless motors though, there's good reason not to run them if they will strip every single gear in an old gearbox

As for radios, well there's a good reason to go for an older one on something vintage, and that's coz the vintage car will look cooler with the long aerial

A shoe answer... When do you have your feet planted in some vintage leather shoes? If you add some neon shoelaces that some of us used to kick around in back in the eighties, some would say cool, others ugly - still vintage shoes, but no doubt an unoriginal hop up. New era true soles? Yeah well, as my glittering sense of subjective opinion would whisper - still vintage. New leather? I would now definitely wear a pair of retro shoes – not vintage... I think you will get as many answers as there are members – and maybe more as we change our mind as the thread evolves

I've gone back and forth many times on what I wanted an updated vintage car to be. I definitely use modern electronics. I see no reason not to. Everything is so much smoother. It doesn't mean go crazy fast in motor though. The car is what I consider vintage. I got caught up in the what's old is new concept and strangely enough have just reverted my RC10 back to nearly stock but with 2.2 wheels. Go figure. To me changing everything was trying to turn the old car into something it isn't, new. I've basically settled on a vintage runner/racer being an older car design that has adapted to allow modern wheels and electronics with the important part being that the car itself is still fundamentally old in design with the same basic original geometry.

Hcp22 wrote:This question maybe has been discussed before, but I like your view on this matter any why.
When you building/renovating a vintage car to become a runner/race car.
Where do you draw the line using new parts like wheels/motor or/and fabricating new parts? Is it still vintage if you are keeping the old design or with you one design?

For me, that's actually a very compelling question. Considering my own cars, I would say the Zebra Optima is pretty much 'vintage'. Other than titanium turnbuckles and modern ESC & battery, the rest is pretty much period-correct. The other two cars are so heavily modified, with parts from more modern cars and fabricated parts, that I couldn't call them 'vintage' anymore. But the bottom line is, they're still Optimas and the chassis' are still distinct and recognizable as Optimas.

Coelacanth wrote:

Hcp22 wrote:This question maybe has been discussed before, but I like your view on this matter any why.
When you building/renovating a vintage car to become a runner/race car.
Where do you draw the line using new parts like wheels/motor or/and fabricating new parts? Is it still vintage if you are keeping the old design or with you one design?

For me, that's actually a very compelling question. Considering my own cars, I would say the Zebra Optima is pretty much 'vintage'. Other than titanium turnbuckles and modern ESC & battery, the rest is pretty much period-correct. The other two cars are so heavily modified, with parts from more modern cars and fabricated parts, that I couldn't call them 'vintage' anymore. But the bottom line is, they're still Optimas and the chassis' are still distinct and recognizable as Optimas.

Okay, you can’t call them vintage, but can you run them in a vintage race? Or would that be cheating?

I guess the question of what's legal for a "vintage" race car would have to be settled by the race organizer. For me, there are different levels of vintage-ness. On my Tamiya cars, I try to be as original as I can, because the re-releases sort of diluted them in my mind. My Blackfoot runner uses original hex-head rear axles instead of re-release Frog dogbones, because the original axles are, well, original. But my main RC10 runner, which was sort of "great grandfather's axe" when I got it (so many parts replaced it's hard to even tell what's original) I'm less strict about, but I still call it vintage because it's an out-of-production design. But then, I'm restoring an RC10T right now that is mostly original and will stay that way, and even use period electronics. Is that "vintage-er" that the others? Hard to say.

...but they're all more interesting than any boring old RTR...

There are vintage cars with modern electronics and there are vintage cars that have vintage electronics.

I can't blame anyone for wanting to have more power and run time, reliability, and spend less money....but it does IMO detract from a vintage car. That's why mine either had period correct electronics and hop ups or they don't have anything. Its a preference thing, and if I were going to run them it would be a different story

Something similar has been debated for ages with the Ship of Theseus paradox. It's kinda along the same lines as your question about what is vintage. I actually have no answer so I just do whatever I want. New parts on old cars, parts not meant for some cars on others, etc.

I can't blame for people wanting more power, ease of maintenance, and reliability either. People do it with 1:1 cars too, a 57 Chevy with an LS1 is still an old car...

The Ship of Theseus paradox… okay I see your point.
So is this a vintage car?

In that case, i'd say if the frame and sheetmetal actually came from Ford in the '30s, then yes.

To me that is a custom vintage car

Todd

That's not a vintage car, it's a hot rod. If the components used to build it were vintage and period correct pieces then it's a vintage hot rod. Otherwise it's a "replica".

Well, it depends on the hotrod!

Some are far too different to stock, or even largely brand new fiberglass bodied machines...

Other are proper vintage machines, I don't think many people would argue that a flat head powered, steel bodied hot rod isn't a vintage car. Something like this 32 roadster for instance:



I'd go further I'd say that if you were to shove in a period perfect 1955 Chevy motor, I'd argue it is a vintage machine even if the motor doesn't belong in a 32 Ford. Heck, even if you put in a far more modern 350 Chevy I'd argue that because so much of it is period then it is still a vintage car.

That particular 34 5 window coup you posted, I think it depends if it is steel bodied or not... If it is steel bodied then I'd say it is vintage as the rest of it isn't overly modern. OK the motor itself might be new, but it has carbs, and it may have discs up front, but it does have a beam axle. And it terms of style it is obviously done to look like a period racer.

This on the other hand is NOT a vintage car:



Even if it had a steel body the independent suspension, the no doubt fuel injected motor under the hood, etc, etc, etc... Makes it in my most humble opinion not in any way vintage