Do your interests in model remote control cars lie in high speed, fast acceleration and magnificence of form? If this is exactly what you are looking for in a model car, then a model sports car is almost certainly what you are looking for. Authentic sized sports cars are a $4.5 billion industry with about 55,000 units being sold every year.
Sports cars and their model counterparts are manufactured as high performance machines, which means that they can be driven in ways that ordinary production line cars can not. For instance, in the case of a real sports car, it frequently takes no more than five seconds to go from 0 to 100 mph. Similarly in a model high performance gas replica, it often takes no more than two seconds to reach 60 mph from a standing start.
Because it is more tricky to manouevre a speeding automobile, sports cars and model sports cars are especially designed to handle best at high speeds. In fact, the word “sporty” was coined to refer to a sleek but robust design that exudes power. It was later personified to refer to the person behind the wheel or in the modelling world, the person at the remote controls.
The following is a basic glossary of sports car terminology and a basic list of sports car manufacturers (many of which have their counterpart vehicles in the world of model gas remote control cars).
- FF ? front engine, front wheel drive. The FF design has a medium capability for high speed handling and is seen in some models such as the Fiat Coup?, and the Lotus Elan M100.
- FR – front engine, rear wheel drive Considered the ?classic? sports car layout, the engine drives the rear wheels but keeps the weight off the back. The FR is good at drifting corners while still maintaining control. Mercedes-Benz is recognized for using this design for its models.
- RR – rear engine, rear wheel drive With the engine at the back driving the rear wheels, weight placement on a RR layout provides outstanding traction for a car. However, without auxiliary driving aids like stability control, handling becomes difficult. These days, the only manufacturer who keeps the RR layout for its cars is Porche.
AWD – all wheel drive An AWD design offers the easiest handling, making it perfect for those who are just starting to race sports cars. Audi started the widespread use of this technique with the Quattro. Japanese makers like Mitsubishi employed this layout to increase handling, making it an excellent rally car.
Because of more stringent restrictions in the United States, sports car manufacturers are more widespread in Europe than in America. Nevertheless, American makes are in equal competition with their European and Asian counterparts. Some recognized manufacturers and models are:
Alfa Romeo; Alpine; Aston Martin; Austin-Healey; BMW; Bugatti; Caterham; Davrian; De Lorean; Ferrari; Fisker; Jaguar; Koenigsegg; Lamborghini; Lotus; McLaren; Maserati; MG; Morgan; Panoz; Porsche; Triumph; TVR; Vector.
If this article has whetted your desire for a sports car, go out and buy one now, if you are well-off. If not, why not do the next best thing and get yourself a 1:8 or even a 1:5 gas-powered, remote-controlled sports car?
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the petrol remote control car. If you have an interest in model or toy rc vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars
Satellite Radio Technology
Thursday, November 11th, 2010Satellite radio technology is similar to cable or satellite television and it is certainly here to stay. There are several reasons for this: the quality of the transmissions is higher, the quality of the apparatus’s reception is higher and the general coverage of the station, that is to say the so-called satellite’s footprint is much greater too.
This has the effect that if you travel long distances, you will be able to stay with the same station without having to look for a new one every forty or fifty miles as you need to do with AM or FM radio stations.
In order to reach this quality, the recording and playback speed has to be around the 384 kbps level. The music tracks are catalogued in a comparable way to the MP3 system, which uses names called ID3 tags.
Each station on satellite radio endevours to create its own identity. A music station may try this by playing music only of one sort or from only one period or decade. This means that you might get a satellite radio channel called 1970′s Punk music or Twentieth Century Classical Music.
On some channels, the music controller or disc jockey will select, say, fifty minutes worth of music, will listen to it in order to ascertain that the quality and the order are correct and then let the computer play it over the airwaves. This allows ten minutes every hour for the news and then the sequence can be replayed automatically.
Satellite broadcasting uses digital recordings and each channel is encoded on a different frequency. Similarly, each decoder, say, in your car or your home needs to recognize and decode each channel separately as well. This coding and decoding is done very quickly, in fact in what is called ‘real time’.
The resulting binary or digital code is then turned into into analogue signals so that your speakers can replay it. This process produces sound which is just about of CD quality.
The transmitting satellites are in a geo-stationary orbit at 23,000 miles above the Earth and have a large footprint which is the name given to the area of ground that is capable of receiving their transmissions.
In America, for example, the two fields concentrated on at first were the densely populated east and west coasts in order to maximize possible income. One satellite would be incapable of covering the whole of the United States in that orbit.
In order to receive satellite transmissions, you will have to use a special antenna on your decoder. This antenna must be capable of receiving L-band broadcasts for it to be effective.
These new antennas are a big improvement on the parabolic dishes (similar to those used for satellite television) that one used to have to have in order to take advantage of satellite radio technology
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is currently concerned with Bose radio alarm clocks. If you would like to kcurrently more, please visit our web site at Bose Digital Radio.
Tags: comments, communications, current events, entertainment, equipment, music, other, product reviews, radio, recreation, reviews, satellite radio, Technology, Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »