Kyosho Fazer D2 FZD2 Nissan Silvia S13 Tuned

The kind of vehicle the maker sells it as. It sets what the car is built to do and which cars it is fair to compare it with.

• Drift cars are set up to slide through corners on hard plastic tires, with the rear wheels turning faster than the front or driven alone.

Only the rear wheels are driven.

• Modern drift chassis are mostly rear-wheel drive and use a steering gyro to hold the car at an angle through a slide.

A brushed motor carries current through carbon brushes that rub on the commutator.

• It is cheaper and smooth at low speed.
• The brushes wear and the motor loses power over time.

Ready to run: built at the factory with the electronics installed.

• Some come without a battery or charger; the maker's box contents say which.

The maker's nominal size compared with a full-size vehicle. It works more as a class label than a measurement.

• A 1/10 monster truck is far bigger than a 1/10 touring car, so compare length and weight for real size.
• This one is 483 mm long.

The maker's product number for this exact version.

• A V2, a new color, or a kit instead of an RTR usually has a different number, and parts can differ between them.
• Check it against your box or receipt before ordering parts.

The small gear on the motor shaft. Fewer teeth gear the car shorter: quicker acceleration, lower top speed and a cooler motor. More teeth do the opposite.

• On this car one tooth changes the gearing by about 4.2%.
• A bigger pinion loads the motor and ESC harder, so check the maker's gearing chart and feel the motor temperature after a run.

The large gear the pinion drives. A bigger spur with the same pinion gears the car shorter.

• Pinion and spur must have the same pitch, or tooth size, to mesh.

Spur teeth divided by pinion teeth: the part of the gearing that a pinion or spur swap changes.

• Here it is 3.500:1.

The pinion sizes the maker lists for the stock setup.

• Going larger than the maker's limit gears the car taller than the motor and ESC are meant to run, which risks overheating them.
• The Target pinion calculator shows what each size does to speed.

Whether the front axle is driven by the motor.

• Unpowered wheels can have tire dimensions but have no motor-to-wheel gear reduction.

Whether the rear axle is driven by the motor.

• The calculator uses this axle's own tire size and complete recorded gear path.

This axle is unpowered and has no motor-to-wheel drive ratio.

Every reduction after the spur, multiplied together: transmission, differentials and axle gears.

• It is fixed by the design; the gearing you change is the pinion and spur.
• This one is worked out from the tooth counts the maker publishes.
• On a belt-driven drift chassis it takes in the pulley ratios as well.

This axle is unpowered and has no motor-to-wheel drive ratio.

How many times the motor turns for one turn of the wheels. A higher number is shorter gearing: more acceleration and pulling power, less top speed.

• Among 1/10 drift cars in the catalog, the middle half run between 7.7:1 and 10.9:1 on stock gearing; this one is 9.1:1.
• Drift cars are geared for fine throttle control through a slide more than for top speed.

How the driven axles are connected.

• The coupling has not been established from a source. It is not inferred from 4WD or from the axle differentials.

The outside diameter of the mounted tire, tread to tread. A taller tire covers more ground each turn, which gears the car taller.

• Drift tires are hard plastic and barely change size as they wear, so the gearing stays put.

The outside width of the stock tires on both axles.

• Width and outside diameter are separate measurements; neither is the wheel's bead diameter.

Stock wheel offset: A documented stock wheel, tire, or axle measurement. Stock dimensions alone do not establish the largest size that will clear the body and suspension.

This axle is unpowered and has no motor-to-wheel drive ratio.

Distance at the rear axle per motor turn through its recorded gear path.

• This follows the listed gear reduction and tire diameter; it does not account for tire slip or deflection.

Brushed motors are commonly described by can size and turns. No motor KV is published for this vehicle; turns alone cannot supply an exact value.

The highest LiPo cell count the maker rates the electronics for.

• The maker does not publish it.

The stock servo that steers the car.

Overall length as the maker states it, usually with the body fitted.

• Useful for comparing real size, since scale labels are loose.

Overall width as the maker states it, usually with the body fitted.

• A wider car is more stable in corners and harder to roll over.

Overall height as the maker states it, usually with the body fitted.

• Useful when checking it fits a shelf, a bag or a car trunk.

The distance between the front and rear axle centers. A longer wheelbase is steadier at speed and over bumps; a shorter one turns more tightly.