The Mini 8IGHT-DB is Losi's 1/14 four-wheel-drive desert buggy, sold ready to run with a Dynamite Fuze Mini 3800Kv brushless motor and a Tazer Mini waterproof speed control.
A 14T pinion drives a 60T spur on 73.7 mm tires, and Losi claims 30 mph or more. The printed transmission and final drive ratios disagree with each other, so they are left out and that claim cannot be checked against the gearing. The buggy is 335 mm long on a 223 mm wheelbase, so fit the smaller pinion Losi lists for 3S before you run that pack.
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.
Buggies are low, light off-road cars built for jumps and fast corners on dirt, clay or turf tracks.
Drive
All four wheels are driven. That gives more grip under power, especially on loose ground.
The cost is more parts to maintain.
Power
A brushless motor has no brushes to wear, so it makes more power and runs more efficiently than a brushed one.
It needs a brushless ESC.
Build
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.
Scale
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 335 mm long.
Part number
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.
Class
Buggy
Drive
4WD
Power
Brushless
Build
Ready to run
Scale
1/14
Part number
LOS01009
Drivetrain
Pinion
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 7.1%.
A bigger pinion loads the motor and ESC harder, so check the maker's gearing chart and feel the motor temperature after a run.
Spur
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.
The Gearing parts table below shows this car's pitch and part numbers.
Transmission & axle
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.
Spur ÷ pinion
Spur teeth divided by pinion teeth: the part of the gearing that a pinion or spur swap changes.
Here it is 4.286:1.
Final drive
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.
Pinion
14TStock
Stock
Spur
60TStock
Stock
Transmission & axle
2.66:1Derived
Derived
Spur ÷ pinion
4.286:1Calculated
Calculated
Final drive
11.40:1Stock
Stock
Wheels & tires
Tire diameter
The outside diameter of the mounted tire, tread to tread. A taller tire covers more ground each turn, which gears the car taller.
At high speed tires can balloon and grow, so the real gearing gets taller as the car goes faster.
Rollout
How far the car moves for one turn of the motor: tire circumference divided by final drive.
It lets you compare gearing across different tire sizes; more rollout is taller gearing.
Here it is 20.3 mm.
Tire diameter
73.7mmStock
Stock
Rollout
20.3mm per motor turnCalculated
Calculated
Power
Motor
RPM per volt with no load on the motor. Higher KV spins faster on the same pack; lower KV on more cells can reach the same RPM with less current.
On 3S (11.1 V nominal) this motor spins about 42,180 rpm with no load.
Under load the real RPM is lower.
Battery
The highest LiPo cell count the maker rates the electronics for. Each cell is 3.7 V nominal and 4.2 V fully charged.
3S is 11.1 V nominal and 12.6 V off the charger.
Running more cells than this risks the ESC and motor.
Many cars also run on fewer cells, only slower.
Stock motor
The motor fitted at the factory, as the maker names it.
Stock ESC
The electronic speed control. It feeds power from the battery to the motor as you work the throttle, and usually powers the receiver and servo too.
An amp figure in its name is normally the maker's continuous rating.
Set its low-voltage cutoff for LiPo, so a pack is not run flat.
Motor
3800KVStock
Stock
Battery
Up to 3SLiPoStock
Stock
Stock motor
Dynamite Fuze Mini Brushless Motor, 3800KvStock
Stock
Stock ESC
Dynamite Tazer Mini Brushless Waterproof ESCStock
Stock
Performance
Theoretical top speed
Motor RPM times rollout, worked out on 3S at nominal voltage with stock gearing.
It assumes no load, no battery sag, no wheel slip and no drag, so read it as a ceiling for comparing setups.
A GPS usually reads below it; the gap is load, battery sag, tire slip and drag.
Motor speed
The motor's RPM with no load: KV times pack voltage.
Under load it drops, which is one reason real speed is lower than the theoretical figure.
Advertised top speed
The top speed the maker claims.
Makers often quote it with optional gearing, a bigger battery or a fully charged pack, so read their wording before comparing it with another car's claim or with the calculated figure.
Theoretical top speed
31.9mph on 3SCalculated
Calculated
Motor speed
42,180rpm, no loadCalculated
Calculated
Advertised top speed
30mphMaker's claim
Maker's claim
Size & weight
Weight
The vehicle's weight as the maker states it.
The maker does not say whether it includes a battery.
More weight takes more power to accelerate and lands harder on the parts; it changes top speed very little.
Length
Overall length as the maker states it, usually with the body fitted.
Useful for comparing real size, since scale labels are loose.
Width
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.
Height
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.
Wheelbase
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.
Weight
1.13 kg (2.5 lb)Stock
Stock
Length
335 mm13.2 inStock
Stock
Width
208 mm8.2 inStock
Stock
Height
118 mm4.6 inStock
Stock
Wheelbase
223 mm8.8 inStock
Stock
How to read these figures
Stock is as the vehicle ships.
Calculated is worked from the stock figures on this page rather than stored beside them, so the two cannot drift apart.
Derived is worked out from gear tooth counts the maker publishes rather than printed as a ratio; the notes below say how.
The top speed is kinematic: an ideal no-load RPM with no slip and no loss under load, so a real car is slower.
The maker advertises 30 mph, which is their own claim on their own conditions.
Pinion and spur dimensions for the Losi Mini 8IGHT-DB: fitted, and optional gearing supplied in the box
Component
Teeth
Pitch
Bore
Fitted at the factory
Pinion
14T
48P
Not published
Spur
60T
48P
Not applicable
About teeth, pitch and bore
Tooth counts are the ones in the specifications above.
Pitch is given as metric module (Mod 1, Mod 0.8) or diametral pitch (32P, 48P). They are different standards and are not interchangeable, even where the numbers look close.
Bore is the pinion’s hole, listed separately from the motor shaft.
Losi's page and manual give a 14T pinion on a 60T spur with a 3800Kv motor and 48-pitch gears, and the manual's chart names the 14T pinion (LOS4114) as stock for the included Ni-MH pack, with a 12T pinion for 3S.
The page also prints a 2.47:1 transmission and an 11.40:1 final drive, but those two disagree (14T on 60T at 2.47:1 would be 10.59:1) and the manual prints neither, so both are left blank.
The tire is the 2.9 in (73.7 mm) outer diameter in Losi's spec table.
The page says the power system handles 2S or 3S LiPo packs, so the cell count is 3, and it claims 30+ mph.
Losi's 11.40:1 figure would put 3S at about 32 mph, in line with that claim, but the transmission ratio behind it is not confirmed.
Losi prints an 11.40:1 final drive, and with the manual's 14T pinion and 60T spur that works out to 2.66:1 after the spur gear.
The page also prints a 2.47:1 ratio that does not fit, so the final drive is used.
Sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these; where they disagreed, the note above says which was used and why. Links open in a new tab.
