Top 3 Kyosho Le Mans motors

[coxbros1]

Yup, my new order too!

[Coelacanth]

This topic has generated some fun discourse. It seems there are 3 avenues for how people would choose their top 3 Le Mans motors: 1) Performance, 2) Rarity, and 3) Appearance.

You can't argue with the 360PT and 600E being a holy grail for some guys because those motors are bloody hard to find. The 600E was maybe only bought by guys with road cars or airplanes, and when most buyers saw the RPMs, figured "bigger must be better" and passed up on the endurance motor. I doubt many people bought it separately, I imagine most of those few 600E's were in airplane kits.

The 240S, 480S and 480T were just so damn gorgeous with those red, blue and green anodized endbells...anybody collecting Le Mans motors had to have those in their collections. There were a sh!tload of motors back in those days, covered in neon puke colors and for me, the Kyosho Le Mans series had such a classy look that made them stand out from the rest.

For me, looks and performance have to go hand-in-hand. I'd never sacrifice one for the other, but if you can get lucky and get both elements in one package, Job Done. That's why I still stand by my original choices of 240SB (top performance) and 480S and 480T (gorgeous with bearings and adjustable endbells)...and the Gold variants as honorable mentions. I'd add the 240S because that red anno is gorgeous too.

[coxbros1]

Nice rightup! One thing, the 240s, 480s, 480t have colored endbells but unfortunately they are not anodized aluminum, just the front plates. Only aluminum endbells were the gold series motors, 240sb, and the spas.

[rippen]

I remember when the 480 gold first came out, for me it was a must have along with the 240S

[R6cowboy]

I never previously had any of the vintage Kyosho Le Mans motors, but I just did purchase another Futaba FXT stadium truck with a 480 Gold motor. So very glad about that.

[Snaab9-2]

I found something cool in the Rocky manual that is missing from my Raider manual (I am trying to get some more speed out of the Raider). When looking at the gear ratio options, the Rocky manual breaks down many of the LeMan's motors and how fast they are (based on whatever data they used). Pretty cool! Thought you guys would like to see this:

Page 29
http://www.dirt-burners.com/rcdox/Manuals/Kyosho/Kit%20manuals/1-10th%20scale/Electric%20powered/3103%20-%20Turbo%20Rocky%20%28EN%29.pdf

[juicedcoupe]

To save time:

[Coelacanth]

I don't find that chart that helpful...all it does is show spur-to-pinion gear ratio as a function affecting speed and run-time. The more teeth your pinion gear has relative to your spur gear, the higher your max speed will be...and lower your run-time will be. What isn't shown--at least directly--is the effect on temperature; the hotter motors back in the day needed fewer-teeth pinion gears or they'd generate too much heat. A motor that drains your 7.2V NiCad battery in half the time as another motor will generate more heat, hence the need for smaller pinions.

[juicedcoupe]

At least it gives a suggested gearing range for each motor. I suspect that chart would have been helpful for someone who is uninformed.

[Snaab9-2]

What was really interesting to me was how they stacked the different motors against each other vs some of the dyno testing that I have seen.

[Coelacanth]

It's kind of odd which motors were included in the chart, all of the 480's are missing, for example...but if you simply focus on "speed", you have to factor in that the more powerful motors are shown with increasingly higher final drive ratios, so that doesn't necessarily indicate they're slower. It's not the most intuitive chart.

EDIT: I don't suppose anyone has the internal gear ratio specs for the Kyosho Rocky? I'd like to update my gear ratio calculator spreadsheet if I had that info.

[coxbros1]

i dig the chart....it shows the 360gold as a broad torque monster....but as Coel stated not all variables are there...as i know for a fact that a 360gold is a ripper too!
It left the GOAT...the 480gold!

[TheDiamondOne]

No chart is complete without everyone's favorite motor, the honorable 480G!

[Coelacanth]

I think the problem I have with the chart, regarding any usefulness in motor selection, is that it doesn't limit one variable, the pinion-to-spur gear ratio. The chart is trying to be a kind of graph but the changing gear ratios at the top pretty much invalidates it. If all the motors were rated for speed & run-time, with all the same gear ratio, it would be a more valid chart, a more apples-to-apples comparison.

The 360's are indeed torque monsters...they are a 550-size can, of course.

[juicedcoupe]

I read it as recommended starting points for those motors (fairly popular ones) in that particular car.

With the selected gearing, the chart depicts the range of results that the end user should expect.

I never read it as the "end all" comparison of those motors.