Official Redline Derby weight and car classes
Don't get hung up on the "official" label just yet...but here are the weight class and car class definitions that will be used in the future for all official RLD tournaments, including Fantasy League races. These shouldn't be anything surprising, we've been using them for a long time, we're just writing them down this time.
This list is still in candidate form and up for some debate and change. But at some point they will become the guiding standards.
The point of these is to create a common language that can be understood and used by everyone. These aren't rules that everyone has to follow, they're simply a tool to help guide creation and communicate more clearly. They're meant to be a foundation, not a set of limitations.
Weight classes
- Lightweight, Under 35g
- Middleweight, 35g - 59g
- Heavyweight, 60g - 80g
- Super heavyweight, Over 80g
Off the pegs, most cars will fall in the middleweight category. Few are heavyweight and u
Car classes
This list is intended to be very high-level and broad so they can be applied to any brand of car, not just Hot Wheels.
- American, American-made manufacturers (Ford, Chevy, Dodge, etc.)
- International, non-American manufacturers (BMW, Honda, VW, Jaguar, etc.)
- Fantasy, cars not based in reality (cars that look like animals, robots, etc.)
- Real world, cars based in reality (basically every car excluding Fantasy class)
Sub-classes will then be created within each of those top-level classes to make things more specific and challenging. The old fantasy league site has a good list of additional class examples. Classes for brand-specific things (like FTE) will be defined as-needed.
As mentioned above, these lists can be debated but they're not that complicated so there's not much to argue. We'll clarify if needed for sure.
Discussion
So, I'm gonna suggest different weight classes to make them more useful since we generally believe being near the limit is best.
In a non-scientific study bassed on how I sort my cars, 20 random metal top and bottom cars that are track able had an average weight of 46g and a median of 47g. Only one exceeded 60g
Of one plastic and one metal component, the average was 38, the median was 35. Only one exceeded 50g.
Assuming that's a fairly representative sample of the starting stock we all have, I suggest:
35g lightweight
50g middleweight
65g heavyweight
Then unlimited.
Otherwise heavyweight really takes some serious packing to get into or is very limiting in car choice and even middleweight requires significant additions for most cars.
Some other thoughts...I am new but it seems weight additions, while necessary, should maybe be for intelligent balancing rather than sheer mass which happens when you have to cram every little space.
Also, source cars are getting lighter. Mattel's current metal alloy of choice for bottoms at least contains lighter component metals than years past.
Thanks for the feedback and research. Maybe shifting the classes down a bit could help. But I have to keep in mind this scale needs to work for the fantasy league and mail-ins, so it's double duty.
Although I could see the heavyweight class being like 50g - 60g to slice things a little finer, but I'm not sure if it's necessary or gets us much. In the fantasy league, 45g+ was the "heavy" class, since less than 15% of cars weighed that much - it gave us more play room when setting tournament restrictions.
Looking at the archive of car weights from the fantasy league, more than 90% are under 50g. But based on the feedback for mail-in tournaments, if 57g is a sweet spot for mod racing so that's why the middleweight max is 60g. If upper-50s is best then it should be a limit to a class rather than somewhere in the middle.
There are absolutely no stock Hot Wheels over 80g, so super heavyweight doesn't even apply to stock tournaments. However, some of the funny cars do weigh in the 70g zone so those do fit within the heavyweight category as they should.
Hmmm...good stuff the think about.
I notice we tend to lean pretty heavily toward the American cars. I would like to see some more international thrown in for good measure. The Red Ball Rally should be good to mix things up. I'm working on three Porsches for that.