Would you like to know what scale your RC car is? Here's the answer:
Scales in Radio Control
This post obviously isn't for those of you already deep in the RC world, because you already know why scales have those numbers, but there are many people just getting started or simply curious who don't.
Scales are always based on the scale model (RC) and the same model at full size! What we really mean when we say a car is 1/10, for example, is a division — if we take a real car (1) and divide it into (10) equal parts, we get the size of the scale (RC) model.
For this reason, the larger the RC car, the fewer parts the real model is divided into. For example, the old 1/4 scale was a real car split into 4, so if we lined up four 1/4 scale RC cars, they would reach the length of the real model.
This measurement is relative, and not always — in fact almost never — 100% accurate. What manufacturers do is build their models to the most popular dimensions and label them 1/10, 1/8, 1/5, etc., even though they aren't truly 100% to scale.