Super Grand

At the 2005 Nuremberg Toyfair Doyusha announced two 1/87 radio controlled passenger car models, a Nissan Fairlady and a Nissan Skyline GT-R. The first models have appeared in the shops in the meantime and apparently these models are not made by Doyusha themselves but by a Chinese company called Super Grand.

- July 2005, Albert Prats' first impessions of the Super Grand Nissan Skyline model:

Today I have tried my Nissan Skyline. The first static impression is excellent. The body is well detailed and proportioned and the paint is quite good. Front and rear lights are made with independent parts made of white and red transparent plastic. 'Skyline' is engraved in the boot lid and the 'Nissan' shield and 'GT-R' logo's are printed on. The same goes for the foglights and the third brake light.

The tires are made of rubber and have a detailed thread pattern, the rims are simplified, with a flat black background painted to simulate the holes between the spokes. The glazing is made of clear brown plastic that doesn´t hide the electronics. Some people would probably have preferred a black glazing but in my opinion that would make that the model look too 'solid'.

The control unit is equipped with two yellow lights that function like turn-signals, when you turn the steering wheel, the light on the side you are turning to switches on.

So far so good, but is it a 1/87 scale model ?

It's dimensions are 52.5 mm x 21.9 mm, the real car is 4.600 mm x 1.785 mm which would be 52.8 mm x 20.5 mm in 1/87, so it is really close to 1/87 !

Ok, everything is perfect as a static modelcar but does it really run ?

After inserting the 2 AAA batteries in the commander we put the modelcar into the charger (in the top of the control unit), push the charge button and the process begins. A red light indicates that the car is being charged, total charging time is about 3 to 4 minutes. Once the loading has finished we place the car on the desk and just push the trigger on the control unit !

As expected the non-proportional R/C makes the car run too fast to be driven in a layout or even on a desk. A flat surface is quite important to avoid bounces but despite the rubber tires a surface with some grip is also needed. In some days I will build a track made on a cork platform painted with the Faller carsystem asphalt grey. On this surface, absolutely flat, the models will have better traction. The total running time for the model was 4 minutes, then I had to charge the batteries again (3 minutes 34 sec). Now I will test the Nissan-Z and hope the control unit for this one works.

Additional information:
The control unit supplied with the Skyline model was malfunctioning, the model would not make left turns. This was caused by contact points not making the required contact in the control unit. Fortunately I have been able to repair the commander.