Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Full-scale Model Vehicles and Scaled Down Vehicles

Matchbox cars the size of real ones; real cars the size of matchbox ones
 
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A scale model is often smaller than the real thing. Matchbox cars, Dinky toys, Tonka toys or whatever appear at a cursory glance to resemble real vehicles quite closely but clearly they lack engines, electrics and often even working doors, and are only partly made of the same materials. I suggest these models be scaled up to real vehicle size and placed in the likes of car parks, garages, roadsides among their real counterparts with arrangements in place with the appropriate bodies such as councils, traffic wardens, car park authorities and the like.

From a distance, these vehicles will look real. As one approaches them, however, it may or may not become clear that they are to some extent fake due to the likes of perspex/plexiglass windows, General Lee-type doors and plastic tyres, or on the other hand a casual passerby might not even notice. I probably wouldn't. It would be interesting to see how accurate or not the models are compared to the real versions, and add a surreal quality to everyday life. Moreover, to a very limited extent the models would be functional, because they might actually be mobile to some extent. Scaling them up, however, would probably also introduce problems such as weak axles, soft tyres and transparent plastic becoming translucent due to exposure to sunlight.

In the meantime, the vacancies created by scaling up the models could be filled by tiny functional scaled-down vehicles made of authentic parts and materials on a minute scale. I presume these would have to be either electric, hydrogen or LPG-powered, since I imagine either diesel or petrol would be too viscous to function. Such models must correspond to real such vehicles rather than liquid fuel vehicles with replaced parts.

I suspect that a fully-working scaled-down model of a vehicle would be more expensive than a full-size version and that a full-size version of a model would be cheaper than a real version.

They would of course be fully insured and taxed etc. I'm interested in the legal and safety situation with both versions.

nineteenthly, Mar 08 2016

http://www.craftsma...seum.com/Chenot.htm //for practical reasons the engine cannot be run when mounted in the car// [pocmloc, Mar 08 2016, last modified Dec 11 2019]

I wonder what it runs on https://www.youtube...watch?v=SeUMDY01uUA
[AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 13 2016]

[link]






       How about 19:20th scale counterparts of actual vehicles?
You know, just small enough to look not-quite-right.
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 08 2016
  

       Oh yes, that'd be brilliant! Also, 20:19th scale.
nineteenthly, Mar 08 2016
  

       Some of the more extreme model engineers have built working scale model cars. The link is the only one I could find from a quick google; and it does not actually work itself though all the components do. I remember reading in one of my grandfather's 1940s or 50s Model Engineering magazines about a person who built a working scale model of an unexceptional production car chassis; the very simple 4 cylinder engine meant that it could be fully functional. I remember the embareassment that the cambelt was impossible to reproduce at that scale, and was replaced by a gear train, which meant that the dipstick (which passed inside the cambelt run) had to be replaced by a fake on the model. Everything else apart from that was entirely correct.
pocmloc, Mar 08 2016
  

       Also I don't know about motor-cars, but full scale model aeroplanes are built and used for film props. I imagine they are like this, they only have to look convincing at a distance.
pocmloc, Mar 08 2016
  

       I would expect the size of vehicle concerned there is near the lower limit of what can be done with liquid fuel, or at least with diesel or petrol. I would expect a smaller such engine to have to run on less viscous fuel, for instance because of carburettors and filters, and also that thinner fuel would have other implications. This is why I thought electric or gas-based motors would work better.
nineteenthly, Mar 08 2016
  
      
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