Grampian Radio Car Club

Okay guys, lets get the ball rolling. No date set as of yet but it will be shortly, hopefully towards the end of this month.

I'm looking for more people to step forward and join the committee. I'm happy to stand for chairman again but only if the club has a stronger committee behind it than it does at the moment. So I propose the following positions, if people can think of any other roles then feel free to suggest.

If you have a proposal for the AGM then please reply to this thread and I'll add it to the list of discussion for the AGM.

Club Positions
Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
PR Officer
Race Director

Proposals
1. Change motor ruling to 13.5T, bringing us more in line with the rest of the touring car world. Allow 10.5T with turbo timing advance disabled on speedos. Continue to allow brushed 19T and 27T.
(Amend: Change over to rubber tyres, allowing additive and warmers. Only the A finalists are really going to benefit with additive, many wont bother with warmers. Maybe force 10.5 to run 1500g whilst 13.5 to current limit of 1350)
Proposed Keiran Smart

2. I also propose we take on a junior representative to the committee. I do feel that younger members may feel a bit put off giving their opinions or ideas to us, so someone to voice the junior side of the club might help.
Proposed Keiran Smart

3. To get more involved in doing outside events, maybe approaching local school about putting a demo/have a go shot type event on.
Proposed Keiran Smart

4. Change format to 3 rounds of FTQ @ 4mins and 1 round of finals @ 5mins. Keep point system as extra point for FTQ.
Proposed Keiran Smart

5. Silver can class, allowing any car to take part
Proposed Keiran Smart + Chris Briggs (was his idea)

6. Multiple race directors. We'd need one overseeing race director and then a few others who could take over the running of the meeting if necessary.
Proposed Marc Baynham

7. Depending on the carpet, have the pitting area at the end of the hall where race control normally is. This will be better than having everyone spread out, and means its easier to pass on help.
Proposed Marc Baynham

8. PR officer role to be expanded to include "newcomer" coach role.
Proposed Marc Baynham

9. Club hire car. I've always been a bit wary of this idea as I don't want to take on full responsibility of having to maintain it week in and out along with my own car. However now with brushless and LiPo now might be a good time to think about it. Could charge £10 a meeting to hire it, so people don't feel inclined having to purchase the gear before giving it a proper shot. Theres lots of second hand chassis going about that would do the job fine too.
Proposed Keiran Smart

Hi Kieran,

Since my work is pretty hectic at the moment and I am about to start a major renovation of Brodie Manor, I will not be putting myself forward for any official role. However, I will help out when I can and will repeat the idea of getting a few of us together for a computer/race control masterclass at the first meeting so its not all on your shoulders.

Heres my thoughts :-

1. 13.5 is great. Not sure about running 10.5 alongside but if you guys think its comparible then I'm happy.
2. Good idea if you can get someone.
3. With racing indoor every fortnight, it might be too much to race inbetween for some (me), but not impossible though. Anything that promotes the club is great.
4. No problems with this.

With regards to point 1, if we are going to be moving towards the "norm" then we should be running rubber tyres, but surely we cannot combine both foams and rubbers in the same race due to the superior grip of foam? Is there no way we can have two series - 10.5 and foams, 13.5 and rubbers to keep everything seperate? I know this splits it up but its the fairest method.

Also, will 13.5 be adhering to the 1350g weight limit and 10.5 staying at 1500g?

I might see you on Sunday at Stoney if the weather is nice.

Keiran, Darren
A few things from me;
1) Instead of having 1 race director, I think we should discuss the possibility of having several, thus if one is not in attendance/has to make running repairs then another can take over. (I will volunteer to be race director).
2) Select 2 or 3 tracks, and stick to them for the season (i.e. round 1 is track 1, round 2 track 2.... round 9 track3 etc). With the new markers, we will be able to contruct the track fairly accurately each meeting, so this will help everyone see how they are improving each week.
3) Classes; I would like to see us make an effort to run off-road as there are loads of people who have these ars now. It would be up to the members regarding rubber/13.5T and foam/10.5T, but I think the primary class should be 13.5T/rubber, any speedo.
4) Allow additives. No reason why we shouldn't, after a few weeks the grip will be excellent. Also allow warmers, but to be honest there is no point using them indoors.
5) Depending on the carpet, have the pitting area at the end of the hall where race control normally is. This will be better than having everyone spread out, and means its easier to pass on help.
6) PR officer role to be expanded to include "newcomer" coach role.
Marc

Yea Darren, I meant to add rubber tyre in there as well. A 10.5 with no timing advance will be a fair bit slower than a 13.5T with timing advance. Obviously 10.5T vs 13.5T with no timing then I guess 10.5 will have the edge, maybe your suggestion of 1500g weight limit for 10.5 might be a good idea! I'd like to try not dilute the racing by having extra classes like that, try keep all the tourers together.

Chris and Dan have also been interested in doing a silver can class where you can run any car but has to be powered by a bog standard silver can.

Hi everyone, new year, new user name for me! (I forget the password and when ever I try to get it renewed it just doesnt let me!)

Anyway, I guess for all proposals then they will be voted at the AGM, so if you really want / do not want a change then the only way to do that is to turn up and vote, thus I must encourage everyone to attend when Keiran nominates the venue / time. One idea I had was to hire the hall, get some chairs and hold it in there, at the same time pulling the carpet out (it will need digging out I guess!) and change the carpet on the rolls to the new fancy stuff!!

I think all suggestions are valid, just a few comments from me...

If we are looking at rubber tyres, is it worth considering a control tyre?

The silver can class was purely to try and get one heat where it encourages those with less ability (like me!) to develop some racing lines without the speed - if the better drivers have time they can watch the silver can race and maybe point out where people are going wrong. Also the reports from down south are that this is always a close race and allows people to learn to drive close to each other (somethin which i just cannot do!). My proposal is any car, any tyre, but it must be a sealed motor - I guess equivalent to a tamiya sport tuned motor (these are £8 or something from MuchMore). I was looking at using my M05 mini and possibly getting an F1 - I know his was Dans prefference.

For offroad, I guess the tyre rule has to be foams as current as i dont think you can buy smooth rubber in the correct size and we cant risk damaging this expensive carpet we have just got!

Regards

Chris

Don't forget we also need to purchase one more 4m wide roll of Primafelt

you offering to pay dan boy??

Negative!

I think most of the proposals are fine apart from the reduction in racing, can’t see the point in reducing to 3 races as we have plenty of time, should increase it to 5 races plus a final. 17 minutes racing out of 4 hours isn’t worth the effort of getting to Inverurie or paying the entrance fee. Neither is trying to race a silver class (whatever that is) or an off road race.
Most of the kids only have one car and if they don’t race they will leave and without youngsters coming through there won’t be a club.

PS what on earth is turbo timing and FTQ, does anyone speak English anymore!

Sorry if I'm being dumb, but there isn't any reduction of racing is there? Currently we race 4 rounds at 3mins. The suggestion is move to 3 rounds at 4mins and 5min final. Giving us a bit more flexibility, the hardest part is getting people on the track! Not only that makes it a bit easier to adjust to the length of the final. To run 5 rounds of heats we'd have to run non-stop with no gaps which isn't encouraging safe charging of cells.

I think a silver can class is actually a great idea. Forcing people to run the same motors where there is no tuning options leaves it to the driver to make the difference. This allows people to learn to drive their cars properly, without the risk of an unguided missile in the lower heats destroying their car. Plus the motors are under £20 and to be honest with a good set of thumbs behind it could probably still challenge for a A/B final spot.

FTQ - Fastest time qualifying, so quickest race time,
Turbo timing is the new fandaglded software on speed controllers allowing pro-stock motors to rev a lot harder and reach speeds not a mile away from mod motors.