Summer Drive

[_4-0_]

Chris is gonna love seeing this thread when he gets back from Kidderminster but....

When and Where's the Summer Drive???id="size5">[]

[fatboyslim]

Yeah when is it??

I couldn't get to Kidderminster due to a serious lack of funds!!(being unemployed doesn't help!!)

[minijosh]

I'm with you guys. Instead of going to the Spring drive, that's being held in the summer time, I need to go to the Summer drive which will be held in fall I bet. HAHA RC FOOLS!!!!!!!!!! While you are racing your vintage cars and breaking them, I'll be with my in laws down in Stonehenge. How exciting. I love seeing rocks.

[_4-0_]

Dazmeister suggested this location for the summer drive.

http://www.team-mrt.com/brct/map.htm

Dead near dover so some of the EuroTC massive can get tempted over []

[minijosh]

Oh I'm loving the on road track.

[fatboyslim]

Looks pretty good and as you say very close to Dover so maybe some of our Euro friends could get across.

Problem is won't I need a passport to go that far south and wouldn't the language barrier cause a problem??

[ChrisB]

That looks like a nice on road track for sure and very handy for me living in SE London / Kent.

The only downside I can see is that it is a very long way to travel for anyone coming from much further north than the Midlands.... still, where there is a will there is a way.[]

Chris

[Muddybaldboy]

I'm in, whenever, wherever[]

[mr_pushrod]

I'm well up for one as well, must remember to bring suncream this time though!

[Behemoth]

There is no way i'm driving the truck to there. It was bad enough driving from Liverpool to Kidderminster on the Saturday, then on to Thame on the Sunday and then home to Liverpool on the Monday. 300 miles plus round trip, setting up and stripping the tent down twice and over 9 hours on the motorway.

Stuff that, I will see you when your next in the midlands, or how about a northern meet??

[fatboyslim]

I hear what you're saying!! Dover is 206 miles from me, twice as far as Kidderminster!!

I think this is another reason why Kidderminster was the final choice as it's pretty much central!!

The good news is there are 3 good on-road tracks also in that sort of area

Bedworth-Between Nuneaton and Coventry

Tibshelf-Near the M1,Sutton-In-Ashfield

Ashby de la Zouch-The track is actually in Moira

Just a few ideas!!

[jozza]

Kidderminster is 196 miles from me, twice as far as Dover [].

Having said that, I agree that Kidd is probably one of the best locations possible, as it's central to most people. The only problem with Dover is that it's a long haul for those coming down from 100 miles north of the midlands. I think a Midlands venue is the best compromise for being accessible to the most people possible.

Besides, I'm thinking of relocating to Birmingham way, which means that Kidd will only be a half hour drive for me, so if I do, my vote will be for Kidd for every meet []

[mud4fun]

I couldn't even make kidd because even that is too far from us when we have a 14 month old baby. She can take an hour or two in the car but after that she gets a little ratty. I didn't want to chance sitting in Bank Holiday traffic with a screaming baby.....

Hopefully I'll make the next northern meet we have.

[Sonic]

quote:The good news is there are 3 good on-road tracks also in that sort of area

Bedworth-Between Nuneaton and Coventry

Tibshelf-Near the M1,Sutton-In-Ashfield

Ashby de la Zouch-The track is actually in Moira

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id="quote">id="quote">

I looked in to hireing out Tibshelf track for Tamiya Club a few months back and the price per day was very very steep (about £600 for the weekend if i remember right)and all races had to be members of the BRCA for insurance etc and you had to get the go ahead from the council to camp on the camp site next to the track.

[xx(]

[mud4fun]

LOL Sonic, don't talk to me about red tape with these things. I've been trying to arrange use of a local council owned quarry for rock crawling. I started the ball rolling back in february and I still haven't secured use yet. Still ongoing problems with insurance, access and parking. Now even more complicated since the council allowed adjacent land to be used for Kart racing and they forgot that the Kart track would run right across the access track to the quarry. This means I now have to arrange access with the owners of the Kart Track as well as the council, the local museum and the quarry company - ARRGHH!!

It makes me really appreciate how much effort is put in by the members who organise the spring drives etc.

[Sonic]

quote:It makes me really appreciate how much effort is put in by the members who organise the spring drives etc.

id="quote">id="quote">

Here here.

But at least we both tried maybe we will drop lucky some time

[fatboyslim]

quote:Originally posted by Sonic

quote:The good news is there are 3 good on-road tracks also in that sort of area

Bedworth-Between Nuneaton and Coventry

Tibshelf-Near the M1,Sutton-In-Ashfield

Ashby de la Zouch-The track is actually in Moira

---

id="quote">id="quote">

I looked in to hireing out Tibshelf track for Tamiya Club a few months back and the price per day was very very steep (about £600 for the weekend if i remember right)...

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id="quote">id="quote">

OUCH!!

Looks like it's all round to Chris's paddock!![]

[netsmithUK]

Bedworth is out too - £700 for the weekend.

Based on previous ticket sales we generally sell around 60, so that would make them over £10.00 per ticket (actually more because we would sell less)

For reference Snetterton were charging us £300 for the weekend and we just about covered that in ticket sales, so we would not want to spend more.

Chris

[jozza]

I wouldn't mind going to Snetterton again, good onroad track and a reasonable offroad area too, but it's not that conveniently placed for many, and there were issues with trading as I remember. The offroad section was a bit raw though, and not as good as Kidd for the Tamiya buggies and trucks; it was more suited to the Savage and Marder sized cars. I can get a track in Essex for a good price, but I think it is fully booked now for this season so it's a no-go. Hiring an area with a field/paths and a smooth carpark would be ideal, then we could layout our own onroad and offroad sections, but most of these are council owned, and getting any event organised on council ground is a long and protracted process.

Also, do we really want to go to a track which is more suited to onroad than offroaders? I know there's a fair few onroad cars, but the previous drives I've been on have had much more offroad cars than onroad (even Snet, which was an onroad track, we spent more time running offroaders round there than onroad cars). Having an onroad area would be good, it's always good to see the touring cars and rigs running, but I think that the majority of Tamiya cars are of the buggy/offroad category, so an offroad track with a smooth carpark for onroad running would be more suitable.. I think we need to persuade the Kidderminster track owners to tarmac a parking area, then we can park on the field and use the tarmac for an onroad track []

[Sammy]

Jozza - We could do a day "meet" rather than a "drive" at the place at High Beech.. no camping, but good on/offroad... did you ever manage to check out that Fairlop Waters place? The BMX track?

Sam

[netsmithUK]

An off road track with a nice big tarmac area sounds nice. I'm open to suggestions.

Members are of course free to arrange meetings whenever or where ever they like, but for an 'Official' Tamiyaclub even the main requirement is we must have sole use of the area for the duration of our stay, agreed to by the owner/controller of that land. Turning up at a park/public area etc and trying to monopolise an area is just out now I'm afraid. The events have grown a bit too big for that.

[Sonic]

Thing is with on road tracks you have the option of running either off or on road models where as offroad is really for the offroaders

[Murfick]

Has anyone contacted the Cotswold Track (http://www.cotswoldmcc.co.uk/), as they are on Kemble airfield which allows camping. Looks like quite a good on road track, but with a few custom wooden/metal frames, could have a few off road obstacles placed around it.

[netsmithUK]

I'll drop them a line...

[jozza]

quote:Originally posted by Sonic

Thing is with on road tracks you have the option of running either off or on road models where as offroad is really for the offroaders

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id="quote">id="quote">I agree with that, but running buggies and trucks on an onroad flat circuit can be dull at the best of times, and I was thinking about what would suit the majority of runners. Looking at it a different way to how I did before, perhaps an alternative ideal would be a good onroad track with a small field which we could use to layout an offroad section with ropes, ply ramps and so-on.

The Cotswold track looks like it would fit the bill; if the section of field next to the track is available to them it would be an ideal area for the buggies and trucks. Shame they've finished the tarmaccing, otherwise the track would be an ideal combination track if the mid sections had been left as mud [].