Tamiya Touring Car Class At Hinckley Rccc, Leics, Uk

[Jammer]

Hi Guys,

As well as being a TC member, I'm an active member at my local racing club - Hinckley Radio Controlled Car Club (HRCCC). This summer I've had the pleasure of being involved in the introduction of vintage buggy racing to the club (a series called Retro Racers), which has been well supported by a number of TC members.

The success of Retro Racers has been due to the emphasis on fun racing for all (whether you are an experienced racer or newcomer). HRCCC has been an excellent host - and everyone who raced has commented on the friendly atmosphere that welcomed them.

HRCCC appreciate the support given to them over the summer by TC members and intend to introduce a new Tamiya/RTR touring car class when the racing moves indoors for the Autumn and Winter seasons. The club would be grateful for any input from TC members to help tailor the class rules.

As an prinicple objective, the class is intended to attract newcomers to racing - so what we want are a few simple rules that will enable people to compete on a level playing field and on a budget.

Current ideas are as follows:

1) Silver can motor limit

This has worked extremely well in the vintage buggy class to help level differences in driving ability and chassis design - silver cans are also cheap, easy to maintain and usually supplied with the kit. Performance wise - we found the silver can powered buggies were only a few seconds a lap slower than many of the modern buggies running modified brushless motors

2) Any Tamiya touring car chassis (inc TRF in you really want to race one) or RTR kit (such as offered by HPI etc.)

The thinking behind this is to encourage people to race what they have lying about in their loft or is available off the shelf at their local model shop. As suggested above, differences in chassis performance can be levelled to some degree if the components are standardised and kept at a sensible performance level.

What do you think? Is this the type of racing you'd be interested in supporting?

Please post any comments (positive or negative ) - we'd love to get your feedback and gauge the level of TC interest.

For further details of racing at HRCCC, please visit:

http://www.hinckleyrccc.co.uk/index.htm

Alternatively you can send me a PM.

Cheers

James

[94eg!]

2) Any Tamiya touring car chassis (inc TRF in you really want to race one) or RTR kit (such as offered by HPI etc.)

How can it be any Tamiya touring car chassis if you can use HPI cars? Kinda confusing.

[rc-martin]

HRCCC appreciate the support given to them over the summer by TC members and intend to introduce a new Tamiya/RTR touring car class when the racing moves indoors for the Autumn and Winter seasons. The club would be grateful for any input from TC members to help tailor the class rules.

Any tamiya touring car chassis or RTR touring car chassis.

[Jammer]

How can it be any Tamiya touring car chassis if you can use HPI cars? Kinda confusing.

Thank you for your comment - hopefully rc-martin has helped to clarify that the class allows you to run either a Tamiya touring car or a RTR type touring car from another RC manufacturer; for example, HPI's E10 touring RTR range.

Shall I take your post as an expression of interest?

[94eg!]

Shall I take your post as an expression of interest?

No. I live in the US...

[highflyer]

Running silver cans only is a great idea. It should level the playing field and have a emphasis on FUN .

[Jammer]

Running silver cans only is a great idea. It should level the playing field and have a emphasis on FUN .

Cheers Highflyer - glad you think so - the fun element is what we're aiming to promote.

[Eddystone]

I think it's a great idea. Standard 540 motor limit has worked well offroad and I've got a few Tamiya road cars I'd love to give a run round the track semi-competitively. Count me in on this one - I'm looking forward to it already!

[wrightpumpkin]

Im on board. it will be great fun

[94eg!]

As with any type of racing, it's all about "FUN" at first. Over time, peoples competitve nature takes over and the fun will be removed for a lot of people. Those who can't, or don't want to keep up with the latest trends and tuning techniques will get left behind. There's simply no way around this.

Example: There are more than a few ways to tweak a silver can motor

This is just a friendly reminder for you so your aware. I'm sure you will have loads of fun. Good luck with your new class...

[hedge]

Example: There are more than a few ways to tweak a silver can motor

The lengths people go to is mind boggling...

For the money spent they could buy an unlimited brishless set up But its about being No1

[sosidge]

Keeping it simple is a good idea.

The biggest problem with these classes (as someone else has already mentioned) is people's competitive nature. They will end up looking for every advantage!

So, I would suggest restricting the chassis to plastic tubs, no carbon chassis. So no TRF cars - they can be made a LOT faster around the track than a TT-01. Frankly, if you have a TRF car, you should be running in a spec or modified class.

Second thing to watch out for is silver can motors - there are at least three basic types supplied by tamiya right now (Mabuchi, Johnson, and the black endbell motor in buggies), and more from the past - people will start to tweak and select these motors, and even blatantly cheat by taking a faster motor from another source, and stripping the labels off! I've raced against "silver cans" that had as much rip through the infield as my 19-turn car, and only slightly less top end! The Mabuchi motor is regarded as slower than the Johnson and the black endbell.

It's almost easier to spec a labelled motor, such as the Tamiya Sport Tuned, HPI Saturn etc - ar at least offer it as a permitted alternative. That way people are less inclined to cheat. Just something to keep an eye on.

Silver can is a great beginner class. The appearance of brushless motors has made the cost of starting racing very high, cars with a slow brushed motor make a lot of sense. I know (and hear) that TT-01 and Mini class racing are becoming very popular at a lot of clubs, because they are cheaper and simpler and closer than modern touring cars, which are very fast and pretty expensive to buy (although once you have the gear they are cheap to run).

[Eddystone]

Some excellent points there guys - I'm hoping to see the new basic race class as somewhere newcomers to racing can get a taste of racing with whatever car fate dealt them at their local model shop. Hopefully make of car or motor won't be an issue - aslong as it's 1/10th scale and running a 27turn sealed can motor. If they start getting overly competitive I think they'll naturally want to step up to another class - the club already caters for higher end racing with heats for 13.5T stock class, 10.5T brushless class, 1/12th pan cars, Mardave V12s with stock G2 motor, and Modified V12s. In the meantime there's some of us who are content to enjoy the afternoon out and don't give two hoots about being competitive ( that's me! - why else would I be racing a Wild Willy 2 regularly throughout the outdoor season?!! ) We are going to have some fun - and based on the building success of the clubs Retro Racers this summer there's a demand for this sort of fun and friendly racing. It'll be good to see that spirit transfered to the indoor season hopefully. Many of the guys who've joined us are Tamiyaclub members so it's a good get together!

[wrightpumpkin]

I aggree with Richard, in the winter off road season we all had the same motors and no one was complaining, it was equal and there was no one trying to make their silver can faster, its just a friendly afternoons racing with the usual amount of crashes and laughs.

[Mulsanne]

I'm not a racer but was interested to read the comments people made about modifying the silver can. It's things like this that would put me off starting.

Could the club not have a pool of silver cans of their own, and issue them to the competitors on a random basis for each event? You could probably get them for free if you asked around the club members, I bet people have got tonnes lying around.

[Jammer]

I'm not a racer but was interested to read the comments people made about modifying the silver can. It's things like this that would put me off starting.

Could the club not have a pool of silver cans of their own, and issue them to the competitors on a random basis for each event? You could probably get them for free if you asked around the club members, I bet people have got tonnes lying around.

Hi Mulsanne,

Thanks for your feedback...

You shouldn't be put off - anyone who would be prepared to tweak a silver can motor is soon going to get bored with the racing and move onto something bigger and better - I've seen this in Mardave V12 racing - which is and always will be grass-root racing. And once they have, everyone can get back to enjoying themselves.

The silver can idea is more than just a way to level performance - it is also there to attract newcomers who will have most likely bought a car with a silver can motor. Another benefit of a silver can motor is that it requires little maintenance. It also makes economic sense as they are cheap to replace if you trash one.

Today was the last meeting of the outdoor season at Hinckley RCCC - we had a cracking meeting running the vintage buggies, which run on silver can motors. There was no cheating or arguing - everyone just enjoyed themselves and went home with a smile on there face; happy to have spent the afternoon amongst friends. Everyone racing in this type of class realises that it's all about having a laugh.

Cheers

James

[Eddystone]

Hey James - I was just writing pretty much the same thing!!!.......

Hi Mulsanne, Pool motors would be an idea if the club had problems with people modifying the motors but to be honest the whole point of this race class is to have fun - the people competiting in it are more likely to be out for a fun days racing than being out solely to win. The club has other race classes where the all out racers are naturally going to want to race with other like minded racers. We're having a laugh on the rostrum and generally not taking things too seriously. The racer who drives most consistently and stays out of trouble usually succeeds, a point proved at our last race meeting where we ran a couple of retro buggies with silver can motors in with the 2WD competition class buggies. A retro won one of the heats, and the other retro won one of the finals. The other buggies were far faster but that just meant they got to their next accident faster bit like the Tortoise and the Hare.

Richard

[wrightpumpkin]

Could some one from the retro bash please correct me if im wrong. But we turn up all with siver can motors, non are modified have a good afternoons racing and a laugh. And non of the regular racers in our group take it that seriously, Its just a good afternoon out. Freindly people great atmosphere = great fun

[redzone]

best way to limit tampering of silvercan motors is to specify they ONLY use the grey end bell johnson, these are MUCH harder to adjust the timing on...

[Eddystone]

best way to limit tampering of silvercan motors is to specify they ONLY use the grey end bell johnson, these are MUCH harder to adjust the timing on...

We've got the ideal solution - as we race in a school hall anyone caught cheating will just be given a wedgie and have their heads flushed down the toilet!!

[redzone]

atomic?