If you're not a member of an RC Club, why not?

[mud4fun 1696]

Thanks @Wooders28 good to hear. I'm envious of your 'free' carpet! Still can't believe the price of the new Astro..... no matter how much the kids want new blue Astro on our garden track we'll probably end up with 2nd hand tennis courts...... 

Can you imagine the neighbours.... looking out to find a nice blue track covering our entire garden....edged with bright fluorescent yellow piping! 

PS. The Cougar is back on top in our family round 7 postal race challenge, by a good margin. I increased negative camber to 6 degrees front and 5 degrees rear, kept the laid down front shocks with the 350cst oil but increased oil weight in rear shocks. Ran without a wing too because have no jumps on the postal racing tracks. Timed my run this morning perfectly to run on overnight frost hardened grass/soil so it was like dry tarmac! 

[Wooders28 4723]

36 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

I'm envious of your 'free' carpet!

You need to start getting cheeky!! 

I believe, the question was asked,when clearing away at the end, if we roll it up your carpet,  can we have it? No one said no, and we filled a van....🙄😁

(After 4 days, and thousands of people, they wouldn't use it again anyway, so probably did them a favour)

41 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

no matter how much the kids want new blue Astro on our garden track we'll probably end up with 2nd hand tennis courts...... 

Again, you need to ask about, email everyone you can, ask on social media etc etc. You might not get a favourable reply straight away, but it puts you on the list, and you might get a message weeks down the line off someone random, I believe you where looking for Astro, we've X amount we need rid of, but need it out of the way by the weekend.....(But I believe if it's something like a football pitch the rolls are HEAVY) 

45 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

I increased negative camber to 6 degrees front and 5 degrees rear

How much!?!? 

[DayRider 311]

I wish that they was anyone near me to race. I have to make do with a track that I make my self on a skatepark street section and I have to do it first thing in the morning because all the skater dudes are all in bed. If not there I take over the multi storey car park. I think the closes track is in the next town but that's off road, but if there was somewhere I would be all over it kicking butt

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

I don’t want to commit the time to it. I’d rather stay home and play Xbox to be honest. I love to tinker and bash, racing isn’t for me.

[mud4fun 1696]

42 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

How much!?!? 

hey, it worked! you can't fault that whether it defies logic or not! 

Probably a one off due to the rapidly changing track conditions, in the space of an hour the lawn went from rock hard and slippery as badword frost coating to wet, damp and muddy..... my best laps fell halfway through 

I managed to actually trigger the LiPo save mode on the ESC I was having so much fun that I ignored the minute of low speed just before the cut off.......  (I think it was six 5 min races out of one 4400 HV pack and that was running the 13T dyna run super touring brushed motor too!)

[Wooders28 4723]

10 minutes ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

I love to tinker and bash, racing isn’t for me.

Think of it as bashing with friends,  it just happens to be at a track! 

[Wooders28 4723]

Look like alot of mirrored comments on here :- 

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=886666892159990&id=322136848613000&anchor_composer=false 

[mud4fun 1696]

1 hour ago, DayRider said:

I wish that they was anyone near me to race. I have to make do with a track that I make my self on a skatepark street section and I have to do it first thing in the morning because all the skater dudes are all in bed. If not there I take over the multi storey car park. I think the closes track is in the next town but that's off road, but if there was somewhere I would be all over it kicking butt

I'd be happy to invite you over to race with us on our garden track but sadly I think the 12 hour drive might be a stumbling block  

and that is assuming your 1st Minister opens the Border and lets you out....... 

Can just imagine the scene, you with a boot full of RC cars trying to explain how your journey is essential......

[DayRider 311]

25 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

I'd be happy to invite you over to race with us on our garden track but sadly I think the 12 hour drive might be a stumbling block  

and that is assuming your 1st Minister opens the Border and lets you out....... 

Can just imagine the scene, you with a boot full of RC cars trying to explain how your journey is essential......

When this ban is up I think a road trip will be at the top of my list mate.

[mud4fun 1696]

2 minutes ago, DayRider said:

When this ban is up I think a road trip will be at the top of my list mate.

I'll start stocking up on the beers.....

[DayRider 311]

1 minute ago, mud4fun said:

I'll start stocking up on the beers.....

I'll bring the single malt

[mud4fun 1696]

25 minutes ago, DayRider said:

I'll bring the single malt

Fastest buggy wins the bottle? 

[DayRider 311]

15 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

Fastest buggy wins the bottle? 

YES! 

[Wooders28 4723]

2 hours ago, DayRider said:

I wish that they was anyone near me to race

I've asked about, and there's a club in, Dingwall, Maryburgh. ( Maryburgh Amenities Centre) 

https://www.facebook.com/HighlandRCClub 

I think Robert runs it, and is sound, real friendly guy (turns out I pitted with him last year ! 🤦‍♂️).

http://highlandrcclub.net/ 

 

 

 

[mud4fun 1696]

@Wooders28 I just nearly choked with laughter watching that. First off there was one car jumped over the boundary piping to avoid the turn/jump, my daughters would actually DNF me for that (claiming I cheated), and then in the last few seconds the buggy rolled at a really slow speed on entering the corner, almost comical. Just reminded me of our garden races. 

[Wooders28 4723]

6 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

@Wooders28 I just nearly choked with laughter watching that. First off there was one car jumped over the boundary piping to avoid the turn/jump, my daughters would actually DNF me for that (claiming I cheated), and then in the last few seconds the buggy rolled at a really slow speed on entering the corner, almost comical. Just reminded me of our garden races. 

Like I say, clubs are just mates having fun with RC cars! (I bet they'd even let you run 7 cell.....🙄😂) 

[DayRider 311]

7 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

I've asked about, and there's a club in, Dingwall, Maryburgh. ( Maryburgh Amenities Centre) 

https://www.facebook.com/HighlandRCClub 

I think Robert runs it, and is sound, real friendly guy (turns out I pitted with him last year ! 🤦‍♂️).

http://highlandrcclub.net/ 

 

 

 

Yeah that's the one I mentioned in the next town form me but its all off road they race over there, I've  been out but public transport is not the best in the highland. and Dingwall is like erh have you ever seen the film The Wickerman? I'm only joking their a nice family I mean people. 

[mud4fun 1696]

@Wooders28 Hehe! Nah, 8.4v is so 1980's - I'm into HV LiPos now 

(yes, I'm a convert after one month of HV ownership.....all the advantages of 8.4v NiCd's plus all the advantages of Lipo rolled up in one!

I may be biased here but my Cougar just slaughtered my 4WD buggies in the round 7 postal race using an HV LiPo

[Wooders28 4723]

13 minutes ago, mud4fun said:

@Wooders28 I just nearly choked with laughter watching that. First off there was one car jumped over the boundary piping to avoid the turn/jump, my daughters would actually DNF me for that (claiming I cheated), and then in the last few seconds the buggy rolled at a really slow speed on entering the corner, almost comical. Just reminded me of our garden races. 

Here's one of last races we had a Glasgow,  it's grass , that's just after a days use , and we've not bothered with sculpting jumps, as it's all getting dug up for all the drainage, in preparation for the Astro! 

Too many cars for the A final, and that's a beginner with one of the more experienced drivers (So yeah, he waits for the beginner, and stays behind, he goes on to let him win his first trophy 🏆) 

 

 

 

[Blista 1519]

20 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

The West Auckland club has an 8th scale track (modern 10th survive but its pretty rough on them) and a crawler track out back. You also get the gate codes when you join so you just turn up anytime. Hamilton has an astro track in a public park, just turn up and use it.  There are tracks and clubs in most cities.

Yep Berman is Tauranga, for some reason I thought you were too.

I wish I was in Tauranga.  I'm over in Hamilton.  Less beaches, more cows and roads. 

While I've been tempted to get something for the local track I've come to the conclusion that astroturf just doesn't do it for me.  Something about driving on dirt seems more natural.  There's several subdivisions going up which usually means open areas of dirt before the concrete starts getting poured, but they're now getting immediately fenced off.

15 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Its down to money again.

Nothing is free.

Racing does bring in numbers, but as we're finding, pushes people away too! 

What about a club with a race track , Plus a smaller track for beginners / fun track where you could run any off road you wanted? 

People could then turn up with whatever RTR or car they had (or not turn up with anything as we've, club cars to borrow!), with friends, and have a wee track for themselves.

 

I wonder if modern RC is simply too stratified?  There's so many vehicles of different classes and varied abilities even within the same class.  It might be impossible to be a club that doesn't specialize (to a certain degree).  I remember reading about a club that raced m-chassis cars which simply disappeared soon after the M07 was released because their racing was based around tinkering with the older chassis for a competitive edge.  The M07 leveled the playing field so the guys who like to tinker lost interest and they were the core of the club.

Do kids want to drive on a proper track with astroturf these days?  For me, I'd like to see a car skidding around a loose dirt area that could be considered a track but is mostly left up to the imagination of where someone wants to drive.  That kind of thing keeps it open to everyone.  If a few people are there you can think up a route and have impromptu races.  You can temporarily have half the area for little kids and so on.

The camera work is a bit nauseating in this one but you get the idea:

One thing I note is that in the UK there's a lot of talk about where you can and can't drive RC cars and paying for insurance.  The idea of designated areas only, club fees, insurance, plus other ongoing costs after forking out for a car would put me off if I was either young or a parent.  When I was young I just wanted to charge a battery and drive around.  I had two sets of tyres: the worn out set and the good set. 

[mud4fun 1696]

11 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Here's one of last races we had a Glasgow,  it's grass , that's just after a days use , and we've not bothered with sculpting jumps, as it's all getting dug up for all the drainage, in preparation for the Astro! 

Too many cars for the A final, and that's a beginner with one of the more experienced drivers (So yeah, he waits for the beginner, and stays behind, he goes on to let him win his first trophy 🏆) 

 

 

 

that looks like my back lawn after 3000 laps of postal racing...... albeit about 10x larger 

I've sent an email off to RHR so we'll see what they say. I hope that we can start racing this year with a club. Just pray that lockdowns are lifted soon but I have a feeling it could be next spring before we are back to normal.

PS. Can I just say, I love my Cougar!!! what a car. Should have invested in them years ago!

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

RCTech has a thread similar to this one about reviving electric on-road racing:  https://www.rctech.net/forum/electric-road/1069599-reviving-electric-road.html

Some similar themes:

• Track schedule not compatible with others' work/life schedules
• Location of the track, travel time, expenses like lodging and meals, etc.
• Number of classes, length of the race day, racing format with interleaved qualifiers and mains
• Track atmosphere, lots of serious racers who aren't welcoming or worse to newcomers
• The time and cost commitment even when you're not at the track (cleaning and repairing things)
• Fees, transponder costs, certain classes are money wars for motors, ESCs, and batteries

All of this starts to make RC feel like a commitment or another job, not a fun hobby.  When most of your waking hours are governed by a job, a spouse, kids, house/car maintenance, and maybe a commitment to a church, there's very little time or money left to engage in a RC car track.  It's much easier to catch a half hour here and there on the work bench, and maybe run something in the back yard or the street for 15-20 minutes.

[Wooders28 4723]

6 minutes ago, Blista said:

There's so many vehicles of different classes and varied abilities even within the same class

In the UK, (1/10 electric off road) we run 2wd, 4wd and sometimes trucks (if enough interest).

Overseas i think they have ,stock with varying motor winds and ESC in blinky etc and Mod? Which all confuses me tbh! 

Some tracks here, have a tyre rule, sometimes it's because that's the tyre that works best at that track, or one club only allows one pair of rears per day, and marks the tyre, this is to try and keep costs down. Only other rule is ,2s hardcase Lipo and charge in a charge bag. You can run whatever motor , boost/turbo you want. You have 3 qualifying races, your 2 best times give you your position, fastest 10 in the A final, next 10 - B final etc.

16 minutes ago, Blista said:

I'd like to see a car skidding around a loose dirt area

We're in Scotland/ UK, it rains 80% of the time 😂,  there's no loose dirt, it's mud. If you run on grass, it gets destroyed and you need to move the track, fertilise the damaged grass to get it to grow again, you need to mow it, this takes time ,effort and money.  Or you can get the drainage sorted, but Astro down, and that's that!! No hassle ,no real effort and not as much car cleaning either! 

 

21 minutes ago, Blista said:

One thing I note is that in the UK there's a lot of talk about where you can and can't drive RC cars and paying for insurance.

I think there has been issues, of cars not being used responsibly,  so the powers that be , just slap at sign up saying no RC cars. Tbh, I've never seen a sign , or had any issues at all running an RC car anywhere in 30+ years!!! 

Insurance is covered by a BRCA race licence , which costs £20 a year, covers you anywhere, and for upto £10,000,000 , so it's just not an issue or a great expense at all, and something I think every user of RC should have.

 

28 minutes ago, Blista said:

Club fees, insurance, plus other ongoing costs after forking out for a car would put me off

Club fees depend how much you use the facility, if you're using it every day, then membership would be the cheaper option, but if you're only running every few months, then you'd just pay a day fee.

I don't know what other on going costs would be, that wouldn't occur if you where't at a club anyway! You may even find it cheaper, as it's known for the quicker/sponsored people to give away tyres, as the edge has gone off them, but perfectly useable for us mere mortals.

[Blista 1519]

53 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

I don't know what other on going costs would be, that wouldn't occur if you where't at a club anyway! You may even find it cheaper, as it's known for the quicker/sponsored people to give away tyres, as the edge has gone off them, but perfectly useable for us mere mortals.

I guess it depends on what's considered a cost.  Car expenses like tyres, breakages, general wear and tear all increase when racing versus zipping around the street out front.  Even things like having an extra couple of spare batteries.  I don't need them now but would be very handy to have at a track.  Less easily quantified things also start increasing, like taking a whole day for RC.  I'd much rather drive a bit, adjust a few settings and then drive some more, all for an hour or so.  Marshaling, waiting for qualifying and the different heats, helping set up or clean up, and everything else that goes into racing sounds like work.  Time, petrol, the inevitable pie and drink, and things like that add up.  If I had a kid into RC or was into racing I'd probably be fine with it because it's all part and parcel of it.  It's simply about being fun hobby to me.

When I was in my early teens a couple of friends and I went along to an RC track one of them knew about.  It was overgrown but there happened to be a few other guys who turned up the same day and were fixing the track up.  After getting the track into good enough shape we would go on a semi-regular basis.  We all had different cars, ranging from buggies to Blackfoot/Monster Beetles, but good enough to drive together.  After a while more people turned up.  Some little kids, some adults.  Slowly it became about having to organize people and races, helping fix cars, making sure nobody was running the same radio frequencies, etc.  Because we were there first I think some thought we were in charge or responsible.  We just wanted to run our cars and have fun, so inevitably we all stopped going.

All I can really say is if you can convince someone like me to turn up, you'll be doing something right. 

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

10 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Think of it as bashing with friends,  it just happens to be at a track! 

But you missed the part where I'd rather stay at home and not commit the time to it.