Hi Pete,..Hmmm,..you are on Thin Ice there with Me and Flexi Cars !!!,..lol
Having been racing when they were First introduced, along with that Other Abomination,..the Womp Womp,..I did Not Purchase one then and Never Have, and am pretty sure, I Never will,..so I have No Idea regarding comparitive Lap times.
Fox can consistently Produce both Qualifying and Race laps Well Under 5.00 seconds and when you look at the Race charts, all the Fast guys are doing times around the 5.00 to 5.2 second mark.
Many were doing 34's and 35's in the Main.
Notwithstanding Racetrack owners Love of Flexi's and all those people that Race them, To me they were the Harbinger of the End of Slot Racing as I Knew it !!
To be Honest, I am Unsure as to the reason a Mixed class like that would be necessary Or Wanted,..Purists or Not.
Trying to Find a form of Equivalence would be very Difficult I believe,..weight issues and differences apart, I would somehow feel that a Fox Anglewinder Might Just be a Better car to drive than Any Flexi Type chassis.
At the Moment, I would suggest there Are one or Two 'Evil Handling' Retro Cars,..BUT, There ARE some Extremely Amazingly Good ones at the Moment as well.
Fox's Old and especially His New cars are Lovely to drive, My New Chassis is I would Imagine a Much Better handling Car than a Flexi and That Original Car of Mine was even a bit of a revelation to Myself around Your Old track,..I think we were Pretty Damn Close to Hot 16D Flexi Times and Lap totals weren't We ?? And that with Inlines !!
But as I said, I am Unsure as to How running a Flexi against a Scratchbuilt Anglewinder would Inspire anyone to 'Build' a Car.
Perhaps them getting a chance to Drive a Truly 'Sweet' handling Car might do More for That than Merely Competing against them ...and if the Flexi's Prove faster? Then What?
As I and Many others Have tried to make Clearly apparent, Retro ...By It's Incorporation and definition, is about Racing Scratchbuilt Cars, with Other people so inclined,..For FUN !!
Sure there is competition, But for Myself, as well as quite a Few others, I Believe/Hope, Half the Fun, is the Building and the Racing is a Bonus,..AND So far it Really Has been Fun,..No one has even Remotely presented a Win at all costs attitude and the Racing has been Pretty damn Clean, Fast, Friendly and a Whole Load of Fun.
As well,..I am somewhat Blown away by the Myriad of Classes and Incarnations of Racing, that are Now being run, With Virtually ALL except for 27's and Opens Requiring EVERY Part to Be Over the Counter Commercially available.
Plafit style Scale Racing ??,..Can you Imagine the Squawking if you Turned up to Race with Custom made Parts and Chassis?
Hey Lets run a Class where you can Run Plafit Chassis Or Scratchbuilt,..a similar Problem,..Yes? No?
From what appears to be happening Overseas, the Fairly Large Interest in D3 really Does seem to have brought More people Back Into Raceways and to Racing.
Scratchbuilt Cars Might Not Mean a Huge Profit to a Raceway Owner,..but the cars still require a Motor, Body, etc etc, and if the Racing is Good and enjoyable, the Racer Will Return.
I AM aware of The Problem of 'Providing' Cars for Racers who want to Race the Retro's and Don't Build,...BUT Once again,..The Whole Concept was Scratchbuilding,..as someone on SlotBlog said,..Why do People want to Race in a Scratchbuilders Class,...But Don't want to actually Build a Car,..it'd be Like wanting to Race in a Flexi Class but Not want to actually Buy one.
Sure the racing is Great! so I Can understand Partly Why people wish to become involved,..so it IS a somewhat difficult scenario
I also Take Fox's Point that anything that Brings More people into racing and Keeps them there is a Good thing.
Heck Have a Look at The Tech sheets, especially for the First Race, and the Number of People Who Built cars, can almost be counted on One Hand!! Over 50% of the Entry was by People who had either Borrowed a Loaner car (and continue to) or were running a Chassis Built by Wayne Bramble !!
A difficult situation emerges I agree, when you have say Young Declan and his Dad Guy,..They Both really enjoy racing and regularly Race Scalextric, They Had a Ball with the retro's,..But How do Guy and Declan Get Cars to run regularly?
Without any Malice towards HSC or Wayne,..the Price of a Hand Built Shop sold Retro, (as Noted by John,..lol), IS a wee bit prohibitive Price Wise,..Exactly WHAT This Class was Trying to Preclude,..BY Definition !!
I think perhaps some articles/Classes on How to Build a Car and on Soldering etc Would/could be of greater Value.
May I say it was interesting to see on SlotBlog, someone had a couple of the Lee Gilbert Production Chassis that he Made and Marketed when Wayne, Fox and Myself were racing.
Two Styles, Both Piano wire and Brass Hand assembled Lee Gilbert Anglewinders, for $6.99 and $9.99 !!!!
Now THAT Truly Is/Was Amazing Value !!
I have also Noticed Josh Crutchfeld is selling a Number of His D3 chassis for $50 to $55.00 US !! 2nd hand ofcourse
Now That Is accessible and affordable and he Makes Nice Cars.
I guess as well, one Has to ask just What Is it that Makes the Retro Cars Appealing, is it the CanAm bodies?,..Heck I dunno
Anyway,.I must admit, apart from the slightly Poor Valentines day turnout, I have a Feeling the Grids Can and Will Only get Bigger.
Maybe we All (being those that Can Buiold), need to Make More Loaner Chassis, so as to Preclude the Necessity of New Racers to Have to Buy them and by Saving the Expense of having to Buy a Retro Chassis, Thaey can put the Money they saved into Buying a Decent Soldering Iron, a Dremel, some Files a Nibbler and a Vice !!,..lol
Then They are Set !, a Few Lessons a Few Bad Cars Later and Hopefully They are on Their way !!
ALL of us Old Farts ARE accessible and I know that Fox, Hutcho or Myself are More than Happy to Help Anyone Wanting to Venture into Scratchbuilding.
Only My Opinion though,..Youve run it up the Flag Pole,..see How it Waves,..
Cheers,
Stoo
