Australian Slot Car Racers Association

Are we running Coupe style bodies for the Next series of 6 Races?, or sticking with the CanAm bodies ?

Always good to be 'Prepared' !!,..

Well,..to answer my own question, after chatting at HSC,..Yes,..Coupe bodies for the Next 6 Races

Sounds good.

So I assume you will be using same inline chassis with coupe bodies.

Under the IRRA regs, this is their GTC class, page 8.
http://slotblog.net/index.php?act=attac ... st&id=6183

Is there a list of approved bodies?

So apart from choice of motors in the States,..ARE there any Real differences between these two Classes ??

Same chassis regs.
Apart from choices of body (and relative regs) and the Aussie motor choice, the only other difference is minimum weight of car is 110 grams.

Do we need regs to be posted?
I can publish them on Aussie Retro website.
It would basically be the IRRA regs, pages 8, 9 & 10, with our local variants.

Just need to know which local bodies (if any) are approved.

Well,..there Doesn't seem to be a Great deal of choice at the Moment.

There are JK Lola T70's, which Look OK , perhaps a bit Tall, and typically of JK,..Long, the GT40, would be a difficult body to use, Not sure what Other JK Coupe's there are.

HSC has Some RedfOx bodies, a ferrari 330P?, a Porsche 917K, (the one with Side Fins) and a Lola T70.
The RedFox Bodies seem to be Very 'Short' in The Nose area, Requiring a Car with a Longer Wheelbase and Front Wheels Closer to the Guide than Most CanAm bodies require.

I am So annoyed I missed my opportunity to get the Coupe bodies I was after from Victor at TrueScale !!,..DOH !!

The older Sunset Ferrari, is a very tight and close fit on a retro, as is the MkIV Ford,..I'm not sure what Other Sunset shells would Fit or be suitable,..ahh but then you would have to get them ,..again

Not much of a choice in Lexan really.

Not sure what stock James may have coming, other than what they have already.

Might have to 'Source' some Alternatives from Elsewhere eh !!??

Stoo23 I have good stocks of the Sunset bodies.
email me what you need
Gill A
www.hobbiesplus.co.nz
trophy@inspire.net.nz

For those interested, I have adapted the GT-C regs from the IRRA site, and added them to our AR site here.

There are also photo's of the approved bodies here, on the IRRA website.

Hi Gil,..Yeah,..thanks,..I have had a bit of a Squizz at your site and might have to get in touch with you about some stuff.

Thing with the Sunset shells, Especially the 'Coupe' style ones as listed on Your site, they were made in a time when both front and Rear wheels were Smaller in diameter than What We are using in Retro,..(In fact they Fit Flexi's well eh), and as well, they Too, have limitations in the Guide placement Re Front wheels etc.

We have found our cars are about 4" 7/8th or 5" guide lead and about 4" or slightly less Wheel Base, it makes them Very Tricky to Mount.

The Bodies that suit the style of car we are running tends to be the bodies like the Yanks were running around that time,..the term 'Handling' bodies is probably More the case than Scale, although They still Look Right, but invariably have more Generous proportions in the front end and in Body height.

I would have to say the bodies from Victor at TrueScale, are Truly Excellent!
They are Uniform in Thickness, without the sides becoming thin and are Crystal Clear with Good detail. All in all a great Product . but at times somewaht hard to get.

It's a Real shame that ther are some Great bodies out there, but are Not made in Lexan.
I'd Love a Chaparral 2F, or one of Those Gorgeous MESAC Porsche 917's etc, but they are Only available in PETG, like Patto's Bodies,..although Jens Scale Racing lists them as Lexan.

Might have to take Herschmann up on his Offer of Distributorship for Outisight Retro Bodies !!,..lol

Or Buy some Molds from Vistor and Make them Here Myself !!

Kingy,

> the only other difference is minimum weight of car is 110 grams.

Why is there a change in the rules with different bodies ? The rules we have been racing to date have a 100 gram minimum limit. I have popped cars so far as light as 92 grams complete and weight them up to what I want, the new weight limit squeezes out designs that aim for light weight.

With most of the cars at the moment weighing in at over 120 gram, is there any point in changing the minimum ?

Regards,

hutch at movsd dot com

I don't think That will actually be an 'Issue' Hutch, as we aren't Really running to those rules, More Just puttin' Endurance/GT Coupe style bodies on.

I was really just asking the question 'Out Loud' as to whether there were Really Any Major differences.

Interestingly, it was Just an Ommission, in the Original CanAm rules,..the Yanks had intended to make the Minimum weight 110 Grams,..but people whinged, so it was dropped.

WE adopted the 100 Gram limit in CanAm.

Heck, around the Flat track it doesn;t really matter eh, as a car Under 100 grams may Not work that well anyway,..lol

hutch-- wrote:Why is there a change in the rules with different bodies ? The rules we have been racing to date have a 100 gram minimum limit.

Only because we have adopted to run under IRRA guidelines, and the coupes are a different class. i.e. GT C
And IRRA has a different set of regs for GT C.

hutch-- wrote:With most of the cars at the moment weighing in at over 120 gram, is there any point in changing the minimum ?

stoo23 wrote:Heck, around the Flat track it doesn;t really matter eh, as a car Under 100 grams may Not work that well anyway

Yep, probably right as far as HSC and the flat track is concerned. But if other centers with high speed tracks participate, then weight may become a factor.

stoo23 wrote:I don't think That will actually be an 'Issue' Hutch, as we aren't Really running to those rules...

Aren't we?? Why not? Should we change the rules? Should we throw the rules away?

stoo23 wrote:Interestingly, it was Just an Ommission, in the Original CanAm rules,..the Yanks had intended to make the Minimum weight 110 Grams,..but people whinged, so it was dropped.

WE adopted the 100 Gram limit in CanAm.

Hmmm... not sure about that.
The "D3" regs that are in current use for Retro Can-Am do not have a minimum weight. But we are not running under "D3" regs. We are not allowed to use "D3" name unless we adopt 100% their rules, no questions, if's buts or maybe.

The IRRA was started by the USA right coasters to allow variations in regs to suit local preferences, and available equipment. Hence we adopted IRRA regs.
IRRA regs have always had min weight for Can-Am of 100g. That's why we have the 100g weight limit.

Following along the same simple logic for the Coupe class, why would we not adopt the GT C regs from IRRA? And any other class that we decide to run. Why "re-invent the wheel" every time?

The retro scene has been working very well in various parts of the world, based the original principles of simple to build cars, raced by like minded folk who enjoy slot cars from that era and wanting to have some fun. Let's keep it that way.

There is a good range of classes catered for by the regs, allbeit not taken up in Australia just yet, but maybe in time will be introduced as more interest grows.

The existing classes are good. Please keep to the class and respect the guidelines as they stand.

Maybe if the current class does not fully satisfy your needs, maybe build a car from one of the ather classes and promote it for future events. If others see how well it goes, they may build one, and so it goes on.

As soon as a set of regs gets questioned, or abused, or screwed with it becomes an uneven playing field, people get pissed and numbers drop off.

Rant over.

I basically go for the idea of not playing musical chairs with rules and I come from an era where you had one set of rules that was applied to all body types, sports, coupes, sedans (with minimum wheelbase) and open wheel cars (no exposed chassis) etc ...

While I fail to understand why there was ever a weight limit, the 100 gram is part of the existing OZ retro class and I don't see a reason to change this as it simply limits car design. There are no genuine high speed track left and even the HSC fast track is only a small corner track so its not as if there is any advantage to the light cars.

I suggest the thing to avoid is constricting the designs of cars so you end up with everyone running more or less the same thing, it then just becomes another class of wamp wamps that has no appeal to people who construct cars in a constructor class.

The KISS principle well applies here, keep the rules simple, consistent, tolerant and continue to exclude lurks, perks and other trickery to gain advantage. As long as there are no exotic bits allowed and unopened motors, the class puts everyone within range of going OK. Change this and the class is dead in the water.

Regards,

hutch at movsd dot com

Would be nice to get others commenting here.

Rules and more rule changes.

The more rules you have and the more often you change rules the less I tend to be interested in racing. The rules were fine and don't need tinkering with. I'm personally not interested in continuously having to tinker about with slotcars to suit some new rule change. I'd much rather just race the thing than tinker unnecessarily with it.

I'd rather not even discuss rules unduly, so that is why I haven't read all that lies above....

I implore you not to over complicate this class by bogging it down with rule changes.

Otherwise I'll have some Aussie Retro stuff for sale on Ebay. Which would be a shame coz I really enjoyed my 2 races which I've had with these cars.

cheers

Keith