TWO group C? Can’t we mix it up a bit? There are some interesting open-wheel possibilities we can look into.

To the open wheel racing – there are NSR F1 cars and the soon to be released Policar modern F1 cars.  I could see us running the NSR cars.  They have been out for a while, parts are available and they come in enough colors and liveries to work for everyone.  Spec Series

BRM Trans Am cars.  These are basically overgrown Revoslot cars that are fun to drive and perform well. – Spec Series

BRM/TTS mini 1/24 scale cars – these include the Alfas, Ford Escorts, Mini’s, Opels and soon to have a Autobianchi A112 Abarth coming in the next few months.  Spec Series

Scalextric or Fly BMW E30 touring car series with Shapeways 3D chassis – Semi-Spec Series

Rally Track – Targa 1969-1973 – Open Series

Rally Track – Group B unlimited.  Any car in Group B from 1983-1986 with unlimited modifications.  Open Series

The difference between Spec Series and Open Series is the amount of modifications that can be made to the car.  Spec Series is just that – a spec car with stock or limited modifications that can be performed.  An Open Series allows for more (not unlimited) amount of changes to improve the performance of the car.  These series allow the builder to be creative and discover new ways to improve a cars performance.  These series can be slightly more expensive due to the expense in additional high-performance parts.

I like any of these legacy classes with one additional detail:

Porsche and other rally cars that did not run in 2020</span>

Slot It Group-C

–Racer Group-5 if I can get a BMW

RevoSlot GT1 (new cars: Toyota GT1, Porsche GT1, Ferrari 333, Ferrari F40)

BRM 1/24 Group-C

Thunderslot Lolas, McLarens, Elvas and if possible Chaparrals

I am looking at the new classes mentioned like NSR F1, and a sedan class, with consultation among club members.  I would still like a class for an NSR Corvette.

If we discuss and approve the NSR F1 88/89 cars, I would like to modify the paint rule to say the body is not required to be painted, but must be decorated and clear coated.  I have even settled on a Ford/Haas decal set on red car or a BFGoodrich like my groupf c busby BFG car.  I am still not saying I want this car and 4 other new ones, but this one would be ok.

At the Zoom meeting today, Marc, John, and I discussed race classes for next year.  It would seem that the way we are going we will be doing proxy races for a while.  We thought starting with Group C as usual would be a good idea.

The NSR Formula 1 racers look like a good prospect.  The one David had drove well and the front end looks fairly sturdy.  The modern Policar Formula 1 is an unknown and we would need to test it out to try it.

The NSR Porsche 908 was also discussed; we only got to run one race with it last year.  It would be a good candidate to run on both tracks to  give some variety.

We talked about the variety of cars that the Tourist Trophy produced and thought it would be a fun builder series, perhaps with car track limits or some way to reduce  the dominance of the Racer 250LM.

A Group 5 Racer Sideways series was brought up, as well as a Slot.it GT40 series.

I had forgotten about the BRM/TTS small 1/24 cars.  My Alfa is a great looking car and the smaller size of these metal chassis cars should make good running cars.

I also like  the BRM 1/24 Trans Am cars.

Also requiring some  thought would be the order in which we would run any proposed series, considering that, at least to start the year, we would continue with proxy races, so for early series choices, it might be good to consider classes in which we would not mind some one else driving our cars.  For a car that we would really want to drive ourselves, later in the year would be better.

Russell

I agree with an important point Russell notes, that some 2021 classes will be cars I want to personally drive if it is a car we already have or a new car.  I would especially like to drive my Porsche 908 on the rally track and I enjoyed it on the big track when we tested cars on Thursday evening.  The NSR/Policar F1 and BRM 1/24 scales would also be ones I would want to drive myself if we choose those.  I have an NSR f1 coming already, but I would not buy the 1/24 BRM’s if I could not drive them.  I would be glad to let proxies drive my Racer Capri and my slot it group c cars.  I could also agree to let a proxy drive my 1/24 scale Mercedes that we only ran early 2020.

So I am glad the November 21 Zoom meeting brought up the point about what I would like to drive my self, so we should put those cars late in 2012.  If my personal doctors show the vaccination is effective, I will take it and gratefully rejoin the in person racing next year.  Stay safe everybody.

I wanted to add a couple of comments about possible series.  One is that I think we should take a break from running Thunderslot.  That has been one of my favorite series and the cars have been very fast right out of the box, but I think we should run other series this year.

As I said in my above post, I had forgotten about the BRM mini 1/24 cars.  There are a lot of models and liveries available and these cars should be a lot of fun to drive.  They are a great size and have an attractive (to me anyway) chunky appearance.

I am going to leave my Alfa at HQ for everyone to look at and try out on the track, keeping in mind that it is right out of the box and I have done nothing to it.

Russell

The BRM Mini 1/24 cars come with a vast array of options, and I do not know where to get all the info online.  Parts catalogs come with the purchase of  a car, and I am posting some of the info below.  Some cars come with negative camber front wheels, some come with negative camber rear wheels, some have straight front axles, some have independent front axles, some are ball bearings, some are not.  The Alfa has independent front negative camber wheels.  The parts catalogs come with listings of all available parts; I can list those if desired.

Although nothing is definite, it would seem that we have at least two races series for next year set:  Group C as usual and NSR F1.  There has been a lot of interest in the NSR Formula cars; six members have ordered or bought cars so far.  I think we could pre-select at least these two series, leaving four choices to be made.

There has also been good interest in finishing the NSR Porsche 908 series that we started last year.  This series would be run on both the main track and the rally track.

Other series mentioned, either in the Forum or to me, by three or more people include:

·         BRM 1/24 Group C scheduled for last year.

·         Group 5/Recer Sideways

·         Tourist Trophy (could have rule on track width or overscale cars)

Series mentioned by two or more people:

·         BRM Mini 1/24

·         RevoSlot GT1

·         Thunderslot

Series mentioned by one person:

·         Spec BMW E30

·         Spec Slot.it GT40

·         BRM 1/24 T/A

·         Targa Florio Rally Track

·         Group B Rally Track

·         T/A—Gumball

The sampling of comments for proposed series is fairly small.  It would be very useful to have comments from more members.  I would like to  pre-select at least two series with strong enough interest before the  annual meeting , leaving a smaller number of series to discuss during the meeting.

Russell

During the Pandemic and the proxy format, would be a good time for a builder’s series like the tourist trophy. Participation is not limited to track-time, and we can share our builds on the forum, like so:

Entrants’ cars

Russell – I really appreciate all of the information about the possible series to run in 2021.

In looking at 2021 I think it’s safe to say that the first quarter if not the first half of the year will be proxy races due to the uptick in COVID.  I think we should at least plan on the first half of the year being proxy races.  With this in mind:

Q1 – Slot It Group C.  Everyone has a car and just about everyone knows how to set the cars up for the track.  This would lend itself to a great proxy race series.

Q2 – Could be another series we have run in the past that is similar to Slot It Group C – Racer/Sideways Group 5.  The drive train on these cars is all but identical to Group C and the set up’s are very similar.  We have run this series in the past and many members already own a car.

H1 – ?

Q3 – Welcome back to Headquarters with Targa Florio on the rally track.  Use the rules from the 2019 series we did not finish.

Q4 – NSR F1.  We would run this series to correspond to the Austin round of F1 at COTA

H2 – ?

The options for series to fill the two open spots would be:  BRM Trans Am, BRM Sports Cars (Alfa, Mini, Opel, BMW 2002, Abarth A112), RevoSlot GT1, BRM Group C 1/24, Tourist Trophy, NSR GT3 cars (Corvette, Audi R8, BMW Z4, Mercedes AMG, Aston Martin, Porsche 911) and many others.

Please put some thought into your selections.  We want to get as many people back out to race once COVID threat subsides and these choices will have a big impact as to how many people will come out to race.

Just so you guys know I’m not dead nor completely uninvolved….

I am fine with whatever is decided…I just haven’t been interested in proxy races. I race to race…not to prepare. So until we’re all able to race together again, my existence will be somewhat ghost-like.

As for series choices… my only thought is that I am not interested in 1/24 cars (limited use for high dollars, though my Alfa hormones are crying loudly over that GTV).  That’s about it. I’ve made my feelings known in the past that our attempts to make sure the cars are all competitive with each other is not my preferred style, but I’m okay with it since there are good and valid reasons the club plans in this manner. Just because I’m comfortable being a Williams in a Mercedes world doesn’t mean everyone else should be. 🙂

Anyway, for me it makes choosing a series somewhat academic (because I’m not really a collector…I usually sell my cars after the series is done if it doesn’t look like they’ll be used again) so that whatever is chosen is fine and I’ll be on the starting grid again when we’re all vaccinated or the threat of accidentally passing-on an infection has dissipated.

Eric

Good to hear from you.  I fully understand you aversion to proxy racing; I suppose it’s like kissing your sister.  I am really looking forward to the time when we can all get back together at HQ.

Russell

I am really getting excited about the NSR F1 series for next year, although nothing has definitely been decided.  I am really an open-wheel guy and I love having the opportunity to build some open-wheel cars.  I already have several liveries in mind……

All – Russell showed me a list of spare and optional parts for the TTS-BRM 1/24 scale mini-cars.  I compiled all of the information and attached it to this post.  I also have some pictures of the different set ups each of these models comes with.  I think these would make a fun series as they are basically a large RevoSlot car.  Please review and let me know if you have any questions.

Hi Folks,
I agree with Marty’s earlier post regarding the first half of the year being focused on well known cars such as Slot.it Group C or Racer Group 5. Much more proxy-friendly. I would add that a tightly limited modification spec series may also proxy well.

Open wheel sounds like a lot of fun, but best scheduled in the second half of the year when the odds are bit more in favor of reconvening in person.

The rally track seems to be underutilized, so it makes a lot of sense to have at least one of those races on the calendar.

And finally, I have not seen this mentioned yet, but do we want to schedule another cross-club proxy race?  I think this is something worth pursuing in 2021, even it is just an annual event.  Perhaps branching out to include additional clubs.  (I favor the clubs vs clubs format over individual entries because it emphasizes local groups and intra/interstate competition.)

That’s my two pence.
B

All – Another series I was thinking we could run in the first half of the year in a proxy style race would be a NSR GT3 series.  We have run this series before and most of us have at least one of these cars as well as the spares we need for our track.  The cars are easy to set up without needing tons of replacement parts and are fun to run.

NSR currently produces the following cars for the GT3 category:  Audi R8’s, Porsche 997, Mercedes AMG, BMW Z4, Aston Martin ASV, Corvette C6R and Corvette C7R.

Lot’s of good looking cars to pick from.

This would give us another option for the first half of the year. – Slot It Group C, Racer Sideways Group 5 and NSR GT3.

Brian – I like the club vs club talk but I have to wonder if everyone at a club would give 100% when racing someone else’s car if its beating the home town cars?  Hell, I wonder if some of our current racers try as hard with someone else’s car as they do to their own.  If you are in front what is the impetus to drive someone else’s car quicker than your own?

I ran the Modern GT series with a scaleauto viper instead of the tried and true NSR.  I was miserable.  I would like a Corvette, either C6 or C7 and would buy one of the NSRs.  If Shawn ran a C7 I am curious if it is better than the C6 which I think her ran in that series.

I think we should get on the rally track at least for individual practice like the big track and then be able to race together as the virus danger passes.  I also like the idea of running the 2020 rally Porsches, Alfas and Abarth on the big track even thought the set up is probably different.  It would be like the real long rallies with different stages.  Clockwise and counterclockwise on the big track.

Okay, so it likes like at least Q1 and H1 will be proxy series, so this will likely mean series where we don’t mind someone else driving our car.  For new series, we will (hopefully) be able to drive our own cars.  For Q1, Group C should fit the bill, but we will need another “old” series for H1, and possibly, Q2

Given that, and input so far for proposed series, our schedule might look something like this:

Q1     Slot.it Group C

Q2     Group 5?? RevoSlot?? BRM Group C 1/24??

H1     BRM Group C 1/24??  Group 5??  RevoSlot??

Q3     NSR Porsche 908–both tracks??

Q4     Tourist Trophy??  BRM Mini Cars 1/24?? RevoSlot?? NSR GT3??  BRM TransAM??

           Rally series??  NSR Formula Cars??

H1     NSR Formula Cars??  BRM Mini Cars 1/24?? RevoSlot?? NSR GT3??                                      BRM Trans AM??  Rally series??

As you can see, the Q2 and H1 options are more limited and I think we need to decide those two  series first, then see how we will fill out the year.  Once we decide these two series (and Q1 Group C), that will cover the first six months of the year.  That would give us time if we need to change any of the series for the second half of the year.

Also, as Marty posted some pictures of the Policar F1 on the NSR Formula 86/89 forum, I would say that, for now, I am much more in favor of the NSR F1.  Several of us already have cars.  I especially like the generic design of the NSR, which lends it to a greater range of liveries, including 80’s and 90’s Indy cars.  The Policar is a more accurate modern F1 car, but that gives  narrower options.  There also looks to be a lot of parts that could break off, and the double rear axle gearing is an unknown.

I will be sending out an email tomorrow as a reminder for the Annual Zoom Meeting this coming Saturday, after the Houston proxy race.

Russell