When are you officially going overboard....

[ElSecundo]

It's overboard when your 'fun' is taking away from others' fun. In some series, cooling the motor isn't going overboard. For what most of us are doing in the basement, that's overboard.

If the series is centered around wringing every last hundredth of a second out of a car, go for it. But for most series, you should really only do to your car what the other guys are willing to do to their cars. If some of the guys think a speed trick is over the top, then it is over the top, and you're going to start losing guys in the club.

At the very least, tell them that cooling the motor is a 'tweak', and if you want to do that, you'll have to do it under green with whatever pit stop rules you have in place.

[indybob007]

Their is always some nuts in every hobby that winning is all that counts. Their usally the 30 year old guy who still lives at home in his parents basement. We only run stock cars with rubber tires and another series with silicone tires. But mostly rubber. Very simple. Indybob

[nhdungeonracer]

[HomeRacingWorld]

[ElSecundo]

[btaylor]

Class racing is the same in 1;1,as it is in slots. There should be a level at which everyone finds there comfort zone.
I raced commercial tracks in the 60's,and started out with bringing my home track cars to race other home track cars in that class, very fun,and pretty competitive as far as door to door racing. I moved up in class as paper route money allowed,and tried to stay with that next faster group,as long as you had the same basic platform, driving was the only winning factor. Then came the all out Brass wars in 1/24th! Cubic Dollars, and untold hours were spent by some getting the last ounce of power out of them. Very heated competition,and flaring tempers were the order of the day on Saturday afternoons when the clubs came to fight it out. What amazed me as a youngster, was that when all the arguing about rule breaking and tear downs was over, A lot of these same guys would break out the Home set type cars, and would be laughing and racing with us juniors who had the same type cars. I even remember winning a race or two from these guys in that class. (not many) I often wonder where these edge pushing midnight tuners finally found there comfort zone? did they expend all there hobby money on the bad boy toys of the day, and then settle back into the fun and comfort of RTR cars? or did frustration drive them away from the hobby altogether?

Bob

[cgingras]

Great thread. But I can't believe we're already in its third page without anyone mentioning IROC racing.

I started club racing in 2000 or 2001 with a great group of guys here in Québec, QC. We ran 6-lap sprint races, crash-n-burn. 10 series each night, mostly stock Scalextric cars on plastic tracks. To be part of the club, you had to have 10 cars and a simple controller (stock SCX controllers were used by everyone). Everyone ran by the spirit of the rules and we had fun fun fun. Only tools needed were a Philips screwdriver, some oil, some grease and a bottle of CA glue.

2 or 3 years later, we got a new member (his last name was Goodspeed, no kidding!). He started buying 4 or 5 cars for each series, exchanging magnets and motors to create the fastest combination from stock cars. When he did not win, he was calling us cheaters because he couldn't lose with all he did to his cars. We had to change something. And we did.

We switched to IROC racing. Goodspeed disappeared. Fun returned big time. 4 cars from the same series, mostly stock but prepared by the same person. Put them on the track, they stay in the same lane, drivers just rotate among cars. Now more 10 years later, we're still doing it the same way in our club. We've gone from 6 to 10 laps, from crash-n-burn to one off allowed, from 10 to 8 series each racing night. And this year, to spice things up a bit, we're doing 4 series of 10-lap sprint races, then a mini-enduro with 15-minute heats. Always IROC, less stock than before, of course, but not crazy-tuned. Nobody can cheat, nobody's spending a ton of money and the social aspect of the hobby is still the most important.

The only difference is that now, instead of running on plastic tracks with original SCX controllers, we run on wood tracks with Difalco controllers. And we have a little more than a Philips screwdriver, glue, grease and oil in our slot boxes. And all that is because of Dickie!!

After I met Dickie in 2005, we got to meet the guys in the Northeast US. And that's when the tuning aspect of the hobby kicked in, big time. Racing with other groups gave us the opportunity to learn many things. And to build great friendships. We're still racing together on a regular basis, driving 6, 8, 12 and even 16 hours to get to the tracks we race on. We got passports, they got passports and now, «slot car racing» is not an unknown expression anymore at the Stanstead US-Canada border.

Those races are somewhat more competitive (but still LOTS of fun!) and maybe some people look at us like the crazy slotters that spend way too much time and money on their cars, shirts, hats, sneakers and lane-assorted shoelaces! But that's how we bring the fun into those competitive races. That, and all the jokes that are flying around the track each time we race. We now know how to build and drive fast cars. But most of all, we get back together for the fun of it. February 7th is the next scheduled race between us, at my track in Québec City. But you know what, the Saturday race was just an excuse to get together during the Québec Winter Carnaval to see the canoe race on the icy St.Lawrence River on Sunday.

And when our US friends will be back in their respective homes after the weekend, we'll continue to get together on Friday nights within our local club for our bi-monthly IROC racing nights. And we'll continue to laugh and tell jokes while we're driving. For the last 5 or 6 years, we know who will come up on top of the standings at the end of the season, and who will be the runner-up, and the 3rd, and the 4th. And we don't care. Because when we race together, we're having fun. And when we're on the same racing team, we know everyone will do a good job and that we'll have a shot at winning, because it's fun to race together.

Sorry for the loooong post, I got carried away!

[HomeRacingWorld]

:text-goodpost:

[munter]

Our group have had "winners" who are there to win. When they swept everyone aside they stopped coming. I guess they had achieved what they wanted which was some ego fulfilling thing at the expense of others.

I once made the comment, "I would rather lose looking good than win looking bad" at which point the "winner" said something to the opposite.

[chappy]

Our group has set rules for each class, some stock ,others open, but the great thing is that all the guys in the group share their info so everyone has access to it. In fact our top drivers will even build cars for other guys.
Its all about fun in our group, and the good builders help the not so good builders, and the good drivers help the not so good drivers.
We have good close racing, but we have loads of fun and friendship.
I'm lucky to be with such a good group.
Bob

[oldtymer]

I'm I overboard if I'm freezing my beer instead of my motor ? On the serious side all your comments are great and thanks to this site we are all able to understand what makes people tick and a great way to make new friends . Thanks to the Bensenville Bombers for taking me under their wing and showing me its ALL about getting together as grown men and acting like young kids .I had enough Competition in the real world of dirt racing that teaches you that money wins trophy . Life itself is challenging enough and I don't have enough time to reinvent the wheel to be the first one to the finish . I'll jump down off of my stump now . I thank ALL of you fellas for making this hobby a BLAST .

Fred :auto-checkeredflag: :auto-checkeredflag:

[woodman]

I think it has gone overboard when it takes a microscope to see the allen set screw in a 1/32 wheel....I think the sizes that "fit all" since the 60's was fine...Seems like the HO industry invaded the 1/32 scale....my rant......

Oh" and overboard at all cost to win races Quote:There are two other things that make club racing fun in our group. Good drivers are willing to run their slower cars in order to keep even with the competition, and we use a bracket racing handicap system......

We used to give handy cap laps to the slower competitors as much as 40 laps as I remember back in the late 80's running 3 min. per lane on a king track....

[nhdungeonracer]

Camaraderie

Ah... So I was missing the "ra"...No wonder I couldn't speel it correctly... :lol:

[a110alpine]

sorry bruce but there is no such thing as a "fun race". when you race you compete. there will only be one winner and the rest of the guys in the room are losers. what i have read here is that most of you are afraid of competition. this is a big problem for the hobby because a lot of guys are leaving it. i actually think the manufacturers have caught on to this and this is why they have included several ghost cars in their digital sets . try to concentrate on your actions at the track. and only your actions. you should not concern yourself with anybody else when you are racing. make a point that every time you leave a slot car track you should have learned something from the experience. write it down and slowly you will become better at the track. that in itself should make you feel real good about the experience. hey you are spending big bucks here so you should be having a lot of fun. the last thing you want is not to enjoy it. if i guy is always winning then watch his actions and study his driving technique. you have a set of rules and if someone is caught cheating then it is DQ time. sense that there is something wrong then add one more rule. look, to be a true competitor you have to enjoy the thrill of competition. it is really not a test against someone else but a test against yourself. once you grasp this your approach to the hobby will be on a different level entirely. winning and losing will no longer be an issue. and yes i used to compete... a lot. it doesn't matter what. competition is all the same. the ultimate test is with yourself.
that said , i think all of you guys go too fast. this is model car racing not rocket racing. lose the mags and lower the voltage to maybe 6 volts. races are won in the corners. trim the guides so the cars have to go slower in them. get rid of the brakes on the controllers. slow races require more skill and are a lot more fun. fast races make for less interest except for the very few. . this has been proven over and over. there is a reason scalextric classic track was so shallow for decades. it required more skill. now that is my rant.

[Ember]

No one said losing was an issue.