Post by otr on Mar 24, 2009 11:04:32 GMT
If you were to ask me what started me R/C racing or indeed when it started my memory seems to be a bit vague on that point. Must be an age thing I suppose. Many many years ago I can remember going to see off road racing at Iford and thinking what great fun it looked. Those days’ people were racing Tamiya off road buggies mainly. There seems to be a gap then in my memory, maybe I got married or discovered girls, cant remember exactly what it as but I guess it happens to everyone at some point.
Some years passed and I had started taking my young son to real touring car racing. This was the early days when the cars were just road models prepared for the track and still looked like the cars you could buy for the road. I remember at some point passing a (long since gone) model shop in Bournemouth and in the window it had a model of the Audi A4 touring car that Frank Biela was winning everything with at the time. Going in to look at it I can remember the Tamiya model with its revolutionary 4 wheel belt drive system and being staggered at the incredible detail. From that point on I wanted one!
Not long after that my son’s birthday gave me the excuse to get this model for him and soon after I was team mechanic at local race meetings. I still can remember all the tricks and dodges we used to try to get the most power from those sealed can motors. Twisting armatures, spending hours testing all the motors in the shop to find the best ones, secretly taking them apart to tweak the brushes etc. All good fun! He did quite well with that car and it still brings back good memories. Racing on tarmac in Bournemouth, Gang Warily on the outdoor track and Bashley village hall. Those days of course there were no computers and laps were counted by one person shouting out numbers as cars went past and someone else putting ticks in boxes. Then at the end ticks were added up and the most ticks won the race. Of course there were always arguments about missed laps and no one had any idea of lap times.
We progressed to the Yokomo YR4 I think and at that time we bought two so I could have a go as well. I remember the micro oil shocks and steering servos held in by double sided tape, 27 MHz radios and always interference problems. Cells were 1700 or if you were able to afford it and wanted to be at the top then 1900 SCR packs. The ultimate! Running modified 12 turn motors the trick was always to get the gearing right so you had enough power to finish the race without dumping but still be quick, quite an art in those days. Tyres could only be had as tyres and you would have the same tyre with maybe 3 or 4 different types of insert ready to cope with different track conditions. Electronic speed controls were certainly a bit hit or miss and frequently exploded in clouds of evil smelling smoke. Quite a sight some times. Computers were introduced for lap timing although someone still had to call out the car numbers while someone pressed the right buttons. Still room for missed laps but a step in the right direction.
Seems that today things have got so much easier. The amount of work we had to do to get ready for a race meeting and while we were actually racing seems staggering now. The advent of brushless motors, lipos, Spektrum radios and fully computerised lap counting has changed the sport so much. Many of you would not really understand how much easier it all is these days but then that also is relative as speeds have got greater, handling is far more important and technical, set up is everything and the range of different products available is awesome.
All things progress as is the nature of any sport. Mainly for the good I have to say. I do look back sometimes though and wonder if we will see the same amount of changes over the next few years as we have seen already since I started.
I wonder what the rest of you remember best about your early racing days.
Some years passed and I had started taking my young son to real touring car racing. This was the early days when the cars were just road models prepared for the track and still looked like the cars you could buy for the road. I remember at some point passing a (long since gone) model shop in Bournemouth and in the window it had a model of the Audi A4 touring car that Frank Biela was winning everything with at the time. Going in to look at it I can remember the Tamiya model with its revolutionary 4 wheel belt drive system and being staggered at the incredible detail. From that point on I wanted one!
Not long after that my son’s birthday gave me the excuse to get this model for him and soon after I was team mechanic at local race meetings. I still can remember all the tricks and dodges we used to try to get the most power from those sealed can motors. Twisting armatures, spending hours testing all the motors in the shop to find the best ones, secretly taking them apart to tweak the brushes etc. All good fun! He did quite well with that car and it still brings back good memories. Racing on tarmac in Bournemouth, Gang Warily on the outdoor track and Bashley village hall. Those days of course there were no computers and laps were counted by one person shouting out numbers as cars went past and someone else putting ticks in boxes. Then at the end ticks were added up and the most ticks won the race. Of course there were always arguments about missed laps and no one had any idea of lap times.
We progressed to the Yokomo YR4 I think and at that time we bought two so I could have a go as well. I remember the micro oil shocks and steering servos held in by double sided tape, 27 MHz radios and always interference problems. Cells were 1700 or if you were able to afford it and wanted to be at the top then 1900 SCR packs. The ultimate! Running modified 12 turn motors the trick was always to get the gearing right so you had enough power to finish the race without dumping but still be quick, quite an art in those days. Tyres could only be had as tyres and you would have the same tyre with maybe 3 or 4 different types of insert ready to cope with different track conditions. Electronic speed controls were certainly a bit hit or miss and frequently exploded in clouds of evil smelling smoke. Quite a sight some times. Computers were introduced for lap timing although someone still had to call out the car numbers while someone pressed the right buttons. Still room for missed laps but a step in the right direction.
Seems that today things have got so much easier. The amount of work we had to do to get ready for a race meeting and while we were actually racing seems staggering now. The advent of brushless motors, lipos, Spektrum radios and fully computerised lap counting has changed the sport so much. Many of you would not really understand how much easier it all is these days but then that also is relative as speeds have got greater, handling is far more important and technical, set up is everything and the range of different products available is awesome.
All things progress as is the nature of any sport. Mainly for the good I have to say. I do look back sometimes though and wonder if we will see the same amount of changes over the next few years as we have seen already since I started.
I wonder what the rest of you remember best about your early racing days.
