Guys,
For those of you who have raced in G5SC, have you noticed any variation in the Magnet Marshal (MM) readings from one event to another, assuming you made no changes to your cars? And on race night, have your cars MM readings changed from race to race? I haven't seen any changes in all the cars we've ever checked on race night, once no change was made which can affect downforce. And it's very easy and quick to adjust the downforce using either different tyres and/or wafer magnets. Very easy. Once set, you can forget about downforce and focus on other things like gearing and body float, for example. If you change motor or tyres, it's simple to add or remove a wafer magnet to get downforce where it needs to be. In fact, for those of us who call ourselves "tuners", tuning the magnets is another area where we can apply our skills. Right now I see guys (myself included) at FRC spending a great deal of time tuning their cars, trying different settings till they are happy or run out of time, so don't tell me that the MM requirement is going to make us have to spend time tuning - we're already doing that at every event.
All the MM is there for is to ensure that we have an even playing field where downforce is concerned. Are any of you afraid of this? Are you worried that you can't get an advantage by having more downforce than your competitors? I'm not. In fact I enjoy close competition where cars are very equal in performance and I would like to believe that we all feel the same. Downforce is a simple thing to check and we've seen that it works very well for G5SC. The sorted cars in that class are now very close.
I believe we should at least give it a try, let everyone get their cars competitive over a few events and see how it goes. If necessary, we can separate the "MM" classes to race on different nights, although, as I already said, tuning your downforce on race night won't take much time at all.
Finally, in case you did not notice, I have taken into consideration scratch built cars in all cases. Until our last event, no one took these seriously, but when Steve produced a legitimate one (based on current rules) which got pole on its first outing, suddenly this became a potential problem/threat to the status quo. My suggestions will allow for enterprising guys like Steve to build cars from scratch which will be competitive but not have an advantage over mass-produced cars.
So, here are my slightly adjusted proposed 2015 HS class regulations again, highlighting the things that will need to be checked:
- Body: See Eligable Cars below. Body must comply with General item 2. Windows may not be tinted - interior must be visible. Scratch-built Cars: Fender flares may be added to the standard unflared body.
- Chassis: Standard for the particular model. Not applicable for scratch-built cars.
- Minimum Ground Clearance: 1.0 mm / 0.040".
- Interior: Full interior as standard for the particular model, however this may be altered if necessary, but only to the extent required to install digital chip. Must comply with General item 3.
- Digital Chip: Scalextric brand only.
- Motor: 20,000 RPM or lower, based on manufacturer's specifications.
- Gearing: Standard for the particular model Scratch-built Cars: Must be a 3:1 ratio.
- Motor Pod (where applicable): Free.
- Magnets: Must be located in the standard position(s). Cannot protrude below chassis. Maximum Magnet Marshal downforce of 180 gms (105% = 189 gms). Stacking allowed. Scratch-built Cars: Magnet(s) must be in a single location on the chassis.
- Wheels: Standard for the particular model Scratch-built Cars: Maximum width of 0.25 in (6.35 mm).
- Axles: Standard for the particular model. Tyres may not extend beyond body when viewed from top of car. Scratch-built Cars: Track maximum of 2 in (51 mm)..
- Tyres: Free.
- Guide Flag: Free.
