RogueIV wrote: ↑Mon Apr 14, 2025 4:05 pm
I feel like the Brits go off the deep end with some of their scrutineering in these revival classes. I've said it before and I'll say it again, make rules simple, over regulating everything just makes everyone's life more annoying. Who wants to sit there teching every car?
Our vintage racing here in the UK is much more mature than other countries, there are very few vintage collectors racing and heats are usually filled with whatever the latest re-release is as it's competitive "vintage style " racing. We only recently introduced a 10.5T motor limit because the fastest buggies even in the earlier classes were running 7.5T and 8.5T motors in both 2wd and 4wd.
In the UK we had simple rules 10 years ago, when the only people racing vintage were collectors who took it as an opportunity to get together, show off and discuss vintage cars, and have a bit of racing on the side. The only real rule was that cars were put in classes based on their age. No one cared about running modern parts because re-releases didn't exist outside of Tamiya and the limited edition RC10 back then. Then old racers started turning up a few years later who started to take the racing seriously, so suddenly we had drivers being allowed to run modern big bore shocks because the racers couldn't find brand new vintage shocks for less, even though you could find lightly used ones for a lot less. Then modern slippers were allowed. Then you find cars turning up with later model suspensions on them. The we had the Chimera Model Sport team turn up with an Optima with a 2 inch longer wheelbase on a milled 5mm thick carbon fibre plate chassis. After having been told it was too extreme they turned up the next year with this creation.
It's an Optima, with a brass front bulkhead, a 5mm thick fibreglass chassis with pockets machined in it for the electrics to sit in to lower the centre of gravity, and all the electrics moved forward so it could achieve the same weight distribution as modern buggies. This buggy is why we now have rules that only 50g of stick on weights are allowed, all alloy upgrade parts must be the same shape as the original plastic part it replaces, and the battery must be in the same position as the original chassis, so the weight distribution is the same as the original. The Chimera team always uses the Parma eagle body on all their cars because it's a forward cab shell, but it also makes it very hard to tell whether they are running a longer wheelbase.
Our rules are so lenient that using the JC Racing RC10 gearbox that uses B6 internals is allowed. Last year we had the Trickbits YZ10R and Rubrix Racing RX4E, both of which are very expensive modern interpretations designed specifically to be used with brushless systems and people are unhappy that those are allowed as they are only loosely connected to the original 1990s chassis. At least they are a lot nearer the original 1990s designs than the RC104WD is to an MIP conversion. I personally have more of a problem with those 4wds that dominate their group than I do for the RC10, because the long arms and stealth gearbox means it should run in the 89-93 class with Lazers, Cat 2000s a Top Force Evos where it shouldn't be competitive which is why there is talk here of giving them their own class, although I'm sure some will try and get it put in with the Optimas because the original MIP chain cars were around back then. But the problem is if it is allowed in even though it didn't exist back then, then owners of other custom made buggies that theoretically could have existed but didn't, such as the optima above, could argue that they should be allowed as well. And yes, we will have racers here arguing that their one off creations should be allowed.
