F1 - Can this become the shortcourse class of onroad?
 

After watching the F1 class at the IIC race it looks pretty good. With F1 coming to the US it has the same realism that people can relate to and provides a lower cost entry class for onroad racing.

Could F1 do for onroad what shortcourse did for offroad?

Tekin Prez

We tried...It got real big then died.
Our biggest prob is:

F103 kills other cars but they no longer make it and the F104 suck after driving the F103

Yes and no. The problem is rules standards, classes, durability and parts supply. Try to find a replacement Tamiya front wing to match a body set, or for that matter a complete body and wing set. Most of the other parts are available through Tamiya America, but not always. Most F1 racers being built are silver can or 21.5 no timing, no boost. And if you look into TCS rules, the restrictions get even more defined as to what 21.5 motors and controller can replace the brushed setups. The other F1 cars on the market, like 3Racing, offer very good parts support, but by mail order only. By the way, their new car, due for release very soon looks great. And there are other small manufacturers out there. I personally own an RC-Indycars Spitfire which is a 10th pan F1 which would make a nice unlimited F1.

F1 needs a national rule standard, like VTA, that reaches above and beyond so we can go race them anywhere at a national event or just have fun locally. Alphacat, MxRich, Vyger and Lightfoot are probably the 4 best sources for what will and will not work and what classes should exist with what car manufacturers. I think they would tell you that there should be 3 classes. It needs to define the ESC limitations for each class, Motor Winds, Max and Min tire dimensions for foam and rubber (F104 are narrower than F103). It will take a lot of thought.

I love F1. I may not drive it well, but it looks awesome.

Maybe, but people are not such big F1 fans in the USA. They just don't identify with them as much. It would help if there was a RTR kit, that had decent electronics and good tires out of the box that people could just buy one off of the shelf charge a battery and run them. Also, the price point would have to be under 300 bucks...

-Scale F1
-Scale Wtcc Car
-Scale Nascar Sprint Cup Car (2wd, don't count mini revo nascar truck)

I rtr, spec trim, these classes might do good. They might create some interest in America for on-road. Nascar is the "biggest sport in america", so I can see it maybe doing as well as the onroad Slash.

I RD'd a race this weekend, and I was talking to some nitro offroad buddies about onroad. They all have fun with it, but hate having to chassis tweak, tune speedos, gearing, motor, tire sauce, blah. Traxxas needs to come out with a realistic car, that can create a one manufacture class that will get people at the on road track, have a fun club race day, laugh, rub fenders, and leave with minimum money and wrist grease spent.

It can't be anybody but Traxxas. People hear Traxxas and think "rc".

Unfortunately the most available car in the U.S. is "EVIL" handling in kit form. Not very friendly and not RTR.

I don't think F1 can be the slash of onroad. I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks F1 = FRAGILE. Don't get me wrong, I may be totally wrong in my thinking, but that's the perception. All I woulod think about while driving one around is when the front wing is gonna get knocked off. I haven't driven one personally, but that's just my thoughts on it.:blush:

F1 comes and goes all the time. It usually picks up for a little while for because they are very scale looking and inexpensive but don't tend to stay around for long nation wide. When I was a race director for our F1 club our race ran for over 13 years while most of the rest of the US it had gone through 2 cycles of popularity.

This is true but the F1 fan base in the US has been growing ever since the Indy GP. Maybe now is the time. With today's inexpensive electronics in RTRs it would be really easy for an RTR to be under $300 but differences in surfaces and temperature will make it so the kit tires will work for some people but not everyone.

One thing that I learned in our F1 class to make it successful...don't over regulate. I believe that is what kills most spec classes eventually. Regulate just enough that the class is mostly even but still allows a lot of creativity in how you build your chassis. In our class this meant regulating batteries, motors, and size of tires but not compound. Back then though there wasn't 2 different widths of chassis and 2 different lengths like there is now. From what I've seen of the US F1 rules they seem like a good starting point. The problem is the F104W and the people who would like to run them. Maybe if F1 gets popular enough we can have a separate series for them.

I like them and there is even a series here that I can join. The thing holding me back is that they allow foam tires. I see them at the track with rubber gloves, tire additive and *than* suntan lotion (right word ?!). It seems that you wan't a tire truer for yourself also. Not something the big crowd will do.

We drive indoors as well as outdoors on low-grip tarmac (Europe), I hear people complain they drive very difficult even with a silver can. Again, this is challenging, but not something for the big crowds.

But they look very nice ;-)

They really aren't that fragile. Of course the front arms are the most, but they really aren't that bad. I've replaced more on my tc than the f1 in the same time period. F1 could catch on, it is at my track. It just takes a few dedicated F1ers to get out on the track. The chassis don't cost much, you can get a 3racing for $100. Make it a class in big events (see IIC) maybe the upcoming 2012 carpet nats (hint hint) and it will get noticed. Get more car manf. To produce F1 specific chassis (hi speedmerchant). Has to start somewhere. There is more people interested in F1 than you think. But a lot of them just don't want to be the first to get one. I have 2 f109s one wide and one narrow with f104 frontend. Cars are beautiful, just a neat class

I think for on-road to get more new racers, someone should produce completely race legal RTRs that are competitive, durable and easy to drive, for a good price.

I hope F1 is successful. They're awesome looking, but for ease of driving, there are probably better classes for beginners. :)

woot
 

Personally, i love F1. Cheap cars($120 for the F109 or $150 for the F103 99t from horizon). Tires wear like WGT, meaning foams last a good amount of time. Cheap electronics on silvercan(Silver can motor $15, cheap brushed speed control $50, cheap 2x lipo $40) Super durable(havent broken anything on my F103 and it's seen alot of crashes and wall time) and Relatively fast because of the light weight. It's kind of like 12th scale without the precision and technicalness.

I think F1 racing could do well, but the cars need to be available to a wider audience. F1 in real life isn't followed much in the US outside of when they have them race on the oval. F1 also isnt bashable, like slashes are. These aren't very parking lot friendly like touring cars unless the surface is cleaned.

F1 is doing very well in southeast Ontario, Canada right now. We are currently running UF1 rules with the silver can option, but just with Tamiya rubber tires only. Seems to be gaining popularity everyday :nod:

Gidday,

F1 is the class to be in at our local club. We are getting around 10 cars+ every meeting now and we are running everything together F103,F104 and F109. We are using the good old 540 Johnson motor and 2s Lipos with any tyres (foam is what everyone uses). Any F1 body and wings may be used. Its been really exciting racing and done on the cheap.

Mike

I hated my F10 also. :lol: