Jspeed

Patricio,

Cool that your wife likes to paint your lids for you.

On the topic of allowing “Belt Drive GT/Rally Game” chassis, the “Mexico Race”, as you put it:

Realize that we are talking about the 2011 Ipanema GT World Championships.

Your concept of this being the “first step for Wallet Wars”, is really out of context given the event’s international flavor and the total financial expenditures those attending will incur in order to participate on a global stage.

These rules apply to our 2011 GT World Championship event. The “belt” cars are only legal to race in the GT “Open” class. They are not within the rules structure of our much more stringent GT “Spec” class category.

I have personally championed the “GT Spec” class concept as a more “level playing field” alternative to “Open” class racing on these forums for many years.

Nevertheless, our GT “Open” class racing rules will always allow for much more international GT racing tolerance, serving as a “staging ground” to promote the freedoms of racer experimentation, innovation and fun.

See ya at the races!

Tabushi

iTrader: (1)

I'm with you on 90% Jeff. I don't know but I already tested good prepared rally cars in Spain and they are totally different animals than put GT cars. And at the end, all people usually goes over wallet to get the more fancy speedy car and those are RG belt driven ones, at least for me would be a shame to see in the future all going to belt single speed thrillion ports engine cars Hehehehehe

Cya !

Ps : - you have a pending PM to answer man !

Pit-racer

iTrader: (4)

GT8 racing was great in ATX again. We are growing in electric cars also. GT8 is great! Anyone know when R.O.A.R. going to finish up on the rules for this class?

Jspeed

Patricio,

Your fears are understood since you’re running only a single GT class category in your country.

This is why we offer two distinct and separate GT categories that offer racers the freedom to choose the GT racing class that makes them happy.

It’s all about GT racer’s freedom Pato, as opposed to what appears to be your choice of limiting the most important and fun part of our sport; that being the ability for some of us who wish to embrace technology and new product innovations in a more Open class structure.

Only having a “Spec” class or a “Middle of the road” GT class as you & some others continually suggest, does an injustice to “Spec” & “Open” concepts and all GT racers that have the desire to run one, the other or even both types of GT nitro racers.

To correct your fears once again, the use of "Belt Drive" GT/Rally Game cars is limited to our "GT Open" class only. This has been done in an attempt to unite and help grow our scale of racing on a global level.

Our "GT Spec" remains "Shaft-Drive" chassis only. These facts should put an end to all of your fears and help you sleep easy at night. Lol,

BTW, you never sent any pm to me.

See ya at the races!

Is it March yet?

MikaR

edit: Jeff said it all.

Jspeed

Mika, wish you could make the "Worlds", would love to see your GT Open class creation running on the big track.

So, this June in Finland huh, what happened to July?

Tabushi

iTrader: (1)

I really wish im wrong ... my main fear is not the "go open and spec", is the fact that today GT Class is too small to separate and/or embrace mixes of classes ... thats all,

Anyway, wish you success in Mexico with the event im going to Peru next week to race GT too (well, and 1/10th), will be posting videos and pictures of the event, very low turn out of 15-20 drivers on GT but it seems to be on par or over Mexico count, this class needs to grow !!, is so much fun, competitive and low budget ...

cya

Pato

Jspeed

Pato,

This is not a question of separation of GT class racing into Spec & Open categories.

Rally/Game Open classes have been in existence around the world for several years before the Spec concept started to become popular. The fact is that there are more guys out there with GT cars that weren’t given the opportunity to race under our previous Spec or Open class rules. That’s not very cool and has been changed.

I’m sensing your underlining fear of a possible superiority between belts vs. shaft drives in your last post. Are they faster or just a different style of driving?

Some of our international GT families race both chassis designs well together in their form of Open class. Belt & shaft drive 200mm cars have races together for years and done well together. I believe it’s really a ”no brainer” to allow both in the GT Open class, as it unifies the scale more around the world.

Anything can happen in the fun, ruff & tumble world of GT racing. You should remember that it’s the driver a lot more than the car on the track and that our races are decided with a minimum of 45 minutes or even 1 hour mains.

Yes, this year’s GT Worlds are set for 1 hour A Mains for Spec & Open.

GT Spec remains Spec, no changes to the original category concept or philosophy behind it.

At Ft. Myers, Art Carbonell once told me “To finish first, first you must be able to finish”, pearls of wisdom to remember on the driver’s stand.

rcmikel

I can't wait to see how my shaft drive runs with the belt drive cars at the worlds in Mexico City.

MikaR

Not sure about the cars there, but hope you guys realize RG cars don't come with a tranny and one cannot be bought as an option part for these cars (since it's illegal in South Europe). I don't say it's a must with better engines but the advantage is on the shaft-side. It takes quite a bit of effort to custom install a tranny to an RG car, definitely not a drop-in.

Hi Jeff,
me too. Would have been awesome.

Re the Nordics event, our local racing schedule is so full due to the short summer we have and a million of different classes, both on and offroad, so it seems rather difficult to find a suitable date. It also seems that I will travelling abroad in July (partially). Hopefully we can slip in a day in July for the Nordics event. Push the swedes to setup one in July, ok

Jspeed

+1 Mika, the belt cars must also run non-centax clutches, which will level them out more in line with shaft drive cars too.

June or July is cool with me, as long as its at least a 2 day race, I'm diggin it.

Team Alpha R/C

Hello Guys, just to share my opinion about the difference between belt
drive X shaft drive car's

Last Year in 1/8 Rally GT Brazilian Championships, the organization
allowed the belt drive car's , the most part of the local competitors
bought the car kit Crono with belt drive to race against shaft drives, looking a
chassi more competitive than shaft drive chassi , but , what all
competitors was looked in the track is the racer's with shaft drives doing
the best lap time's in the qualy , car's with belt drive had problems to
do the circuit , who's had the both kit's , chose shaft drive car to race .

In the final race , if my memory don't fail , we had 2 racer's with belt drive
against 8 racer's with shaft drive .

IDK what's the advantage of belt drive than the shaft drive car's , but
the worst part of this car's is about the price of the kit's ( more
expensive ) and needs more care (with the belts) .

whipnet

The shaft drive opposed to the belt drive is what piqued my interest in GT cars. I would not own one if they were belt driven.

*

JLock

iTrader: (4)

There is no reason to panic. Jspeed is including the Rally Game cars in the GT Open class at the Ipanema GT Worlds to accomodate anyone with one of those cars that is willing to make the trip to race. You don't want to turn away a racer just because he doesn't have a IGT1/IGT2/DM-1/DM-One Spec car. This is a one-time deal only. This is about inclusion, not exclusion.

MikaR

I think the french guy Romuald31 told that on their track (don't know what's their average lap) the belt cars one second faster than shaft on average.

Myself, I like the shaft cars, but this is my 4th season starting with GT's so obviously I'm looking for a bit more now than what I could get with my Kyosho GT. My RRR drives fast and the chance is I could get close with this belt car.

1/8th onroad is not for me, our tracks don't support it, and I do like the GT style bodies, the size, rubber tires etc.