Rally Racing in Sydney NSW
 

Dear Fellow RC Enthusiasts ..

This thread may or may not go far but Im posting it in the interest of possibly growing or affiliating a group of dedicated Rally Off Road enthusiasts and trying to determine if there is wish or demand for this class.. At the moment I am in discussion with local council re a permanent dedicated rally EP area that may eventuate into something more but as yet this is very early in the works.

Also we would be looking to run this class at known tracks in the Sydney area as most of us are already affiliated to one of these clubs already ..

Can you if interested tell me what youre currently doing if you have a rally 1/10 EP car if you are local in the Sydney area and some ideas of the types of cars you are using... We have to dat around 10 cars now based mainly on a specific Thunder Tiger modified tourer and a DF03... Any feedback would be appreciated ..

Regards,
Ruben

These are the types of cars we are testing thus far

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...h_IMG_0093.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...h_IMG_0060.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...h_IMG_0059.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...h_IMG_0101.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...h_IMG_0098.jpg

Here are two movies we have made one on a popular Sydney Track another in raw bush land and very sandy soil.

http://youtu.be/HOwmUbyXcqk

http://youtu.be/ICG-91jVOgs

Hey Rube,
Best of luck getting this floating.
As for chassis, I dare suggest that chassis type shouldn't be limited by an "approved list". There are many chassis that make fine rally cars that never were intended by the manufacturers, and some that get converted anyhow :lol:
For example, M-03's get lifted and there is a Japanese company making M size rally blocks. The poms use them like that a lot. Another example, I found a Mk1 Escort that is a good fit on a mid wheelbase CC01. Weird, yes. Looks right, yes too.
Also, don't forget the Tamiya rally raid Lancer Dakar on the Humvee chassis. It's physically larger than a sedan chassis, but they are.

Maybe implementing a simple max width (210mm for example) to cull out full size buggies with old 9" shells and a maximum wheel rim diameter of 1.9" (standard touring car)?

As for events, are you thinking more of a Rallycross circuit type thing, or like they do in Poland and Norway - you have to chase after your car on foot? :lol:

Anyway, just my 2c worth.

More rally cross at this stage mate as for rules at the moment its going to be strictly 1/10 off road Tourer type body or cross chassis like the sparrowhawk which shares the same chassis across the on/off road range but max width is 200mm max motor brushless is 13.5 for what we intend to set up.. timing if the track gets up will be based on loop system as per what we already own and compatible with current private transponders.

At this stage I do not want to go into too many rules and kill it before it gets going we already have seen many great classes being killed off bu excessive rules.. this I am trying to keep at the fun end of racing and doing it as economically as possible so as to give a chance for any one with a reasonable budget the ability to race and have fun.. no more no less no AARMAC No other bodies.. ;)

you can count me and at least two other mates in because we have been waiting for a rally club in sydney for yonks!

Recon are you guys using a rally car at the moment if so what type .. Im trying to get as much info as possible .. the aim is to get a fun rally class happening with a competitive streak but EMPHASIS on fun.. We aint Collin McCrea's lmao!! Cheers mate keep posted..;)

Sounds like a fun idea Rubes! :)
Will keep an eye out for more info ;-)

Sounds good Rube. I wouldn't mind doing this for sure, also got some friends who would be interested, I'll let them know! If there was a dedicated rally track/club, that would be great. Keen as!;)

Any idea how the rallying would be run? Like will we compete the same way as club racing over 5min heats, etc?

im keen!
would love to get another df03ra setup if this goes ahead!

Might I suggest that if you are designing a new track (that is using loop timing), that you make it suitable for 1/10th EP buggies and trucks as well. I'm not saying design it around them, if you are interested in rally, then make the track about rallying first, but there is no harm in making a track a little bit wider in places so you could hold a buggy race.

I'm saying this because I think you will have a hard time getting a club/track up and going with just rally cars, as the racing scene is pretty saturated for offroad racing classes at the moment. There are already 11 electric classes at the track I race at for instance. If you allow for other classes in your track design though, you could get more people along to your meets, which helps you with finances, getting exposure for your rally class, critical mass etc.

There is a trend at the moment for big jumps which can be hard on cars, and hard on new drivers. Vintage cars also don't like big jumps. A proper rally circuit would have to have much smaller jumps, and features too, because of the travel of the suspension, so you could probably attract a few people with buggies to a rally circuit for that reason.

Thank you for the responses thus far..

To answer some of the questions so far ,,

We have an either all option to run a standard loop system or loop start box like in Europe however Im not sure how the follow you car option would work in Australia it may but some would prefer Rally cross style ..

The track would be at this stage in our minds anyway about half the width of current tracks although this is moreso to give the class more realism and dependent on how much land we can secure..

At this stage we are concentrating on just Rally .. 1/10 buggies and trucks are not on our minds at the moment and there are tracks like Casso that cater for flowing easier driving already hence why we chose it to do some testing.. I hear what one of the guys said re high jumps etc .. as Im now getting older Im starting to like the original flowing tracks too but that may be something for the future.. Like I stated earlier were not closing off the use of existing tracks if were allowed to use them either this is more of an excersise to see what popularity exists to take on the class...

Cheers ;) Keep the comments coming... We will be trying to arrange a demo class run of these cars shortly so people can have a look at these things ...;)

Yeah. Sydney has a healthy number of buggy tracks, which do not suit rally cars. A track for rally cars would be boring for buggies. Two different requirements entirely.

Rube, not that I have tried it, but wouldn't 13.5's be too much for TC based and sized rally chassis?

I'll get working on my (was Adriano's) DF03RA and see if I can help out with your demo if you need me.

To be honest at the moment the only reason we havent capped the cars below 13.5 is because we have been testing a concept and a modification which was tested with about five different makes of cars and on several surfaces.. if anything as you might see from some of our vids we really raced these things to the limit .. the soft sandy dirt you see in one is not an ideal place to run these but we did to test the ability of the cars as we also have done with things like diffs, shafts etc.. compared to what the guys in europe do we really have gone far and beyond..

Really the set up for instance my son is trying now on the Mitsubishi is a plain jane 13T with 35amp speedy.. we have some guys with 17.5 the only thing there is you cannot maintain a good slide .. I have been using 10T and 13.5 T not for anything other than trying to see where the limitations of the car and sustainable fun driving lies... But 13T looks at this stage and shaft driven cars to be ideal...

And BadMutha you get thet DF03 Running and make sure youre with us ya hear!!! ;)

Going with the hobbywing mini setup would make a lot of sense. Easy to obtain, easy for people to switch the system over between cars.
Allowing Tamiya minis , front or rear wheel drive would be pretty cool as well.

I hear ya and like I stated in my earlier post I am extremely keen in making it

(1) Affordable to all comers
(2) Not Overburdening with the rules
(3) Open to all 1/10 Tru and Open Scale Tourers and Minis front or rear wheel
(4) Based on standard motors and simple speedies.. no need for a super duper I have everything with half Ill never use technology.

Best of all we can do something similar to real Rally especially rally of yesteryear where you have open, group B and Group A etc... The possibilities are there so front or rear wheeled needent be discriminated out of that..

The class as the band of guys we have at the moment just want to have fun and enjoy the cars and company.. :nod:;)

Your last sentence Rube, is it.... There was too much dickheadedry for me, time for a reboot.

I did get my RA's issue fixed, just now, and I will share it with you all.

When I picked it up, it had a lot of positive camber on the back. When I looked, the dogbones were bottoming out hard in the cups, like they were too long. I checked the manual, it has the same bones front and rear, and there were the correct part. Very curious.

After some trial and error, I have found that universal/CV shafts for TA01, TL01, FF02 and possibly TT01 work a charm in the rear. At the max droop the factory configured shocks allow, the "top" pin is near the edge of the groove of the diff cup, but in there safely with 0 degree camber.

Now to find a body I like :sweat: Something like an old Skyline or something you'd see at a club rally....