This sounds more sensible but was NOT what I was told by Scott. He said that even the "pro" class would be limited to keep the costs low.

On the Beds forum I also put a post up and said that if anyone needed any help at all with information about micro's then PM me and i'll help out. If I don't know the answer to something, i'll certainly know someone who does :thumbsup:

I think the best way to sum up your situation with Scott Alec, is to say you had a "personality clash"

If Chris can run his micro, I don't see why you couldn't run yours. Whether you get on with Scott or not is a completely seperate issue. Although internet arguments are often the result of simple misunderstandings and I'm sure a visit to the club to talk to each other face to face will sort it.

Sounds good to me :thumbsup:

I used to race at a club that had a similar attitude to this, guess what, they went tits up. You need to broaden your horizons, get some people in from further affield, if you don't you club could suffer the same fate! And with your attitude to things (see quote above) it probably will because one thing is for certain you have put me off coming to race there. :thumbdown:

Good evening c0sie

You wouldn't believe how mis-quoted I have been on this forum!!!

You are more than welcome to come along and race your 1:18 scale buggy/truck. This week is our Christmas Party and probably not the best opportunity to get the best out of your car as we are messing around with racing caravans and RC football. Take a look at our racing schedule online at our website for details of all the meetings in 2010 for our indoor venue:

http://www.bedsrcmcc.co.uk/racing-schedule2010.php

I really didn't want to go over old ground again, but trust me c0sie when I tell you that the £150 quotes have all been taken out of context (see PM). The club is running anything in the new year and the committee will in due course formulate some rules for this class running at our club indoors.

If you like, feel free to pop by this Friday if your free to introduce yourself and you'll see that we are all a friendly bunch despite what some may think who've never even been to our club :( ...

It's good to see more systems coming to market like this. It will be interesting to find out if I-Lap PT work with this system. This is what the local scene has been crying out for a long time. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the support Darren. We start running I-Laps in the New Year - watch this space :thumbsup:

I remember rc caravan racing each Christmas at Frodsham growing up, awesome fun!

Yep, I think it will be a blast.

I remember some 30-odd years ago I raced a Christmas Tree against a Santa and his reindeer :cry: found it almost impossible to drive as we were laughing so much... :lol:

On a personal note, i think i'd be wary of the "line of sight" method of transponders unless used indoors on an on-road circuit where infra-red or UV light can't upset the system or there isn't any clods of mud to obscure the signals. Not saying the system wouldn't work outdoors etc, but i've used AMB for a long time & really can't say i've tried an alternative to the AMB type system so it's every bit a case of "better the devil you know" so i'd want to see it for myself rather than take the word of a few racers or people who use the system before handing over any of the club funds or any cash of my own - preferably on a very sunny day & also on a muddy off-road track. I'm not wanting to "big up" AMB here because i know it as a system has flaws of it's own mainly the cost - it's a lot of wad for what it does & the transponders aren't exactly known for reliability, but as i say, it's a system i know

Plus someone hinted at "national drivers" this may be a discussion for a different day as IMHO there should be an industry standard for the national series which seems to be AMB, but with AMBIT on the horizon (which i think will become the norm come the end of the next year) & more talk of people like Tag Heuer wanting to come into Modelsport as costs of technology fall on the more expensive 1:1 race timing systems etc it puts a lot of burden on the drivers who favour AMB, but then is it the discretion of the driver himself to decide or the clubs to manage the timing system or dare i say even the BRCA to step in & possibly come up with a universal standardised system along with IFMAR & ROAR etc - if only for use on tracks used or deemed suitable for nationals? There is also talk of handout transponders being phased out (there has been for years i know), already in the 12th national it is a rule you have to have your own PT - however i do believe there are a couple on standby that you can borrow should you have a breakdown or if you have not read that rule & turned up without to your 1st ever tournament, but this is a discretionary move on the part of the organisation team.

Yet does this REALLY just apply to national drivers.. I race at 3 local clubs, 2 currently use AMB, 1 still uses manual counting, but 2 clubs have said they considered a change next year to a newer system, so i'd hate to think handout transponders were stopped & i'd have to buy a collection of transponders to suit the individual clubs timing system i.e. have an AMB PT to race at club x & an ILap transponder to race at club Y & perhaps even a Tag-heuer (for arguments sake) transponder to race at club Z.. i'm only a humble club, 2nd tier & regional tournament racer, so haven't got sponsors to bail me out or help me out with finances to buy expensive personal transponders to suit all outcomes, so the whole thing may get costly or i may be restricted to racing at the club that uses a more "industry standard" timing system or still uses handout transponders.

the tag system works with amb transponders in karting as far as i know since it was asked if the track in aylebury could be used and they run tag timing but i was told amb transponders will work to i have no proof but this was said to me

I think their is a difference in mis-quoting someone and writing something completely different to what you mean.

It is a forum, people see words, they then put those words together and that equates to someone elses opinion. This is what we did with your

I'm not interested in having people from all over the country visiting our club and racing. We chose a system that is best for our club and our local drivers.

How else exactly are we supposed to take that without mis-quoting you :confused:

As for the ones who post about using the I-LAP for outside racing.Here in the States almost all of the tracks that i know that use I-lap ,use it for outdoor DIRT off road racing.With NO problems at all.
I understand that people who already own AMB PT's can't understand why a track would go to the I-LAP.To them this is another expense for them to buy a I-LAP PT .This is not a big deal.Most track's that have I-LAP have atleast one set of track transponder.This means NO EXTRA expense for the racer who doesn't want to buy one ,but wants to race at the track once in a while.

STOP trying to come up with negative things on system you have no experience with,once you try you will change your mind about!!! because the AMB is not perfect!!:thumbdown:

sean

I agree that you have not mis-quoted me here, but it has been taken out of context. I stand by every word I said in that quote in terms of the context that I was saying it.

It was in relation to a discussion about why we chose I-Laps over AMB. Some have said that an AMB system would be the best choice for a club so that anyone visiting would be able to run their existing PT. Well, as I said in my post we made a decision based on sound financial sense for our club and it's members who race week in week out and are fully paid up members to our club. The decision was not taken to please those who currently use AMB systems who might want to come along to our club from time to time in the hope that they can run with the PT they already have.

I appreciate that some may find that offensive, well I'm sorry if you do :(. We welcome anyone to come along and we'll have spare I-Laps PT's which can be hired on a race night. Our club rules are clearly stated on our web site and as I have tried to express several times now, we are a new club with limited funds and we cater for those who've raced before but more so we cater for those new to the sport who might feel daunted at attending more well established larger clubs that might have large numbers of drivers who compete at a regional or national level. Our club offers a warm welcome to all.

Yes we do have some club members who do race at other clubs and enjoy travelling further afield and we never stop them from doing that and they also enjoy racing every Friday with us. These guys have AMB PT's and none of them have even questioned the fact that they will now have to purchase an I-Laps PT too to continue racing with us. It's all part of the hobby.

If I-Laps is good enough for 1000's of Americans then it's good enough for our club members and guests here in the UK. :thumbsup:

Again, as I've said before, for every 1 negative post about I-Laps, I probably have 2 positive enquiries - there are a lot of clubs watching this space, I-Laps is here to stay :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Not meant as a dig at anyone, but why are clubs charging for handout transpondrs when using the cheap system and people find this acecptable but there would be mass uproar and boycotting of any club that dared to charge users for handouts ith the AMB (expensive) system?

I can see your point, but i will say this.. i've seen people at club level leave a handout transponder in their car & (accidentally) take it home with them, so i can see why some clubs may say they require a deposit if using a club transponder or impose hefty annual membership fee's to boost the clubs coffers. Because even if they come back the next week & hand it back in, the transponder battery will be flat & unusable so causes a headache for the race controller & of course replacing stolen, broken or missing transponders is costly.. a few AMB20 transponders going missing may be causing enough of a financial loss to close the club.

Plus i suppose the cheaper the transponder the more tempting it is for people to steal it because they are of the mindset "if its only a cheap transponder, the club make enough money they can afford it, i've paid enough money to this club".. not saying it's right, but that is the mindset of some people.

Whether AMB is perfect or not, the fact that many use PT's and clubs have pretty much all gone with one system makes life a whole bunch of convenient for everyone - which outweighs any imperfections it may have in my opinion.

Personally, if a club I raced at went to another system away from PT then id consider racing elsewhere for my own enjoyment (if another club locally were to race that same day). If a club also charged for loan of handouts, it'd be no consideration, id stay at home in protest given no other choices. But whats my opinion matter, its a local club for local people. :thumbdown:

You nearly had me swaying and then you came out with that corker :thumbsup:

The americans like cars that don't handle and make you sea sick, they can only get 200bhp out of 8 litre engines, they call crisps chips.

But i am sure you are right that they have chosen to go with the cutting edge of timing technology, afterall they are famous for their watches, or was that the swiss?

Is there no way of setting up a "hand-out transponder database" then? Clubs can register their transponders, and should one go walkabout, it can be declared as having being unlawfully taken. Then if it's used at another club, it would show up on the database where it's been used, and who used it.

I'm no expert in these matters, but if possible surely it would provide a decent enough deterrent?

As Scott has said the club was started with limited funds. It soon came apparent that manually counting laps was becoming a PITA.

We looked into what we could do…

The AMB system was out of the running due to costs, the I lap system was chosen due to it having a good reputation both in the USA and the small number of clubs that use it in the UK. The I lap system still had to be funded somehow. Everyone at the club agreed to add an extra couple of £’s to the cost of the transponder to help cover the cost of the main I lap system, as the club did not have the funds to purchase the system outright.

With the sale of the transponders to the members, funds that the club had and additional contributions by others we had enough money to purchase the I lap system.

I guess the whole thing comes down to money or the lack of it. For the club to have purchased the whole I lap system with funds coming in by weekly revenue it would have still taken a long time before we could afford it and to afford the AMB system even longer