useless full spikes and a new surface to race on..
 

I no its not just me that gets annoyed with haven to spend loads of time getting my full spikes to wear down and then when they are ready only lasting a few weeks before i need to start a new set again when after visiting outher in door tracks it seems obvious to have carpet we can lay down the lenth of the hull and leave the shiny floor for an added challange rather than trying to get the cars to work the other way round with shiny floor and then some carpet on the jumps we would all so save money on tyers as they last so much longer on carpet and can be run till there bold i no the carpet would cost money to start with but id rather donate money for some carpet then have to spend more money on tyers each time just thought id put this up to see if people agree or are happy the way it is thanks.........

Many years ago the club invested in enough Primafelt to carpet the whole hall each week. There's still odd pieces of it laying about under the stage I think......

Back then we used to run 13 week leagues, and there was call for the club to try something different to the regular slippery floor.

After 2 leagues the unanimous verdict was that racing on carpet was boring and could we go back to the slippery stuff.......it seemed too much like touring car racing. Having said that - that was back then - if the club wanted to try something different "again" I'm sure it would be given consideration.

How about another idea - how about a harder control tyre? Would save on wear, would slow everyone down as the grip available would be reduced, and would probably also do away with the current trend of super boosted ESC's.

Just a thought.......

Why not just say all esc's to be run stock, no boosting

The quality of the full spikes atm seems to be shocking, quite a few of you will say that its because of the amount of timing we now run and just the speeds are far greater than what they used to be so the tyres wear is greater, which is right but we used to get 5 odd months out of a set whilst they were worn in, now we can only get 2 to 3 weeks after 3 weeks of running em in?

I ran one set which i had from when i first started at the club from the 1st round of the winter series, they lasted through to the fourth round inc all the week nights in-between before they were worn out, i ran dads set at the 5th, then i ran a new set in for the last round, they were completely slick the Wednesday after. (And i ran the same, speedo/motor combo on the same advance settings throughout the series)

I've even had a set were the they wore were one side of the tire would be slick and the other would have a good 3/4mm of spike, it was like half the tire was a different compound.

Carpet would be nice, as the tire choice would be much much larger, but obviously this means an extra ten mins laying the carpet down when the track iis built and the original cost of the carpet.
But i agree with Jamie, im a bit fed up of full spikes...

something else to consider. The choice of tyre for most racers on carpet would probably move to minipins?? we know from maritime that they will last 2 practice runs, 3 qualifiers and 1 final before they are ready for replacement. so that amount of runs equates to just 2 weeks of racing at faversham.......so new tyres every 2 weeks??? that makes it a tad expensive for some of the drivers.

The thing is maritime's hall is 2-3 times the size of ours so we cant put the power down as much, also at maritime we use modified motors where as at faversham we stay with 13.5t motors so less power.

I also agree with Jamie for carpet.:thumbsup:

with a 13.5 and carpet tyers will last a lot longer im still useing mine from maritime and silverstone with tread on them still.....

The yellow spikes I do think are having a wayward time at the moment. Mine have worn really weirdly which makes for some random handling characteristics at times.

Either that or I'm just becoming more s**t as I edge towards 40 :cry:

Edit - my tyres have been on for a fair while now. Yes they've worn but I'm no-where near killing a set every few weeks.

I would have to go with hog on this one, talking as a driver when we had carpet down all those years ago and run on foams the car went where you wanted it to go and set up was well just show up and put it on the track, which as dave has said after 3 or 4 months of this we where all bored stupid and the £800 pound carpet was stuck under the stage never to see light again. As i remember we had a vote on the use of the carpet at that time and 95% of the 70 odd drivers at the time said get rid of it.

Now as for saying there is something wrong with the full spikes at the moment well pull the other one guys i watch some of you going round with these super fast ECS wheel spining on the straight for god sake and you ask why are my tyres only lasting 3 to 4 weeks at best. speed and wheel spin = wear so its a price you are paying to go the speed you all seem to think you must go nowadays so in my humble opinion slow down and the tyres will last like they used to and as for carpet apart from what i pointed out earlier who is going to get it out each week and lay it, i know the same few who do it now, i don,t think so from my angle we do anuff as it is with out more.

Pleas do not take this as my club my ways as i do not mean that atall just pointing out the facts.

Regards Alan

i dont run these silly speed speedos and i no some people are even trying slower moters to try to get more grip its just the fact u can tern up one week and have grip then the next its like driveing on ice witch just causes more crashes i think its more predictability people are after to help people get closer races................i might be wrong just my view

In no form of motorsport or racing can you not get away with tyre wear that's the way it goes I'm afraid in racing if you want to be competitive you will push harder and wear them out faster.

I've raced at Clogher Valley MCC on and off over the last 2 years or so, which also runs on polished wood, in quite a small hall, with a 10.5 motor limit - generally with no or little timing advance, there's no advantage to it given the space available.

It seems there are quite a number of factors at play, including dust, what else the hall was used for that week, and surface temperature.

Who can forget the bouncy castle fiasco, which due to sand on the underside, sanded the varnish off and ruined the floor entirely for racing!

We run to a 13.5 brushless limit at FORCC.

Jamie - as you know we are at the mercy of other people using the hall. From what I know the hall is used on a Monday evening by the old time dancing brigade, and I believe they put down chalk dust to help their zimmer frames glide across the floor.

Unfortunately by Wednesday some of that dust remains and affects our racing. The only answer as I see it is for the floor to be mopped before the track is laid each week......and as has been mentioned previously getting people to step up and assist more seems to fall on deaf ears so that's not going to happen.

I doubt it's chalk - that would be abrasive to the floor. It could be dance floor polish, which I think is a sort of wax - needless to say, not great for traction.

Thought it was something called French chalk?

Either way I'm no dancer so I wouldn't know lol.

But yes you can see something on the tyres when it's slippery.

If i could get up there to help set up i would but kinda limited to what time i get there with getting a lift to raceing

It's not regular chalk, that's calcium carbonate -

It's a dry lubricant, so only way to get that off is wipe it off, maybe with a moist mop.

8x4 sheets of ply?
lot of hassle to lay and pack up?

Is this class not off road? If we was outside it would be mud dust stones all sorts of abbrasive elements the results are pretty much the same every week so it's clearly not causing a problem

17.5 anyone lol

Anyway my minipins did 3 runs at moto arena an thats on a 2wd so tyre wear at fav is less than normal.

quit your moaning :p

Worn tyres are a part of any kind of racing, just ease up on the throttle finger:lol:

hey chaps

how you all been oh those were the days running on carpet i must have missed the club vote yet again! back then my tamiya f1 car was pretty good on the fluffy stuff i have the first place trofy some where in my shed im up for carpet can i bring my tc over.

stu

We had a TC in the hall once many years ago but we got on to rent a kill and they put some bait down and we have had no more trouble since :thumbsup:.

Good to here from you Stu hope all is ok in your world.

They still work at slick though, Ed tq'ed on slicks :thumbsup:

Ed could get TQ driving a bus round most tracks he,s that good so would not use that as a arguement on tyre wear.

But if everyone had the same amount of grip the raceing would be closer

Ed could off course TQ with almost anything, but Me, Mike and Tom were also running on slicks and were in the mix of the A... Tom even came 3rd of 4th? cant really remember.. Its more the compound that makes the difference on such a high grip surface.

And if i had the lottery numbers for next week i would be a rich man, but life is not that easy, we have to work hard for things we want in life and tyre grip is one of them :thumbsup:

Was the hall floor re varnished cause it looked and felt different to drive on?
If it has maybe it will be better on tyre wear.
But other than that I cannot see an answer that would be 100% watertight
1. 17.5 turn ......... The whole club would need to buy a new motor all at the same time.... Bad ... But what about 540 gold cans not brushless
2. Blue compound tyres (not sure if they are still available ) ...... Easy to rub off the yellow dot and cheat (Elliot) Elliot you are a cheat!!!! And you would do that straight away, licking it off ,cheat perv!
3. Cover the floor ........ Difficult to setup and pack away + space to store and expense of buying! But astro indoor would be ace with mini spikes not pins so as to last longer or dboots even better wear rate!

I personally like the cover the floor with sheets of ply and push drawing pins through the tyres from the inside= lots of grip and changeable spikes lol , oh and gloves for the marshals ;)

Will are you talking about slick full spikes or slick mini pins?

How about 2 strips of carpet with the natural floor up the middle, carpet and polished wood?

I was in a rush at Moto Arena and used full spikes on carpet there and they felt pretty good so would work on both carpet and polished but would be better when worn on the carpet bits.

Bit of give and take really?

Not really sure what you want me to say wil, where you raced at the weekend is light years from our little village hall.

Maybe we can have a chat on wends night regards what you lot are saying and maybe i am geting to old to help run the club anymore and maybe it needs some younger people to take charge, not me throwing dummy out of pram just fact i think i am geting older and maybe i just want to take things a bit easier, we will see as don,t want to post any more on this subject as rather talk to a face.

Regards currant FORCC chairman Alan.

Wood and carpet was what i asked about to start with then any tyers would work well in the hull

Mark slicks are slicks lol:woot:
I like the idea of 3 rolls of astro unsand filled (clean) as they are light, rolled out in minutes and taped then build track as normal
Then we could use those hard dboots tyres for hopefully ages and would work straight out of their packets until they were bald
Yes it would be a club outlay at first but should save members a fortune and give close consistent racing.:wub

That was member as in club member, not member like Elliot :thumbsup:

That was the plan to ask people if they thought it was a good idear and to see if it was some thing to try freshen things up

All these ideas are all very well, but when it's nigh on impossible to get much help putting the track out or away at the night's end then if you want to change it then you're going to have to be prepared to put the effort in.

And not just a few weeks and then gradually saunter off and leave it to the regulars because trust me that's not going to happen.

Week after week I call out for the last 2 heats to put the track away, and week after week it's the same old faces who do, and the same old faces who think it's a job that's below them. Sorry if this is harsh, but those that do are pretty sick and tired of those that don't.

And you want to make all these changes and have ply, astro and mopped floors?

Told you - easy answer - hard compound control tyre.
Easier answer - leave well alone and accept that the faster you go the faster things wear out.

As Alan says - perhaps it's time for some new blood to take the reins and let those of us who have been racing for 25 years enjoy our racing more without all the hassle.....

I for one have spoken of the hate for yellow full spike saggers 3 weeks running in just to find they do not work or they come in only to find 2/3 weeks down the line they have gone off.
This seems to be a variant in the yellow compound not an issue with the race surface, the club has run on the wooden floor for years and i personally would not want to race every week on carpet, we need to try either minipins or minispikes from new to worn out and see how long they last how easy they work from brand new and if everyone is on them it's even racing, the power thingy is horse sh@@ i for one run a supercharged spedo but its turned down so much it's wasted in our hall even if we went to 17.5t someone willing to push the limits will find more power than the rest it's the nature of racing.

lets stop whinging buy some yellow minipins and test them

talking of tracks can we have one of those vertical jumps in a slow part of the track .

regards wooden floor racer ;)

The thing is, you are adding to the list of things to do but no one has yet said they are actually willing to do them. Some one has to. The people that currently do cannot do any more and if im honest I don't want to. I think we do enough already. I actually quite enjoy doing it when once its done so many keep turning up every week but there is a limit to what can be done in such a short time for a club night.

The bottom line is if you want to go fast you are going to have to pay for the rubber no matter what the surface is. If you want it to be cheaper dont buy 60c cells and the latest gen electrics and go slower.

Just my thoughts

Dave

Can't see Astro working either Scott unless it's secured to the floor.

Scenario 1 - Marshal runs out to a car, stops dead and the astro just keeps going......bit like the carpet does sometimes.

Neil, have you got a pic of the jump you mean?

And quote of the week goes to Neil.......:thumbsup: