This is a problem that all vintage series face at some point unfortunately, if you really wanted to stick 100% to the cut off dates.
For example, Losi XX-4 Worlds are regulary used in the pre-1998 class ( which the original XX-4 fits in as it was released in 1997). But the first XX-4 Worlds wern't released until 1999, so in theory shouldnt be racing in any vintage series of pre-1998. So how do you police this without getting too anal about which part was on what model ? If you did, you'd suddenly find nearly all of the XX-4's running in every Vintage series would suddenly be banned, as most of them seem to be Worlds Editions. Scumacher Fireblades & TTech Predators are other examples, ive seen both that are mostly later models that are over the 1998 cut off.
But you can kind of get away with that technicality if the parts used are just one or two years newer as the differences arent that massive, and any advantage they have is relatively minor. Better to have them running than not i think.
The biggest problem ( for me, anyway ) are vintage cars with lots of modern cars parts on them when originals are still available.
I fully understand that when spare parts just arent available at all you should run whatever you can to make the car mobile ( like B4 gearbox internals on Cobra's for example as Mardave originals are completely unavailable, or newer gearbox internals on Preds ), but ive seen so many 'vintage' cars ( including a good few that run at the Iconic series ) running modern parts - new big-bore shocks & springs, CVD's, modern hubs and caster blocks, diffs & gears etc etc - when original parts & spares ARE available that it surely kind of defeats the spirit of the event ?
Just because the orignal gearbox and driveshafts wont handle brushless 6.5 and Lipos and you wont be competitive without modern parts isnt really an excuse in my opinion.
To counter this a little at my own club, Caldicot, did bring in a motor and speedo limit into our latest vintage series which seems to have worked quite well to save old gearboxes and level the playing field.
Standard speedo settings - no turbo or advanced timing - and only 10.5 motors, which seems to have worked out ok. Some people are annoyed they cant run 6.5's, Turbo & Timing in their cars that blast around almost like a modern buggy, but overall most people seem to agree with it and stay roughly in the spirit of vintage racing.
And thats the key. The Spirit of the Vintage. Period car. Period parts. Fun, lower speeds, worse handling than modern and use as close to an original car as you can run.
And big-bores ? Really ?? Sigh....
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