Last nights racing

[Chris Elworthy]

Hi Lads,

please accept my comments on the Brushless issue despite not having raced Mardave at Ribble for a number of years although i intend returning with my Mardave this friday.

I've always been very much into Mardave racing, the low cost, close, fun, yet competitive has always appealed to me however as many people are feeling the introduction of Brushless/Lipo has made things more confusing for many.

From the previous posts I have read the one thing that stands out is Dan's post where he quotes
"it does not state that you cannot advance the timing on the motor"
having gone through the BRCA Rules numerous times and through them with a fine tooth comb this morning this is indeed correct, but is it in the spirit of Mardave racing?
Much research and testing has been done to introduce brushless technology to the Mardave circuit classes concluding that the combination of a 13.5 turn Brushless motor combined with a 3.7v 1s Lipo battery offers a comparable performance to the 4.8V NIMH/Silver can G2 motor. From what i have read, and its a lot, It was the BRCA's intention, to have a brushless equivalent option to offer drivers zero maintainance, not as a neccessary performace upgrade.
Dan, sorry to keep mentioning you but you have written the most here. I was surprised when I came over to check out your car the quality of the equipment in your car. Once again everything you were running is perfectly legal for the BRCA National meetings but i was suprised that they would allow Tekin RS Pro speedo's (Retailing at around £150) and Reedy Sonic motors (Retailing at £90) it seems ludicrous for a class that is supposedly a entry level/fun class.
I appriciate that these are the BRCA rules but to me the rules look very slap dash and in a state of trial. For example, In 4.3 of the rules it states that brushed speed controllers must have a reverse function fitted and not exceed a price limit of £65 yet you have free choice of brushless speed controllers with an almost open homogolation list of advanced timing 13.5 motors to choose from...seems strange.
I've raced nationals in various classes before and always looked for that little advantage to get more out of my motors (albeit brushed era) so i totally understand that the likes of Dan, Kev and Dobbo have gone for the quickest motors that are legal at natioinal events but my fear is that at club level it will create a motor war making this notoriously inexpensive class expensive.
I'm not saying that people should stop using brushless combo's im just wondering whether there is a way to stop the timing advance from the motor itself? I don't care what the BRCA Rules state, having timing advance coming from the motor is just the same as having a 0deg timed motor with 20% timing coming from the speed controller.
There just seems far too many loopholes in the current GT12 (and essentially RVRCCC) rules at the moment that these sort of discussions will continue until the BRCA, or club, set a motor price cap that only allows the use of 0 timing brushless motors.
Finally, not suggesting for one minute that anybody is doing this but i feel its a valid point, the so called "blinky" modes are still open to abuse. There have been cases of drivers changing the software programmes on their speedo's to make them still blink in neutral despite having timing advance enabled.

All this issues I imagine will be ironed out by the BRCA in the coming years but as the GT12 class is brand new teething problems will occur.

It has taken away a bit of the plug and play fun of the NIMH/G2 racing but as
Gav proved on friday night, smooth driving with a silver can can still win the meeting....was a proud moment for us old brushed boys haha!

Please feel free to comment on any of my thoughts,


Chris