[Unleash hell]

Dear friends,
Matt asked me about the rallye groups in Spain. Here's the part one of my answer:

In Spain we have very strict rules for Rallye.
I'm going to try with the N Group:

Gr. N

Strictly serial cars. There is a list of admitted brands (most of the available are admitted)

Modifications allowed:

Rims & axles:
Only commercial material included in any brand, eg. You can use Slot.it axles, rims(only the plastic ones) & crowns( 27z) because GOM sell their Alfetta equipped with this material. You can use the oz-rims and calibrated axles from NINCO because NINCO includes thie material in their PRO-RACE subaru imprezza
Axle width can not be bigger than standard
Rim + tyre can be 1 mm wider than the bodyshell on each side of the car Braids: free
Ball Bearings allowed, because NINCO's Subaru Prorace is equipped with…

Guide:
serial
Motor:
Strictly commercial. You can fix the motor to the chassis with fiberglass tape
Tyres:
Any commercial tyres worked as you like but they must be recognisible and black…
No additives for tyres are allowed (neither for the motor)
No modification of chassis allowed.
No Magnets

You can paint the car but it must have all its elements: mirrors, antenna, spoilers, wings, pilot, copilot, pilot stand and lights (you only can disconnect them, do not remove the light sistem - not allowed-)

Do you catch the feeling of the group N?

Example of the ideal Group N
Subaru Imprezza PRO RACE from NINCO (The winner!!)
SCX Ford Focus + Slot it Kit (axle, plastic rims & crown( 27z)
SCX Seat Cordoba + ""
SCX Citroen Xsara + ""

(Excuse me for my English)

In one future post I will explain (try to) the other categories

 

[peter]

Thanks for the info

I have seen this class a few times but not understood what the standard means - so I do find your information very interesting and informative.

//peter

 

[PorscheFreak]

Thanks for the info, maybe I finally get an explanation to the issue that been bugging me for a while:
I've been wondering about what's the philosophy behind those self-made (some even commercial) hi-tech absolute-rear-motor/front-wheel-drive/rubber-band-to-rear-wheels chassis layouts shown sometimes at slotcenter, e.g. this: http://www.slotcenter.net/garaje/0204chasiswrccarb.htm

Is it to achieve more realistic drifting in the curves or ...?

 

[Unleash hell]

Hi there,

That SLOTCENTER chassis is the hi-tec chassis you can use in WRC category, they build real missiles but very difficult to tune up! Not in Speed, they work the accelerate/brake ability (Nothing to do with a N.Group).
On the other hand I've seen N cars beating (widely) WRC cars, in fact, I've done it several times...

See you...

 

[Mecoprop]

The Ninco Pro-Race cars are certainly interesting.
I just had a look at an English language review over at Slot Car Garage
(Edit) Another one at HRW
The conclusions were quite reserved - sensibly so I think.
The cars cost substantially more than standard but it's not clear that there is much return for the outlay. I guess the two sets of ballraces are the greatest part of the extra cost. It's thought that the extra band drive is simply a back up to eliminate possible slippage from only one. But my own feeling is that the power loss in running rubber bands at all is almost certainly more detrimental to performance than any theoretical gain in traction from 4-wheel drive.

 

[Unleash hell]

You should have tested the new NC6 motor!!
With that motor, resistance of rubber bands Don't care at all!, believe me, rallyes in Spain (N Group) are full of that "Proracers". And I believe that's a clear signal...

 

[Nep72]

Let me add some commments, Unleash.

-NC6 motor is a beast! perhaps 90% of ProRace success is this motor. Hope Ninco sells it as spare part soon.

About Gr. N:

-Some clubs don't accept ball bearings so if you want to race with the ProRace you must replace them for standard bearings.

-To run on spanish rally tracks a guide with suspension is recommended, so some clubs allow to replace standard guide for "active Ninco" if you can do it without modifiaction.

 

[Unleash hell]

Nice comments, Nep, You're right: Depending on the club rules change a bit...everyone gives his oppinion...