[driver#8]

Slot rally/raid regs - where are we these days?​

Do you, or would you prefer, to separate cars by performance such as 'Stock' and 'Pro'?

Yes	21	84.00%
No	4	16.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	0	0.00%

Do you, or would you prefer, to permit modification from 'box standard' configuration?

No - except removing magnets	3	12.00%
Consumable items - tyres, guides and braids only	15	60.00%
Free but with controls on motor rpm and similar parameters	5	20.00%
Limit the magnetism of the motor	0	0.00%
Completely free	2	8.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	0	0.00%

How do you define a slot rally car?

It is a scale model of a rally car	21	84.00%
It's got a co-driver so it must be a rally car	2	8.00%
It fits the regulations so it's in	1	4.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	1	4.00%

Do you have, or would you prefer, specific rules on appearance?

Yes - it must be a genuine rally livery or a convincing fantasy scheme and a good model	13	52.00%
Yes to a point - but I'm not fussed about correct wheels or colour schemes	9	36.00%
No - if it fits the regulations it's in	3	12.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	0	0.00%

Would you allow a rally car with co-driver, livery etc. to compete in a saloon or GT class?

Yes - no problem	4	16.00%
Yes - but I'd think it was weird	7	28.00%
No - it's a rally car	10	40.00%
If it fits the regulations it's in	4	16.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	0	0.00%

Slot rally car motors/gearing should be...

Inline	4	16.00%
Anglewinder	0	0.00%
Sidewinder	0	0.00%
Free choice	21	84.00%

Models of sports/GT cars and 'homologation specials' - run them as 'Stock', 'Pro' or separate?

It depends on how they ran in 1:1 rallying	15	60.00%
Keep them separate	6	24.00%
Chuck 'em all in!	0	0.00%
If it fits the regulations it's in	4	16.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	0	0.00%

Mainstream manufacturers have all-but dropped rallying, leaving resin kits, specialist firms and 3D printed upgrades. Where should these cars be classed?

Stock - if they're built to an agreed spec, why not run with older cars?	4	16.00%
Pro - they're usually even with NSR, MSC/Scaleauto etc.	8	32.00%
Modified/separate class - they don't compare to mass-produced cars	12	48.00%
Other (please describe in thread)	1	4.00%

Where do you run your slot rally cars?

On the club track as a racing class	0	0.00%
On special stages - they're rally cars!	15	60.00%
Wherever and however we can	10	40.00%

What would your ideal set of rally classes look like?

Accurate model rally cars divided by era	13	52.00%
Accurate model rally cars divided by performance	8	32.00%
Fast... and that is all	1	4.00%
If it's in the regs it's in - may the most creative mind win	3	12.00%
Other (please describe in the thread)	0	0.00%

 

[driver#8]

I've just done a post on the Farnham club blog about rally classes - primarily ours, which have become rather fluid in terms of eligibility. You can read it here but it's not essential.

As was noted this week with the NSR Mosler that has appeared at one club, people are getting more creative in terms of what qualifies as a rally car. For those of us who enjoy running rally and raid cars in competition, what are the preferences that you have? Box standard cars from major manufacturers are rare but resin kits are plentiful - can they coexist?

Our club's rules used to be based on Slot Rally GB and they worked very well. Now it's getting a bit vague and all sorts of things are creeping in - although we're not quite at this stage yet:

How is everyone else doing? What's changed for better or worse? What makes for a successful category that everyone enjoys? All thoughts welcome...

 

[driver#8]

Some good thoughts here, thank you. Also very heartening to see that there's still so much eagerness for slot rallying. Sadly so far Wye Valley is one that I've always had a clashing family commitment for... but fingers crossed that can be sorted out before too long.

Defining 'stock' and 'pro' does need to be done I think, particularly at open events if you want to retain that inclusiveness. There has to be an entry level for the 'lads and dads', for members of host clubs and just generally for folk who do minimal tuning to turn up and be competitive - or at least not completely out-gunned before their own talents come into play - otherwise you lose them.

At a club level we're struggling because the divide has been blurred... if not entirely erased. More so in the rally categories than any other. Every single class has cars that are kitted out with better quality materials for the job and/or a more liberal interpretation of scale. Keeping them separate penalises nobody - neither the guys who have invested in 'Pro' cars of this nature or those who want to run simple RTR kit. We do it with NSRs in Classic Le Mans and we've held back Slot.It DTMs and Policar F1s until there are enough of them to make a good and varied class of their own. Sometimes cars pop up that are just too quick - like the Avant Mirage in 70s Le Mans - and their owners voluntarily stop running them because it's too big a gap back to the rest of the class.

When it comes to GT cars, I'd have no problem with Porsche 911s in Classic or Eighties as they were in 1:1 in period. But they are separate in modern 1:1 rallying. R-GT is a class but it's been single car entries on almost all of the 16 international rallies that accepted them, of which all but two were Supercup Porsches with a bit of beefing-up that took part in tarmac rallies only. No gravel rallies have been attempted, and there's a lot of difference between a 'stock' 997 GT3 and the NSR version.

Personally, I agree completely with making the layout of inline/sidewinder/anglewinder free choice provided that the manufacturer's own specification isn't changed. I don't see much difference from one layout to the other anyway, unless the motor in question is very magnetic.

Looking forward to the rally revival!

 

[driver#8]

Yes things have got looser in Farnham, not sure if it's better but it's easier to manage. Basically:

All cars must have two occupants, rally liveries only.

All classes admit 'pro' cars except SCX 4WD.

• Classic - Porsche 911 is allowed (unlike SRGB)
• Eighties - no real difference except it's all pro cars now!
• Mod 2WD - it's now all angle winders, the influx of 4WD cars with their bands removed is not permitted
• Mod 4WD - no difference except more Pro Xsaras and MSC Subarus
• SCX 4WD - no change

 

[driver#8]

I think as long as it is period, Phil, then a Ninco 911 is certainly no better than a Team Slot or Avant Slot Alpine or an OSC/SRC Capri - those are the default choices now whether running classics as a racing class or on the stages. There's no easy way of defining it, though, because you can say 'no whale tail and wide arch 911s' only to be blown out of the water by history!

The beauty of the SRGB regs was that they weren't actually complex at all. Get a standard inline rally car and compete with it. They didn't need the same level of knowledge or fettlement to be competitive as you do with, say, a GT class on wood.

Personally, I don't find any massive difference in performance between an inline, sidewinder or angle winder with the same basic motor but 'inline only' did prevent arguments. Of course with pro cars that have magnetic motors it's a different thing altogether but for Ninco, Scalex, SCX etc. using regular motors there's precious little difference between layouts.

As of now, I'd say the cars to beat in each class are:

Classic: Pro: Avant Slot Alpine, Stock: Ninco Porsche 911

Eighties: Pro: OSC Peugeot, Stock: Ninco Lancia 037

Modern 2WD: Pro: NSR Clio, Stock: Ninco Clio

Modern 4WD: Pro: MSC Impreza, Stock: Ninco Lancer

Or in other words the best Pro cars have the best magnet motors and the best Stock cars have suspension and sprung guides!

Looks like the new Scaleauto hatchbacks (Peugeot 208, Hyundai i20) could shake modern 4WD up a bit. And OSC is breathing on the SRC Porsche 914, which could be worth a punt. Still plenty of life in slot rallying anyway.

 

[driver#8]

Rally cars running around a high speed, smooth and flowing six lane open circuit never made any sense to me.
At Nascot wood, the rally class slowly morphed into an "inline GT" class, first with the Porsches then the Astons.
The race nights were not always won by NSR cars. There are some formidable rally cars such as the MSC Subaru Impreza.

We run ours around bumpy 4-lane Ninco but you can't set rally stages up every week and a lot of us are rally fans, so at least we can race the cars that we like more often!

Since loosening the regs off on 'pro' cars in the classes, our lap times have dropped wildly. My inline MSC Subaru is much faster than any stock non-magnet GT or sports car and so far the NSR Clio is quicker still (but far less forgiving). The OSC Peugeot is the best handling box stock car I've ever seen and it's been fun to put a less powerful OSC up against the more muscular MSC RS200s and 6R4s but now there are factory fit motors in the Peugeot that will destroy anything not to the same spec and jump up and down on the remains! Great engineering and lovely cars, but openness is the essence of slot rallying and I'd hate to see the classes become single-car series.

Not a fan of high end GT slot rally cars if I'm honest. Running them as pure GTs is a lot more sensible. The SCX Porsche 997 and Ferrari 360 are very nice cars to run - and do at least attempt to replicate real life rally machinery - but NSR and Black Arrow cars? Hmmmm...

To me a good slot rally is seeing a wide variety of cars from different manufacturers running competitively. Team Slot, SCX, Ninco and the like with opportunities, each with different strengths. And for someone with a £10 Scalextric Escort Cossie or their Dad's old TR7 to come and have a bit of fun and be competitive. There are plenty of other places to run an NSR!

 

[driver#8]

We have five Open classes for cars like NSR, OSC etc. They rarely win any of these classes, they're dominated by scratch builds, 3DP chassis, and Mack chassis cars.

Don't be talking that kind of voodoo. That way scrutineering becomes part of the game and £200 slot cars with semi-sprung pods, carbon fibre inserts and magnetic screws lie in wait.