[Coopdevil]

I'm not sure whether the original 70s cut-off dates that we inherited from North London were down to baby boomers of a certain age holding those dates as the tipping point past which motorsport all went a bit wrong, an intention to cut out cars that were regarded as somehow "modern" (the original NL rules actually date from the early to mid 80s so I can see how a car that was less than ten years old at that point was not wanted) or tied to a date past which slotracing dipped in popularity.

Gary is younger than me so my personal list of retro cars must be a good dozen or so years older than his. I struggle to see early 90s cars as retro, but to fair I came of age in the early 90s and struggle to acknowledge that nearly two decades have passed since. Group B is the arbitary point in my past whereby I feel everything before was classic, everything after modern.

I don't see that we have too many classes and struggle to see where we'd fit more in TBH, although I do personally feel 70s F1 is the big one that's missing from what we cover. All those lovely 13mm wide Scalextric superslix!

I don't think Mick is suggesting that Gp.5 saloons are not classic cars, but just facing up to the fact that if a Zakspeed Capri fitted within the dimensions and period window, meetings would be half full of them and not the cars that still resemble road cars which the original intention was to have a race of.

However - important point I feel - all the CSCRA regs are just starting points. There is nothing to stop any club running a CSCRA race for Group 5 saloons under Sports Cars rules in the same way that the Sports class can be tweaked for a meeting to say "just Le Mans" or similar.

 

[Coopdevil]

QUOTE (Hobby @ 16 Jul 2010, 17:14) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It seems you could argue for a similar policy to cover Slot car race classes, but does that mean one body (CSCRA) should be responsible for defining what models qualify and in which class or catorgory they fit??

We pretty much do this already with the year cut-offs and to be honest we have to do this. Otherwise Gary would turn up to a saloon meet with his Renault Laguna claiming it's retro and I'd be saying "no, this Sierra Cossie is retro this French thing is from last Wednesday!"

QUOTE (Hobby @ 16 Jul 2010, 17:14) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>One of the problems that the CSCRA class year range avoided (until very recently) was the fact you could not run an 'out of the Box' tuned up slightly Slot It model, because group 'C' models are to late to qualify. This may now come under pressure due to NSR making reasonable 'Scale' early GT models that do qualify for the later GT class of CSCRA rules.
It has always been OK to use an HRS under a suitable body, but as soon as a very near standard model with a motor upgrade can make most of the scratch builds look ordinary...why bother scratchbuilding?.

The NSR Ford Mk IV and 917 have been out for a while and neither has suddenly sprang to the top of the "must have for CSCRA racing" pile, come to think of it the Slot.It Alfa and 312PB have been out even longer and they haven't. If these four cars were as fast as the top scratchbuilds (nobody seems to have proven me right or wrong here) then that would be great because it would close up the pack and make entry a lot easier for people, but then if it was all about getting the fastest car we wouldn't be building cars because they are charismatic and nobody would build silly little things for Wolves small saloon just "because it's there".

I'm sort of scratching my head here Bill to see exactly what the problem would be if a car from NSR or Slot.It or MBSlot or similar turned out to be competitive at CSCRA racing. I can't see for a minute that everyone would immediately switch over to those cars and the whole CSCRA scene morphs into a clone of the Slot.It challenge just where the only car used is the 956 as opposed to the Aston-Martin or McLaren or whatever it is that everybody is running now. If the CSCRA boys were of a mind to say "I'm not interested in the real prototype, just how fast this goes" then VECRA would never have got off the ground and the same people would be racing BSCRA and Slot.It Challenge instead. Bill, you've spent too long around those fast boys now get back in yer workshop and start polishing up some paint!

Coop

 

[Coopdevil]

That 1973 date was a rolling one though, designed so that any car over 25 years old was exempt from VED. Stopped at 1973 by New Labour before my TR7 qualified. (Bitter? Moi?)

To be honest, I suspect much of the interest in CSCRA/Wolves retro is simply because a lot of people in British slotcar racing like 50s and 60s racing cars and aren't as fussed by later ones. Arguments that "an XR3 is retro" won't hold as much water as "917s are retro" not matter what the cut-off year moves to.