Longer races?

[stevie b]

Just wondering if anyone has any opinions on :- why we still only race for 5mins?
Batteries now are so good that racing for 15minutes plus is possible.? i know increasing from 5mins to 15mins is abit of a jump, but i think at least the finals could maybe be 10 or 12mins? After all were all doing this hobby to race, and the more time on the track the better right?

[RandomConflict]

I'm with you on this one. I think it all comes down to the amount of available time though to run the meeting. On some of the big meetings, even with 5 minute racing, the final leg of the A Final can finish pretty late in the day! Even with practice starting at 8:30/9am. Realistically I reckon 6/7 minutes maximum at the larger meetings.

I did marshal a 15 minute 1/8 nitro final at a club meeting at Coventry a few weeks back, with the winner being the only electric 1/8th buggy which had been put with the nitros. 15 minutes from an electric 1/8th buggy would have been unheard of in the NiMH days!

[bandyleg]

10 minutes is quite a long time for a newbie racer and also quite some time for a pro driver to concentrate, I think however the problem would come from over heating as top drivers now a days are running there cars so highly tuned that even another couple of minutes would probably cause a meltdown lol.
How ever at our local club we now run 6 minute finals and we are observing the pros and cons.
It seem so far that the 2 wd guys are happy to run the 6 minutes without too much of a problem, but the 4wd guys are having over heating problems this is more then likely due to the fact they drive like mad men lol.

Thats my 10 pence but there is gonna be a good bunch of arguments for this. personally i am in favour of the extra time

[eyeayen]

The 8th Nitro's have always had longer finals and they keep their cars runnings, part of the sport to be able to complete the final. So for it to knock down to the 10th's would be ace.

The brushed motors were always on the limit so people started fitting fans to cool them during the race. Manufacturers need to look at this too.

If the finals went in stages so the bottom 3 were only 5 minutes, then the next few up were maybe 8mins going up to the A final that was 15 minutes for the pro's that would be really good. And I think making your car / motor / ESC last for the race would become part of it.

[Chrislong]

The motors tend to get hot, and heat weakens the magnet, then that causes them to get hotter - and then you have problems. In the past even when practicing/testing I only ran for 5-6 minutes at a time. Things are better now but still I wouldn't be confident to push it - its expensive gear afterall.

Meetings tend to be over subscribed, to extend race duration would mean having to reduce entries and that wouldn't be popular as already people are getting turned away - i.e.Chadderton, Nationals, NW regionals. But then club meetings is a different story - can be down to the clubs own discretion.

[jaysllim]

Down at C.O.B.R.A in wales we already run 6 min heats and finals without a problem,but as said earlier it more comes down to how much time in the day u have.i no the nitros run 10/15 etc etc finals but not heats they have about 2min warm up time on the track nd 5 min qualy. But if u banged in the heats then mby u could look at increasing the qualy timebut again u will have sum one colain sayin I dnt have time to do bla bla bla for a xample.
Just my 2p

[hotrodchris]

Nitro wise i have seen hour long final's! but the standard is 15 mins, it would be good to have longer finals in 1/10th as the batteries can survive agreed more in 2wd than 4wd, as looking to put about 1500 back into a set after 5mins with the 2wd whereas about 2600 back into a set in 4wd after 5 mins!

[Big paul]

Originally Posted by eyeayen

The 8th Nitro's have always had longer finals and they keep their cars runnings, part of the sport to be able to complete the final. So for it to knock down to the 10th's would be ace.

The brushed motors were always on the limit so people started fitting fans to cool them during the race. Manufacturers need to look at this too.

If the finals went in stages so the bottom 3 were only 5 minutes, then the next few up were maybe 8mins going up to the A final that was 15 minutes for the pro's that would be really good. And I think making your car / motor / ESC last for the race would become part of it.

This my seem ok. but I for one would not like to pay say £25 for a nat . then find some people paying the same and getting more track time.

[eyeayen]

Originally Posted by Big paul

This my seem ok. but I for one would not like to pay say £25 for a nat . then find some people paying the same and getting more track time.

That's a fair point and one I hadn't considered. Surely that's even more of an incentive to get better or would it put people off ? Everyone has to start somewhere.

The other thing that could maybe come over from Nitro's is the bump up, I don't know how that would work and if the electric's would cool down enough in between one race and the next but top 3 would bump up to the next final, that would mean more track time.

[WHITTLER555]

If you want to run for a long time then I suggest you get a team together for next years York Ebor 24 hour race.

With 6 drivers we ran 1 hour long stints each, the Durango 210 ran faultlessly for 24 hours, 8.5T motor, no fan, Nosram Pearl speedo.

Believe me, after 24 hours you won't want to run for more than 5 minutes for the rest of the year!

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by Big paul

This my seem ok. but I for one would not like to pay say £25 for a nat . then find some people paying the same and getting more track time.

well they do for 8th nationals and thier full.......

[Loheswaran]

I think they already run 6 minutes in the united states.

I think it would be good if perhaps the finals are stretched to 8 or 10 minutes. then people won't be racing to late into the evening at certain meetings.

I have to say that my buggy electrics simply do not take the same mullering as either my touring car or my 1/12.

I am well happy with my switch to off-road. Just can't wait for my knee op to heal and my chest infection to clear up and I will be doing regular weekly club racing asap.

lohan

[ironmangav]

Originally Posted by bandyleg

10 minutes is quite a long time for a newbie racer and also quite some time for a pro driver to concentrate, I think however the problem would come from over heating as top drivers now a days are running there cars so highly tuned that even another couple of minutes would probably cause a meltdown lol.
How ever at our local club we now run 6 minute finals and we are observing the pros and cons.
It seem so far that the 2 wd guys are happy to run the 6 minutes without too much of a problem, but the 4wd guys are having over heating problems this is more then likely due to the fact they drive like mad men lol.

Thats my 10 pence but there is gonna be a good bunch of arguments for this. personally i am in favour of the extra time

Agree start at 1min at a time if this works im sure tech will develop and can run for longer times in both 2wd and 4wd.

[VincentVisser]

We run 5min heats and a 5 min final.

Depending on people there we can do 3-5 heats and a final.

We run 540, 2wd and 4wd so if we have lots of people there on the day it’s a bit manic. + if all the international events are 5mins you would want to be as prepared for them as possible so 5 min is a good time.

[Mad-Wolfie]

I know last year when we did the 24 hour event we were getting 15-20 minutes from a 5000 LiPo before it needed changing, however we were running at a more moderate pace using a silvercan based motor & a basic speedo rather than a top spec low turn brushless & ESC.

Personally i think though as the tech has improved from brushed motors, the battery tech has equally improved, for instance a 1600 mah nicad in the late 80's was probably only lasting as long as a modern day LiPo does with modern tech strapped to it because the tech in the 80's car was more basic & not demanding as much from the battery as todays technology so run times are generally the same from a fully charged pack.

I know with 1:12th scale we are running 8 minutes in nationals & competition, however the cars are running on the flat & are running single-cell liPo so the current drain is a lot less.

Plus with the on-road classes it's a level surface so the amount you use in a battery during in a race is fairly consistent wherever you go to race a 12th, but with off-road i find battery use to be very inconsistent from track-to-track using anything from 900mah to 1900mah during a 5 min run because the car is running on a more 3 dimensional circuit that 12th's or tourers etc & no 2 circuits are the same. Likewise wet weather or warm weather affects the performance & the battery life so although it may be the same track, the going may be a lot harder if it rains, where with 12th, all the races are held indoors, so the track conditions are generally the same & not affected by sunlight or weather conditions which can affect the performance. Granted 12th's have the same problems with grip levels & finding the right tyres etc, but the 12ths always run on carpet, buggies run on any surface, astro, carpet, grass, dirt etc which affect the performance & the weather or heat can affect how that surface reacts on the tyres.

[jmke]

Personally i think though as the tech has improved from brushed motors, the battery tech has equally improved, for instance a 1600 mah nicad in the late 80's was probably only lasting as long as a modern day LiPo does with modern tech strapped to it because the tech in the 80's car was more basic & not demanding as much from the battery as todays technology so run times are generally the same from a fully charged pack.

uhm? top rated batteries lasted 4-8min on average in the old days
Lipo 5000mah lasts 15min easily, if you run more moderate motors & timings you can close in on 30min...

[Col]

Originally Posted by VincentVisser

We run 5min heats and a 5 min final.

Depending on people there we can do 3-5 heats and a final.

We run 540, 2wd and 4wd so if we have lots of people there on the day it’s a bit manic. + if all the international events are 5mins you would want to be as prepared for them as possible so 5 min is a good time.

Last year we did several quieter meetings with 4 rounds and 7min finals. I found it made no difference to overall finishing positions

[jmke]

I found it made no difference to overall finishing positions

I don't think that's the aim?
rather to have more time running your car when going out for a race day.

I went to several race events last and this year at BRCC in Charlerloi, Belgium; race days starts at 8:00, lasts until 18:00. To get any kind of practice , arrive at 7:00, which means get up at 5:00 in the morning.

3 qualif and 3 heats of 5min each. Which means you drive your car for a total of 30min, while spending 11 hours at the track.

If I go to the track on a none-race day; almost every minute spend at the track is driving your car