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Moving forward not Backwards.

Hey to all

This Mail will hopefully inspire someone to move forwards and not allow the club to move backwards further.

After several years of banging on about advertising ( best kept secrete in the world (HORSE SHIT) like thats of any help) and the need to offer something which the ( excuse me for saying it in this way ) old farts desperately hanging on to the past seem oblivious to grasp.

The cars have not had an upgrade (sports 1600) at all in 18 years that I know of!!! OH NO we’ve been left behind springs to mind. The younger generation ( now I feel old ) say that there road going cars are faster than the current sports 1600 cars in a straight line and why would they want to go slower!!

To be fair I have to agree with them ( I personally did straight-line testing at Santa pod with Mallock in 2007 ) this produced a ¼ mile time of 12.4 seconds. Now this is the good bit!!! An 1800cc clio at a cost of £6000 producing 156 BHP dose the ¼ mile in Get this 12.2 seconds. the clio is ready to race so not a road going car but the same price range as a current cheap cup car. The road going version incidentally will cost around £2500 to produce the same times.

So where are the kids of today and why are they going to track days and not racing??? The cars are deemed old fashioned and have a lack of pace down the straights. with little or no view to change. we say that you can design in the formula but most kids now want to play with the exhaust or mapping and air systems. This is where we need flexibility.

I would love to come back and fight it out in cup but ( with the greatest will in the world ) there is no true competition apart from Alex and the cars are just not keeping with the times.

Make the cars a bit faster and cheaply. This can be done with simply chipping the ecu and would cost around £400 if done correctly you can give the chip max and min parameters allowing people to play with maps within a range. Give the guys who like playing with things the chance to play with the maps airbox and exhaust system retaining the standard engine and rev limit will keep things grounded but if we don’t do something soon this formula will die when the die hard drivers retire and these include many on the wrong side of 60 years old.

What is the average age of the filed now?

Instead of squabbling over proto you need to freshen up the act instead of same old same old every year…..

Don’t forget if you kill it will be your names slated by the sons of drivers who tell tales of great races and the gits who didn’t act and the the demise of a child in us that is clubmans.

With this I sign off

Move with the times or be forever in the black and white of the past.

Dan

Re: Moving forward not Backwards.

I agree with many of your comments Dan however you do contradict yourself a tad your comments regarding the youngsters road cars being cheaper and quicker in a straight line than their race cars is true but it could be argued why race a Lola when you have road cars that are much cheaper and quicker? I rest my case

Re: Moving forward not Backwards.

hi Martin

I wish I had a car faster than the lola Check you tube ( type Daniel Gibson and Dijon )

Even our cn car cant get close to the lola in a straight line!!! not by a long way!

its the fastest accelerating car apart from a formula car ive ever driven!!

but on a side note it was my dad who wanted me to race alongside him and I couldn't refuse a big V8 with 520+ bhp and top speeds of upto 185mph and steve McQueen drove these cars with Porsche bodys on in the film leman come on who would turn it down!

so not really a contradiction. also the lap time for a lola at donnington is 1.07.5

my proto time is only a 1.06 so not much difference really

also look at the tracks you get to go to in masters!! Monza spa Dijon etc

its not the same old half tracks with no spectators and small grids I think there was 50 plus on the grid at Silverstone.

anyway this is irrelevant to the point of bringing in new blood. its not what I do personally that matters its the future of the club and lack of new blood and new ideas that's the biggest problem!

you don't see any other formula in the world unless its a classic or historic series retain regs from 18 years ago and not change them or move with the times and upgrade regularly.

think about it this way, have we all got new tvs at home ( no more than 4 years old etc ) or have we got the old black and white ones?? of course we are on modern tvs the old ones were out dated, now look at your racecars with the same notion. dose she not deserve an upgrade? something to bring the spring back in her step?

Weve all herd about upgrades in the past and how expensive they are but that's not what im putting forward a cheap simple chip to the ecu and to free up air and exhaust gives options of experimentation and with it only being the chip to the ecu being mandatory then it wont break the bank. infact the standard air filter and exhaust maybe the best option but to have it open gives freedom like wise the mapping. Tom regularly plays with my proto mapping to give me different power bands to play with and its really interesting. without changing the rev limit I cant produce more power but I can chose where I want it in the rev range! Something different that's the key with little or no expense to achive.

Re: Moving forward not Backwards.

As I said Dan I agree with most of what you have said a cheap way to increase power would be great I have my concerns that maybe some sports 1600's may have already been re mapped, by biggest concern is that clubmans is losing it's roots the way things are going for some of us it is no longer affordable to remain competitive yes I know I need to be coming to see you for some lessons and if we can arrange it I will do trust me ,but even that will not be enough in my opinion some people are spending far to much money on cars to be competing in an amateur club class if they were really any good they would move up the scale we had it when competing horses some people spending in excess of £50,000 to compete against us on a horse that cost £750.00 we still won so then they spent even more we still won and then it got bitchy we moved on from that level and upped our game and that is what the wannabes should be doing not just spending thousands more to be pot hunters,I work hard to try and earn enough to enjoy racing Dan, pardon the pun no rich Daddy just sweat blood and tears the college education I done was paid for by me two years hard work before I went and then boxing in Gypsy camps no gloves to fund my way through when you have ear to it the way I have you view life a bit different Dan I like you mate but we have come from different worlds and it is a great pity more in clubmans have had to do it the. hard way. Alex Champkin great guy fab engineering talent but as said why waste it he is better than clubmans so again as said move on and upwards let's see how good he really is trust me mate I was good very good in fact in the rings I was in but guess what up the game and their is always someone better in fact much better and I think that is what the wannabes are afraid of they would be nobody's there ,bet they don't prove me wrong!!! But I really dohope that someday they do.