Originally Posted by
Coug90
I agree with what Darin and T.S. are saying. I've read all of the tests and the many threads on this issue over the years. Folks make their own club rules because it's too difficult to get racers to agree on anything. Racers have too many issues around competition and egos to be expected deal with this sort of thing. Folks who just want to go racing and "get the boats on the water" don't have that kind of patience. I know I don't. It's so much easier to make adjustments when you have a smaller group in charge of the decisions. It's insane to think that there is any completely right or wrong decision here, but it seems that the inmates are running the asylum. For the sake of the classes out there, wouldn't we be better served to leave the final decisions up to a governing committee instead? The general membership has identified a problem and at least a general idea on how to address it. Folks were voted in to various NAMBA positions. Can we not leave it up to a group of officials to make an educated decision for a class for the sake of the class itself? Roll the dice and put boats on the water. It sounds like the conservative approach might be a good place to start and stay close to what the class has already. We can live with what is decided or we can ask for adjustments in the future. It will work itself out on the water. I suppose now we'd have to come up with a proposal to change how decisions are made on the national level. Like Darin said, whatever motor decision is made, it's better than any list based rule. They're just too hard to maintain and adjust to on a national level. I have loved racing with the club I'm in for 25 years now. We've only ever raced 1:10 scale. We have three classes with different motor rules for each. The club is still growing in numbers and is still has fantastic racing IMO. We've had ups and downs with rule changes, but the process is what keeps things going. We submit proposals each off season. They get reviewed by a committee of officials who we voted on and trust to put the club's best interest in mind (supported by a set of club bylaws) when making decisions on what makes it to a ballot and what does not. We gave them that authority because once the club got to be larger, the old method of having everyone vote on everything proposed just wasn't working well for the club. I don't know if a nationally sanctioned class can really reach its full potential as far as national events and multi district participation take place without changing the way decisions are made. I know that it would be difficult to sell the idea of having our club participate solely under NAMBA rules for our classes at this point, but I think it would certainly be a step in the right direction for many of the clubs that have started running 1:10 scale since it became a sanctioned class in NAMBA and those who will start running it under a set of rules in IMPBA. Right now, there doesn't seem to be a way to "roll the dice" on a motor rule in a way that it can happen quickly without intervention from NAMBA. I really do think it would all work itself out once this first steps are taken and a proposal on specs can be made. Maybe start with 56.5 and see what happens over the next year or two. Would this spec work for outrunner motors too or would they need a spec of their own. May as well make a spec for them at the same time, but I don't have the technical know-how to do that. Darin, you're going to have to help me out on that stuff. Right now, our club is running the Himax motor, that is legal in NAMBA, in a class with the Scorpion HK3226-1600 motor with very competitive results. There are other inexpensive outrunner offerings out there that fall into the same general size too. Outrunner motor size specs seem to fall on the smaller side when compared to comparably performing 6-pole inrunners. It shouldn't be too hard to come up with comparable outrunner specs to go with whatever inrunner specs are proposed. Why not include them and expand the brushless motor options? I guess a proposal needs to come from one of the regions first, right? I was part of the original group who came up with the proposal for the 1:10 scale class specs. Much of it was a compromise, but it was necessary. I think it will be necessary again if we want to continue it's popularity with a national sanction. If not, I'm sure it will continue to flourish under individual club rules. Is there anyone writing up a proposal for their district meeting right now or are we still just in the talking stage? Agreement or not, it's pretty clear that something needs to get proposed if we want to rid ourselves of the motor-list based rule any time soon. We already know what the future looks like with that in place. I'm willing to generate some action from our NAMBA district if you like. Sorry about getting off track on political structures for a while. Must be low blood sugar or something. Happy Holidays everyone. Gonna go work on my 1978 Miss Van's P.X. project. Needs work.