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All three of the competitive fleet in a row:

Jenny after we started to get the brake drag issue figured out.  You can tell this by the smile on her face:

Jeff, clearly concentrating in the MkII:

What does the MkV look like?  Here is a shot prior to loading up for test day:

When I sat in them back to back, it makes the MkI feel enormous.

As Bill said, it was a good day all-in-all.  All the cars performed well right up until we broke them, although the MkII seems to have survived the best.  The MkI needs new wheel fairings and the MkV needed a stub axle welded back on after it failed during the towback incident.  The MkV also needs its own set of wheel fairings, an extension for the under-chassis floorpan, and I want to experiment with a few aero tricks and see what they may bring.  The good news is we all went home in one piece and we know the changes we made to comply with the new rules (especially the new braking requirement) aren't hurting us performance-wise.

The hard numbers were comparable to last year- the MkI ran 39mph, MkII hit mid-30's, and the MkV ran 41.  I think there's a little more headroom with a little more aero work on the MkI and a few more tweaks to the MkV.  In any case, we won't be any slower this year.

I also need to extend an enormous thank you to those who make the time on the hill possible.  It literally wouldn't be happening without Bill doing all the behind the scenes, extremely non-glamorous errands that he does.  He also shows up at the shop for work sessions to get his entry (and mine) into one piece.  I really appreciate all the effort and energy he puts into this- I couldn't do it without him.

Also stepping up in a big way this year is Mr Jeff Burns.  Jeff has jumped in head-first this year to support the revisions to the MkI for Jenny to run down the hill.  He has put in an enormous amount of effort to get the car to where it is and for that, my hat is tipped!  He's even developed some mad new skillz, and if anyone needs some sheet metal work, drop him a line.  I'm certain he's watched at least 4 Youtube videos on it at this point, so he's pretty much a master craftsman.

Another round of thanks to Jenny, Dennis, and Beau, for their help in facilitating the test day.  Whether it was unloading, helping set up, flagging traffic, or hauling our sleds back up the hill, we also couldn't do this without them.

And thanks to the person who truly makes this whole circus possible, my wife Bethany.  She lets me indulge the inner 12 year old and lets me disappear for hours (and days) on end into the shop to work on these creations.  With everything else that's going on in our lives, I have very little spare bandwidth, and she allows me to soak it all up with gravity cars.  THANK YOU B!!!

We now have a stack of 12 wheel disks which have been cut to size(-ish) and now need to be fitted to the wheels.

The raw vacu-form shape:

Images of them fitted up will come later.

So... No news from last Thurs?  I presume Al showed up and Doc didn't, sealing Doc's Secondinator title and crowning Al as the new 2018 NASTE Champion!

Technically Doc wasn't mathematically eliminated, but pulling off the upset would have required Al not showing up to his own house and a bunch of other people making it.

So let me be the first on the internet to say congrats(!) Al on a hard fought season.  I certainly gave it my all against you when I was able to attend, and I know Dan did too.  You've certainly earned the title this year!

I do look forward to seeing how we construct the championship next year and seeing how the new classes pan out.

Chris

Thanks Doc.  I am quite pleased with how it's coming together so far.  I think it has pretty good potential for the event. 

I think Bill's assessment of "nearing completion" is slightly optimistic though.  I'll be working on it in fits and spurts, and we have other upgrades which the Mk I and II will need prior to competing this year (brakes!!!), so LOTS of work to keep us busy!

How did Jake beat Amy with fewer laps?

I'm not saying we need to run the same classes year on year for the championship either, just that whichever ones we decide on should be fairly well vetted prior to committing to them for the championship.  I think GT3 or any of the Sportscar Era classes would be excellent candidates for the 2019 championship as long as we validate we can all build something enjoyable and competitive with an economical budget.

As far as adding new classes, you brought GT3, we all brought Open out of the Thunderslots discussion, GT is being broken out into 3 new classes, and Monte brought Carrera DTM to the table.  That's two new "bone stock" classes, a completely open class built around a bone stock and extremely fast T-slot, and the splitting of one class into 3 different ones which allow and encourage a new range of cars to participate (open top sports cars).  That feels like decent growth to me!

My personal opinion is that I would prefer not to introduce new classes for the championship.  I'd rather see us run classes where someone has a good understanding of what/how to tune the cars and a decent understanding of what parts might be needed to help them be competitive.  If we want to tweak the class structures, let's do it on the side but not for points, and compete for the glory with a "known good" set of rules and tuning parameters.

We should chat about opening up the GT3 rules if that's something you'd like to see gain traction.  I don't think there'd be too much resistance to it.  I would be disinclined to monkey with the Classics 1 rules though, especially since we just made the decision we're all going to re-motor them with the 14k for next year.

Other things I have been thinking about for the championship series next year...

limit the # of classes - keeps everyone from having to work over their entire fleet.  I thought that having every class would discourage building a championship car for every class and we would compete with the cars we had.  This has clearly not happened- people have been upping the game continuously and that has made it more challenging across the board.  Being competitive across the full catalog of our classes requires a bit of investment of $'s and time.  At this point, last year's set up where we rotated between only 3 classes feels better to me.

run only classes which have replacement parts and tuning options - Pick classes which permit parts swaps and allow wallet-friendly replacement parts.  No more $6 axles + $9 shipping purchases because we need the stock axle to be class legal for the championship.  Allow a spec motor swap if the OEM craps out.  Guide system sucks (Scaley)?  Replace it!  We all like to tinker, and I think a limited spectrum of tuning options allows us to have more "fun" than purely stock.

I know the current season isn't over yet so let's just say I am getting the ball rolling earlier for this part of the discussion.

Thoughts?

Doc,

I think you need to take a look at the GT3 rules:

http://naste.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=630

"Class 9 - GT3

GT3 Rules

Scalerxtric GT3 cars only.
Must have lights. We are going to be racing with the lights off at times.
Car must have raced in the GT class during or after the 2013 season.
No after market axles - must run the stock or replacement Scalextric axle.

Car must be box stock.  Specifically this means-
  Stock motor.
  Stock body and chassis (wheel wells may not be altered).
  Stock wheels and axles"

From this post, it appears that H&R motors are not class compliant.  You may want to check in with the class sponsor and see what he has to say about it though, whoever that guy is:

Class Sponsor: Dan Fritz

Chris

I moved the date back in post #4 to '68 to pick up where Classics D1 stopped, and the Mk I's ran through 1969 in FIA classes (won the '68 and '69 Le Mans), so they're covered.  Mk II's and IV's were illegal after 67 due to displacement restrictions, so if we pull the start date in to 1966, we can let the Mk II's and IV's play.

...so let's make the date 1966.

CK

I have one change I was thinking of- extend the PGE cars back to 1968 to pick up where Classics Div 1 leaves off.