1 Topic by ckouba (edited by ckouba June 12, 2017 10:45 pm)

  • ckouba
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Topic: proxy thoughts

Disclaimer - I realize I am about to advocate the addition of classes to our Odd Thurs lineup, but the intention is to leverage the rulesets already on line and build and develop cars with which we can participate in the SCI and HRW proxies.  Some of these classes may fall within our current classes but I would advocate running them independently.  On with the proposal...



Before I became affiliated with you guys, I was a fairly active participant in the proxies on SCI.  I know most of you know what these are, but for those who don't, it amounts to building a race entry to a set of rules and then send it away to organizers who send it to some pre-arranged list of tracks (nationally, internationally, and globally) to be run by local hosts.  They are a fun way to compete when you don't have (or know about) neighbors who also play with toy cars.  I also think it's cool to have cars which have been to more countries than I have.

Proxies cover a wide spectrum of racing eras, and the rules spec out a variety of performance levels.  The diversity is such that there is probably something out there which everyone will find interesting.  Lately there has been some discussion on SCI about some proxies being more successful in generating interest and surviving.  I would like to take a step in the direction of supporting them and getting myself back into proxies, and I'd like to take you along.  Well, most of you...

There is one particular proxy which hits close to home- The Last Open Road.  Our own Mr Greenman runs that circus and I know that we have several NASTE members currently campaigning in that event.  I also heard Greg mention that this may be the last iteration of that circus, and I believe the concern was lack of interest/entries when faced with the effort of herding the kittens.  I would personally like to see this proxy continue but will certainly hold no ill will if it doesn't.

Another proxy popular with the NASTE crowd is the IPS.  This proxy seems fairly popular and healthy, and has a bit of highly-developed competition.  I've entered it before and gotten my butt whooped.  It was fun though and a good application of time and energy.

I can go on listing them- Carrera Scramble, SCITCC, Slot.It Shootout, The Can-Am Proxy, the Trans Am Proxy...  There's a bunch of them and you can see them all HERE (SCI's selection) or HERE (HRW's offerings)

My point is, there are many interesting proxies out there and I would bet that if we started running one(?) as a class, using the rules posted on line, and building class legal cars, we could improve our own car building skills, develop and tune some cars better, and lead to total NASTE domination of ALL proxies.

Or at least the one (or more) we pick to pursue.

All of which brings me back to my actual point.  Would anyone be interested in building a car (or more) to a proxy rule set(s) and racing that class(es) as a group?

What I might suggest are the IPS on SCI (2 current entries but previously fairly popular among some NASTE-ists; similar to our classics class) and the Ford-Porsche Proxy (4 NASTE entries planned, similar to our GT class but era- and marque-specific).

For those of you who have read this far through this post, thank you for your time and interest.  At this point I have belabored my case, now it's time for your input.

Thoughts?

Chris

  • From: Newberg, OR
  • Registered: June 5, 2012
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Re: proxy thoughts

Since my time seems to be freeing up a bit in the near future, I would be interested in doing something like this. I recently dug out my Ninco Porsche 356 and found that it has no motor (stolen for some other Ninco car, apparently), so I could easily convert it to something else...

  • wb0s
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Re: proxy thoughts

I like this idea. It might draw me into the proxy madness.....if I ever complete this move.....and find all my stuff again.......

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4 Reply by Mitch58 (edited by Mitch58 June 4, 2017 7:01 am)

  • Mitch58
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Re: proxy thoughts

Proxies? Proxy cars? Funny you should mention that. At the moment I have I believe 9 cars involved in or committed to 5 different proxies (Can you spell JUNKIE?). You would think I would be out of cars for local races, but truth be told due to my meager building skills, when I'm building a car for any given proxy I usually build two (JUNKIE). Invariably one always seems to work better than the other. So it appears I'm on board and ready to go.

As for the proxies themselves, the things I enjoy the most are, learning, I learn more with every build. Seeing how other people put cars together, more learning. Driving the occasional car that I'll probably never own or build.

Our local racing is about every two weeks sometimes once a week and sometimes three weeks apart. Since the proxies tend to stagger around the calendar it gives you something to follow in between our own racing.

I also like supporting the proxies because there are a lot of racers out there that don't have any nearby groups to race with so a proxy is their only form of competition I spent twenty five years in Central Oregon not knowing anyone else was racing. When I thought my daughter was old enough I bought a set and set it up, but her main interest was to stop in front of the buildings so she could go in and shop. Now we have grandkids that are getting to the point of being able to keep a car in the slot, they seem to include another shopper and three extremely competitive little boys.

As far as our local racing most of the cars we already own a fit into the classes (classic sports car might need to be motored down) It would just be a matter of reorganizing the races them selves.

That's enough from me, time to go work on the garden. See I do some other things other things beside playing with toys. I wonder how I can fit an outdoor railroad into the garden.

  • From: Hillsboro, OR
  • Registered: June 15, 2008
  • Posts: 1,747

Re: proxy thoughts

GARDEN!  We've been working on ours for the past two weeks.  Come on out for first Sanday and have a gander ya'll.

Proxies...  I don't think there's a part of them I haven't been involved in from running to organizing.  In fact we just completed the final round of the Carrera Scramble at Rico's the other night.  I've got a car in the IPS and one coming together for the Ford-Porsche proxy.

And I certainly agree that some of these classes we run could use a little monitoring vs. a proposed spec.

We're talking about resurrecting the SCITCC.  One of the Australians is leading the charge.  No doubt they've been sharpening their knives in preparation for the last several years and have found what they believe to be a winning formula.

So a proxy class or two might be fun for the car builders but what about the others?  Loaner cars or legal to run out of spec?  Or do we just start looking at proxy rules and fit our classes to them?

"Big Smooth"

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  • ckouba
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Re: proxy thoughts

kidvolt wrote:

...do we just start looking at proxy rules and fit our classes to them?

Well...  That would be the $64,000 question.  I would be open to either but would advocate stand alone proxy classes instead of merging them.  The frame of reference I have is our F1 category.  Frankly, it's a nightmare.  We already have a Classics I and II division, which is manageable but dilutes the purity (if we can call anything NASTE does "pure").  I would like to see the classes (proxy or legacy) remain independent so we don't force anyone to rebuild their cars.  Why monkey with a good thing?

Let's discuss more...

  • reek455
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Re: proxy thoughts

Our Classic Sports Car class is very close to IPS specs but we would have to down motor them to NC-1 specs and a few people have cars that are too new but other wise they are fairly spot on.  Once down motored they would be pretty much the same as the TLOR tiddler class. I've thought for quite a while we should down motor this class and have a year cut off. Just my opinion for what it's worth.

Rico

Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.
  • docdoom
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Re: proxy thoughts

Well we could always have a building class to teach those that do not have the skills or knowledge on building a chassis and set up of the cars. I for one would love to see how those brass  works of art are done maybe a even Thursday night or some other day or night. maybe a bulk buy on  a spec chassis and body and have class on building it up to run...... I never done the proxy thing my self. I did build one up for the  Ford-Porsche Proxy war, have to wait and see how it runs but I'm game for more heart break and waste full money spending.

The secondnidator