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electrathon


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When you join, please feel free to post!
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New members, please feel free to post your opinions!  I got the word out this morning about the site, please pass it on to others who may be interested.  This is a good place to have open, viewable discussions without having to send numerous emails back and forth.

I wish to welcome all of you here.
Aaron Williams

-- Edited by electrathon on Monday 26th of October 2009 07:12:32 PM

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Zaine Stapleton


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Should electrathon be creative or be soapbox derby?
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A comment was made on the new battery proposal about safety; the concern, heavier batteries mean more speed thus more accidents.  Someone said that maybe there should be a limited gear ratio rule, limiting the speed of everyone.  This is what I had to say about the email. 

Yes, there is a safety concern in all races. 

But I thought electrathon racing was all about experimentation, practicing, researching, studying, being creative and predicting how far you can go for the hour efficiently without burning up your batteries; there is no police officer telling you how fast you can go by limiting the speed of everyone.  If there was to be a limited gear ratio with the new battery rule, then its going to be like soap box derby racing where EVERYONE is given a kit they need to buy, EVERY car is set up the exact same way, EVERYONE has the exact same weight,  and then only small changes could be made; it would get extremely boring at one point. 

Electrathon is completely out of  the league of soap box derby racing.  Yes, there will be safety concerns, but to limit the gear ratio's?  I think this would be a bad idea, every single car would have to be checked to see what ratio they are running.  It would get very time consuming to do every race, then it wouldn't be any fun, told what ratio you have to use ; plus, being stuck at a certian speed doing less laps in an hours time. 

Are there instructions on how to build and electrathon car?; are there instructions on how to drive a race as well?  How to charge your batteries; what tire pressure to pump your tires too.  No, there is no one to tell you how to build a car, its all self motivation and being creative about it using others ideas and improving it.  I designed mine looking at other cars on the track when no one told me exactly how to build my car.  And no one told me how to drive in a race either.  I did reserch in my spare time examining, studing, learning, testing, and seeing what would pass or fail.  Self motivation is what propels electrathon on.  It isn't a book that tells you how to perform something, you have to teach yourself on how to do it and being creative plus fun at the same time. 

Zaine Stapleton

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Kyle Keenan


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RE: When you join, please feel free to post!
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Limiting gear ratios would be a neat idea, provided everyone runs the same motor. Our team uses a Pern motor, and it spins at completely different RPM's then the Briggs motors.

There was no mention of a "set kit" or a "set this" or "set that" and this is by no means something that should be compared to SoapBox Derby. Look at all forms of motorsports, all of which have rather strict guidelines as to what can and cannot be done.

A rule I would like to see changed is the minimum weight rule. I think the cars AND drivers should be weighed "as is" at the end of the race, Making the rules so each car and driver must weight a set amount. This is how every other series I have ran does it and it's rather effective there. They mandate us to stay in the car until after we have gone over scales. This can be done with three bathroom scales even.


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electrathon


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As someone who runs races limiting gear ratios would be nearly impossible to regulate.  There are differant tire sizes, differant motors, differant voltages, differant front and rear sprockets...  it goes on and on.  We already are sometimes checking in and inspecting 40 cars in 2 hours, I can not imagine adding such an impossible rule to govern.

Zaine Stapleton wrote:

A comment was made on the new battery proposal about safety; the concern, heavier batteries mean more speed thus more accidents.  Someone said that maybe there should be a limited gear ratio rule, limiting the speed of everyone. 



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electrathon


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One of the reasons for having a minimum driver weight rule and not a car weight rule is to encourage inovation.  There is motivation to build a lighter car, you get to go faster.  If the cars all had to weigh more there would be no reason to engineer a lighter car.  If we all has a factory built car, then there woudl be less on the design side and more on the driving side.  We now have a ballance as it is, you need both equally.

Kyle Keenan wrote:
A rule I would like to see changed is the minimum weight rule. I think the cars AND drivers should be weighed "as is" at the end of the race, Making the rules so each car and driver must weight a set amount. This is how every other series I have ran does it and it's rather effective there. They mandate us to stay in the car until after we have gone over scales. This can be done with three bathroom scales even.

 



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electrathon


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When the battery weight rule goes up the cars will speed up.  Yes, the races will be less safe.  Yes, more people will be hurt.  Hopefully not too many of them will be serious.  The main area that I feel speed will go up will not be on the big loop tracks.  There are few of the races out there that are on that kind of track.  Where the danger is will be in parking lots.  We will be able to drive far more agressively in the corners.  One of the main limiting factors that keep Electrathons safe is that there just is not enough power to corner faster, you must drive correctly to conserve power, it is a lesson in engineering, not in agressive driving.  This is definatly changing.  Sad.

My opinion is you should learn to drive better and design your cars better and that will result in traveling farther.  Giving more battery power is just dangerous.

Zaine Stapleton wrote:

heavier batteries mean more speed thus more accidents. 


 



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mhodgertt


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Well I am glad to see that with the new battery rule not only have there not been more accidents and injuries but I don't think the speeds at any track have gone up much if at all. By the end of the year I started to learn how to drive the yellow tops to get out a little more power and I did get one more lap on each of the last two races of the spring season last year. But that is not enough of an increase to be more dangerous. I had hoped that the only change with the yellow tops would be that they would last more seasons of racing. Like I said I can not afford to buy 40 Optimas each year for our 20 cars. Hopefully the yellow tops will last at least 2 and hopefull 3 or 4 full season of racing the 15 days of racing a year we have in the NW.

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Zaine Stapleton


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Mike, you could say that there have been a couple more laps made each race compared to last year.  But faster speeds have not been an issue, just have to re-learn how to drive the yellow tops to their peak performance.  

Zaine


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