oOple's Ultimate After School Club

[racingben]

So as a bit of an experiment I decided to offer RC racing as an after school club at my daughters School. I wasn't sure how it would go and I decided to price it just below the Karate Club.

It went down rather well! I've blurred the kids faces for reasons of Political Correctness. The club is full at 14 kids (not bad considering its a small (<100 kids) village school and I only allowed year 2-6 to do it)

I supply the cars, timing equipment and track. The Kids design tracks for me using a piece of freeware I found. Some like to race, some just want to practice and lets just say it isn't the quietest 75 minutes of my week :-)

The equipment is all of the stuff I use for my www.modelcarparties.co.uk events.

[ianjoyner]

Looks awesome

[Dombrasky]

Good job Ben,brilliant way of getting kids involved in RC

[racingben]

Now wondering if it'll work as the basis of an RC club as well.....

Let's face it it's an attractive thing for parents to be able to pay eg £6 entry fee with no other costs instead of £300+ on gear then the same fee plus pay for broken bits.

I've developed these little losi cars to the point now that they just don't break - I lose the odd servo but that's about it. They're also fast enough that we could have a rental class and an owner class for people who wanted to buy their own. Add some weight, run unrestricted on 2s lipo and play with shock oil and you've got a quick little car.

[racingben]

Wonder if I could start a club with it too...... Have a rental race and then gradually start an owners race too. The cars are £100 and pretty bullet proof. Quite twitchy but if you throw some lead in the back of them (they only weigh 200g!) and put thick oil in the shocks they're ok.

Here's a video of me mucking about with the truggy version
http://youtu.be/9kW45TmhmHo

[racingben]

And a quick video of one of my recent events
http://youtu.be/JsGILymZIFQ

[alex97]

wish my school did this, sounds great fun. how do the cars hold up to the kids driving them ?

[racingben]

They're pretty strong. The weak points are the steering servo and the wheels (strip too easily) fixed by backing slipper right off and covering tyres in heat shrink. This way the cars slide too which adds to the fun! The servo just needs the end points setting properly.

Other than that I don't think I've broken anything yet. I've modified the transmitters so I can limit the top speed (about 8mph in the video - they can do just over 20mph with a 2s lipo)

[Loheswaran]

Great idea and effort - such a good way of getting people into racing

[emtee]

I'll tell ya summat RB that is absolutely freakin awesome.. Thank goodness for guys like you who bring the next generation on.. I think you are doing a top job and I applaud your efforts.. good work!!

Who knows, maybe the next andy moore is right there!!!

[neiloliver]

That looks great. I see you have those interlocking rubber mats for the track surface - but what are you using for the track markers? is it a proprietary system or something you have developed yourself?

Neil

[racingben]

Neil my track is the kyosho circuit 50 set and also an rcp wide L like you can find here http://www.rcptracks.com/50cmtracksbuynow.html

[VintageRacer]

What timing equipment are you using?

I have been looking to start an rc club at the school I teach at I was thinking of 1/10 electric as that's what I know but this looks like a great inexpensive solution to get started.

My main reservation is that I teach secondary and I wonder how the older kids would react to the little cars. Do you have experience with using these with older kids?

[Groomi]

Love this. Great idea!

[racingben]

Originally Posted by VintageRacer

What timing equipment are you using?

I have been looking to start an rc club at the school I teach at I was thinking of 1/10 electric as that's what I know but this looks like a great inexpensive solution to get started.

My main reservation is that I teach secondary and I wonder how the older kids would react to the little cars. Do you have experience with using these with older kids?

Timing is trackmate infra red system from Canada. Works really well. Older kids still enjoy it and I can turn the speed up.

Problem with bigger cars is you need more space, more materials and you get more breakages. These things have gone for a year and I haven't split a body yet! I can pack the whole lot into my fiat punto and bring it home again in 45 minutes!

I started with losi mini 8's but to run indoors you need carpet, drain pipe and the cars constantly escape. These rarely make it off the track.

[racingben]

A quick update on this. I've managed to source some other bits of track. The boys asked me to make a version of Silverstone GP circuit this week. Not enough track or space for that but I did manage an interpretation of the international circuit :-)

The curved corner sets give more track build options. I have some 45 degree straights on the way too.

[reg]

That looks ace,
One of my daughter's schools has started an after school RC club that starts tomorrow,she can't wait,I can't friggin wait

[Neil Skull]

That's Great,

I run a club also, although we run Kyosho Mini-z

We got lots of kids into the hobby which is the main point. Its not for kids alone though its for anyone of age or ability.

If anyone wants to see more of this kind of small scale racing we will be at the 12th Scale National in Milton Keynes with Demo track and cars for public to have a go.
its on the 15th and 16th of Feb. It will be a big Event with the best 12th scale drivers in the country and also one or 2 shops selling there as well as demo racing and public have a go!