England Mini-Z Club

[Riddles]

Ive been browsing these forums for a while now and it seems as if there are no other mini-z clubs in the uk (although i have seen may people trying to organise one), so i thought i'd post this to inform people of what i believe to be the only mini-z club in england.

Our club was formed when we were looking to an alternative when the weather was too bad on sundays for the 1/8th rally x (although we did acctually race in torrential rain most of the time because were sad, dedicated w*****s). But we decided we like them so much we made a seperate club out of it.

We race every friday in st olaves village hall (near great yarmouth, norfolk, and about 10/20 miles from norwich) from about 6:30 till 11/12:00pm. There are about 30 of us with z's (admitedly we get about 15 of us turn up each meeting) and, another first to my knowlege, we change the track every week. Because the hall is used at other times we have to roll up our carpet for storage and use hosepipe for walls (wood for the outside), and we have this groovy red/white striped tape to cover it.

We use the same lap counting system as we use for the 1/8th rally x racing (a computer with a person to press car numbers and a caller to call out the cars as they cross the line, although i am looking in to other alternative to present to the chairman as people do get a bit disgruntled when laps are missed and it gets tiring having to call out the same car number about 100 times in a final).

Heats are 5 minutes long and normaly there are 5 rounds each night then we do finals that are 15 (a final) and 10 (b final) minutes long (if we have a c final i _*think*_ its 5 minutes but it might be 10 im not too sure, its been a long time since we had the race day with 22 cars)

To become a member (not too sure on this either) its £10 (or $15 for you americans :P) or at least thats what i think it is because thats how much it is for rally x, and your first meeting is free (i think :P). And every night its £3 entry (unless its a trophy meeting, yes we do have them!, and the last one of them was £6 but that must be paid 14 days in advance for trophys to be made, 1st 2nd and 3rd in each final gets prizes... = hop-ups :P). The money is well worth it and its great fun (although most of it is paying off the ridiculously priced planning permission for the new rally x track right now :P)

Our rules are very open (in my opinion) but for fairness all cars must have the 130 stock motor and the stock speed controler (ie no turbos) THATS IT, anything else goes (to a certain extent). This also makes for some VERY good racing when yor bumper to bumper for 15 minutes. Also a jump start gets you moaned at by martin the chairman for the next millenium and you start 1/2 lap back (not that its ever had to be enforced)

Also the club is run alongside a model shop (anglia models, gorlston) which stocks mini-z ready sets, shells and parts (not too extensive a collection though which is why ive had to order my diff from here, that i hopes here before friday so i can have a play ). And as a bonus to your membership you get 10% discount on any purchase over £15 in the shop (night be abit higher, dunno)

If anyone wants more info goto the web site below (pictures and stuff) or post a reply here, if anyone wants to come race with us (if its just once you wont need to join, just the £3, but trust me, you'll be travelling 100+ miles once your hooked, just to race) either post a reply here or email me (ridley.family@ntlworld.com) and i'll get you in contact with martin (the chairman).

Nick

[Mondo]

Riddles,

I've been trying to stir up a UK based Mini-Z club for close on two years.
There has been very little interest in it. I even posted flyers at two hobby shops in the South West. Nothing!

So, I ended up migrating to Micro RS4s for indoor racing, a much better choice, as it seems as if most clubs support a Micro RS4 class.
The Micro is much more of a racing machine than the Mini-Z is, cheaper to hop-up and much faster too.

I would love to see a Mini-Z F1 racing class here, but as I said, no one's really interested

Good luck and I'll be watching your progress

[Riddles]

We allow F1 racers to race with us. Dont ask why, martin doesnt seem to realise that they are faster and that you get scooped up by the front wing. But we only have one guy and quite frankly he's 'not too good' :P.

[mini-z]

Wow Riddles, I wish I would have know that last time I visited Norwich! We're working on a new site, Mini-ZRacing.com which has international correspondents posting their local race stats etc., would you be interested in representing your group? It is also great publicity for the group. Please email me if you are interested. Let's see some pics!

[Riddles]

Ive just transfered about 100+ pictures to the server so if you click on media theres a link to the index. I'll put up thumbnails and stuff later but I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment. A coupple of pictures i really like are:

DCP_0984 - The car _*is*_ actually moving, took some skill taking that.

DCP_1003 - Shows most of a track and a few blurs (yes they are acctually cars, its not my fault my cameras cheap and nasty :P)

DCP_0939-0946 - pictures of all the cars at one of our 'busier' meeting and all of the drivers.

DCP_0914 + DCP_0936 - you can soprt of work out what this track looked like from both photos.

DCP_0958 - my breloved PCB before it got fried and it now has 'a few' wires on it and 'a couple' of components missing :P

Anything else you guys wanna know/see just ask. Im taking the camera and a few spare baterys on friday so there'll be more pics in the early hours of saturday.

Riddles

[mini-z]

Cool pics, it looks like you guys get quite a turnout!