Hello!
Saturday, november 19 2011 we organized a very special event, something quite uncommon. A sort of mini-rc festival with a connexion to real car racing.
This was made possible by the combination of the human and technical resources of the multiple associations and companies specialized in mini R/C and car racing present that day. Around 30 volunteers worked hard to make this event possible and I thank them from the deepest of my heart.
On the mini R/C side, 3 clubs worked together with the goal to share the passion of everything with 4 wheels that can race remotely and indoor.
On the real size side, race car clubs proposed to offer the same treatement to mini R/C cars than what is usually done with real size cars and pilots (interviews, race reports, etc...).
This event naturally became a gathering of mini-rc pilots and real car pilots
We have seen rally pilots drive mini-z for the first time, some buying readysets, some others watching and commenting the dnano race with great interest.
Our freshly founded automobile association, "Mon Automobile Club" ("My Automobile Association") a sort of counterpart to what makes the spirit and unison in a Mini-z club but with 1/1 cars, was involved, as well as France Alsace Events, an event company that offered VIP services during the WRC France Alsace rally (I worked for them during the rally).
We also had several 1/1 race teams invited, race marshals, car racing staff, companies renting supercars for track days, a local race car association organizing local hill climbs, etc. The background was clearly defined, the decoration of the hall was made with tires, cones, race flags, 1/1 car parts, rallye plaques, etc.
One of the three Mini-z clubs helping in the organization of the event was in charge of MZ rentals and initiations for the general public and also for the people from the car racing field that we invited. They had 8 MR02EX for rent, all set with stock engine with stock pinion and running in slow mode with the KT18. This same club, the Yapluka MT club, also set a display of customized and rare mini-z bodies.
The 2nd MZ club offered a free access to their RCP track with an FSR counting system to any invidual coming to the event with his own Mini-z. The principle on that track was "help yourself". They did not race but we saw quite interesting challenges and battles. A lap record challenge was also organized on that track.
The 3rd MZ Club, mine (Mini6Z), was in charge of an exibit consisting of a normal dnano race (3quals+3finales+1superfinale) with experimented drivers on a mini96 RCP set on a large table assembly. The race was commented by a car racing specialist, the driving spots, the cars and the race screen (car images) were all marked with colors so the audience could clearly identify who leads, etc. I was the race director of the dnano race. I used FSR (thank you Jeremy for your great work) with a french female voice. The prizes for the winners of the dNano race were:
1st Ferrari F430-F1 or open wheel car track time
2nd Porsche Carrera GT or open wheel car track time
3rd Go-kart (F1 style) track time
There was a hill climb car show outside, also the giant red autoscale as we called it was there for the winner to show off. He sat in the Ferrari after the award ceremony and was interviewed there. Sorry I did not film that nor the ceremony (with music, girls, champagne), but will post later if I can find someone who recorded that.
I was the art director and architect of the event. That took me 3 to 4 month of my free time. I draw several implementation plans and made 3d simulation during the design phase that greatly simplified the organization. Additionaly, I created playlists of music & videos to set an ambiance comparable to what you can find in a lounge bar or night club.
A large part of the decoration and agencement was the work of 1/1 car racing staff and I was symbolically given their official 1/1 race director jacket by them
I also designed the flyers, posters, presentation webpages and online reservation system for this.
The result? Well. At least we had a race
It was not clear until D day if we would have enough dnano drivers... By chance we had 6... dNano cars have some success here but people don't race them seriously as commonly done with the Mini-z.
I had to race myself in fact so there could be six drivers on the stage, we expected 8 at least. I raced from the stage not far from the race computer and the simplicity of FlipSide (the magic start race button
) really helped me.
The event was held in an historical and very nice concert hall in Strasbourg central Europe (border of France and Germany) from 8:30am to 6pm the 19 november 2011.
The 4 tracks installed:
1 9x4 meters dnano track set on tables with mini96 RCP tiles (30x30cm)
1 10x4 meters standard RCP open to any visitor owning a MZ
1 10x4 meters rental track made with low pile carpet (very smooth racing and drifting on this one/my favorite track)
1 small initiation track (3x4 meters ) made with foam tiles and with an integrated crawler module for overlands
It was a huge work of preparation but we enjoyed a real nice, friendly, interesting and warm ambiance the whole day.
The video is 25mn long so take your time. You will see the installation, then a pre-opening briefing, then the show with the dNano race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zN7J...&feature=feedu
Sorry in advance there is some seriously long french speaking there