Tech forums - conclusions & closure

[Cookie Monster]

Being new to all this & following the various posts with interest, like many it seems, I'm interested to know:

• How a decision is reached on the class regs & other discussion points?

• Who is involved in reaching the decision - just one person or a group?

• When those final decisions will be published?

There seems to be a big cross section of views, a liberal dose of emotion & it appears to rather challenging to reach "closure"; how has this worked in previous years?

Thx 

 

[Simon.Rogers]

It used to be resolved by a forum after the awards dinner years ago - and it would litterally come down to a show of hands on a rule.

This was stopped when the forum took to long and some of us used to get the odd slap around the head when others wanted to go home 

We have recently moved to internet forum basis like this and although you can get a wider range of views its very hard arguing a point of view without being face to face.

I do not know what Mathew has planned this year.  What I did in the past was for those items that are close to call I drafted a proposed rule in a new thread and asked for avote either way in a set time frame - counted them up.  For the ones that are pretty one sided I would just accept the majority view point and draft the rule accordingly and list it as passed.

There is a little more difficulty this year as we said some rules would be comming into force for 2015 last year (providing 12 months notice) - effectively they have already been argued and approved.  Now we are discussing them again (Which I think is fair enough by the way) - but it does mean some people may have already planned works based on the fact that the rules were agreed last year.  We need to be mindfull of that.

 

 

[Grahame W]

There have been several posts in different sections that admitted that in the past the final written regs did not always exactly tally with what had been discussed and agreed and from that some of the loopholes in the current rules were created.

If the timescales permit may I suggest a process of a draft document being released for vetting by either a selected or the whole community before being presented as the finalised regs that we will all have to work to

Whilst none of us want anybody to waste money, is there actually anyone out there who has already  developed their car with a view to this  years rules as presented last year. If not I feel we really ought to take the time to ensure that this major change in approach not only takes into account all the views expressed in the last week or so but leaves us with a final set of written regs that faithfully reflects what has been agreed. 

 

[Matthew Willoughby]

As Simon suggests, it will be a mixture of votes (where a consensus is far from clear) and executive decisions (for those items that most agree on).  I have no problem with publishing the draft regs but we need to be careful that we don't keep discussing things forever.
 

[Matthew Willoughby]

These threads will continue until after the the lunch as I need to spend my spare time getting that organised.

[Cookie Monster]

Sorry to press but when will any rule changes that were agreed be published?

[Cookie Monster]

Sorry to press but when will any rule changes that were agreed be published?

[OliW]

I suspect it'll be a few weeks yet Phil. Matthew is very busy at the moment. That's assuming he is finalising them before stepping aside for our esteemed new compsec.

[Cookie Monster]

Thx Oli

Just keen to know - note to self: must be patient! 

[CaterBram]

Strictly speaking the regulations are Draft until they have been submitted and approved by the MSA.

however it's not often that the regulations have enforced changes at our level of competition.

I'm not jealous of Matthew's & Pauls task of wading through all the comments which have been made to come to any form or reasonable decision...

 

[Simon.Rogers]

Thats not strictly true.

There is very often a re writting or wording of something and one year had a significant job arguing about items that saved a significant number of competitors having either to spend a whole load of money with a downgrade to compete or running in Class 7.

I was just like a swan gliding over the water.  And paddling like f*** underneath.

[CaterBram]

Cheer's Simon,

We don't see that bit, just the change from draft to approved with little changes.

Just goes to show what a great and difficult job the comp sec actually does.

Just don't tell Paul yet....

[4ster]

Sorry, didn't quite catch that........what shouldn't he tell me?

[CaterBram]

Umm can't remember.....  it seems to have slipped my mind 

[Alan Bowler]

Hi 4*

Rule 313B Sub section 7: All cars must have at least 5 forward gears to prevent unfair advantages on the hills. Especially yellow ones.

Rule 917 A: No hat stealing.

AB

[Stuart Miller 7]

Alan, you forgot also, sub section 8 and 9 of that rule:  drivers must make at least 2 gear changes per run in addition to the selection of 1st at the start line (although I think that was generally ignored)

Also the class 4 specific rule (I think 1002 part A - can't remember the sub-section) that allowed flat shift for yellow cars running a "historic" engine.  I believe this exception was granted because we all knew that the operator, due to his advancing years would probably forget to use it.