Is there a future for Formula Ford?

[Carlo]

clever engineers who machined inclined valves, subtle angles, but needed lapping to keep the compression in check. .

Shhhh......!!

[rf84]

So, given the present state of FF (5 entries at the last Championship round at Taupo), how many people are going to take the gamble on it's future and import a Honda powered car or conversion kit from the USA?

[jim short]

I wonder how it ever started if thats the case????

So, given the present state of FF (5 entries at the last Championship round at Taupo), how many people are going to take the gamble on it's future and import a Honda powered car or conversion kit from the USA?

[Grant Ellwood]

So, given the present state of FF (5 entries at the last Championship round at Taupo), how many people are going to take the gamble on it's future and import a Honda powered car or conversion kit from the USA?

I can recall the same sentiments when FF started with the pre-crossflow then when the crossflow was introduced there was a lot of hand-wringing. progress, love it or hate it! Personally I'd stick with the Kent but I'm not eighteen anymore (like Cunningham...)

[rf84]

Good point Jim. Like a lot of classes it was a "grassroots" beginning i.e. it started as a result of 1 or 2 individuals building cars and racing them. The same happened with Formula Vee when Barry Munro built the very first car in NZ and raced it against the 1.6 National Formula cars. The Vee was so slow in comparison to the National Formula cars it was almost laughable. But the class caught on and flourished.
Currently there are 5 relatively modern FF's on "Trademe". If they were added to the grid of 5 that turned up at Taupo it would be a half reasonable grid. Question is what is needed to get them out there?

[crunch]

So, given the present state of FF (5 entries at the last Championship round at Taupo), how many people are going to take the gamble on it's future and import a Honda powered car or conversion kit from the USA?

Personally; I wouldn't. The whole Honda thing is, at best a veeeeeery long shot for the NZ FF Championship

[crunch]

We need to stick with what we already have here in NZ, and attract those back. Would purely prizemoney/startmoney do that?

[Russ Noble]

So, given the present state of FF (5 entries at the last Championship round at Taupo), how many people are going to take the gamble on it's future and import a Honda powered car or conversion kit from the USA?

Crunch has stated in the short term that the Honda is not likely to be an option at this point in time, so I don’t see anyone taking the Honda route until it is incorporated in the regs. Then I think the uptake would be quite high. But that is something to keep in mind for the future. It is not really what is ailing FF today. We need to get existing Kent engined cars out and racing. After that maybe look at Honda or some other option down the track.

Currently there are 5 relatively modern FF's on "Trademe". If they were added to the grid of 5 that turned up at Taupo it would be a half reasonable grid. Question is what is needed to get them out there?

Yes, and four of those on the grid had come up from the SI. Getting the NI cars out there is what we keep coming back to!

Not only the ones on Trademe but there must be another couple of dozen similar cars in sheds all round the country that need to be enticed back into competition. And that’s just the Class 1 cars.

Then there are the older ones that qualify for the Class 2 championship for Pre-93 cars. At least another couple of dozen. There are plenty of cars there, they just have to be got onto the grid

Just re-emphasising one of my earlier posts:-

Why is it that southerners currently find themselves the mainstay of, and leading competitors in, the FF class?? Certainly not because they are all spending megabucks, quite the opposite generally.

What is different between the North and South Islands?

The main thing that I can think of, is that we currently have a six round SIFF championship, As I have stated before, it is a serious championship and provides competitive seat time before embarking on the National Championship.

The northerners lack anything remotely similar.

That in my view is the major reason the North Islanders are not supporting the FF Championship. If there was a successful FF northern racing infrastructure outside the National Championship then there would be cars and competitors to draw upon. As it is there is nothing.

Sorry, I’m starting to sound like a broken record on this one, but it’s all too easy to say the demise of FF is due to excessive costs. The South Island has proved that this is not so. It’s the lack of racing in the NI that is the problem.

Now, how can that be addressed?

Does anyone even want to address it?

.



Also MSNZ, if they aren’t already, need to be promoting FF directly to the karting fraternity. Particularly by countering the misconception of excessive costs. Possibly they could also offer an inducement to the winner of the top karting class, for instance waiving entry fees for the winner and having that as part of the karting prize for the winner. Having access to, and the ear of, these guys would pay off handsomely one would think. Nevertheless there would always be the odd one coming through anyway. A prize and the attendant promotion would no doubt make others think about going down the FF track.

[Russ Noble]

We need to stick with what we already have here in NZ, and attract those back. Would purely prizemoney/startmoney do that?

I agree, and the major problem is the dozens of eligible cars out there that are not appearing. In my opinion, as stated before, if you don’t want to cross the Strait it’s not worth preparing (or even owning) a car for only three meetings. There need to be more meetings available in the NI. I don’t think prizemoney/startmoney (although it would be good) in the National Championship would have a lot of effect, but I think what I have outlined below would.

How about someone sets up a NI series, finds a sponsor for it and then have MSNZ give that sponsor the NZ naming rights as a bonus? There has to be a bit of lateral thinking involved if we are going to pull FF out of the mire.........

Whilst there would be no money going directly to MSNZ, a set up like that would do more for FF than just selling the NZ naming rights would. And presumably they haven't been able to do that anyway in the last year or so! So really no skin off their noses, but a big boost to FF should it happen.....

Regardless, it's time to take the Ford name out of it.

It’s now a manpower and legwork thing. Someone needs to contact the NI owners and get an undertaking that they would support a NI series. Then go to the promoters and get venues. Then go to MSNZ outlining what is proposed and see if they would give naming rights to the NZFF championship as a bonus for a sponsor who would support the NI series. Then, as the icing on the cake, find a suitably altruistic sponsor, probably someone already involved in motor racing who would be prepared to put up a prize fund to further entice competitors.

But it needs someone to do it. If someone doesn’t step up then nothing will happen and all these cars will continue to lie around unused and the NZFF championship will continue to rely on mainly SI participation.

[ERC]

Chicken and egg. How do you entice a sponsor with tiny fields? What a sponsor needs for his/her outlay is something in return and that is generally exposure whether in the media or on the track and a grid of five is not going to work.

For whatever reason, I don't think all is rosy in the motorsport world and the reasons are many and varied.

Without contacting every single one of our own drivers, to find out why they are not racing this weekend, (I have heard from quite a few with cars under repair, mechanically and bodily), I can only guess. It is our own meeting with double points (not that anyone cares about points!) and we have only managed a third of all registered competitors.

Historics (with FF) have managed just 13 cars - not a financially viable grid. With practice and 3 races for $180, that is one of the lowest entry fees of the season and just the same amount of track time as a two day meeting, but with less hanging about.

Maybe attending a two weekend festival takes too much of a chunk out of the race budget in the middle of summer, so autumn/winter meetings take a distinct second place?

Are there just too many classes and some people being too precious, wanting their own sandpit, yet oblivious to the financial strain on organisers? As at today, with entries now closed, I can't see us breaking even this weekend even with costs trimmed to the bone, as half the six grids are making a loss.

Certainly at this stage, I can't see me promoting a meeting next year, as it just isn't worth the stress or the cost, especially as one of the three non-paying grids wouldn't even consider combining with one of the others at the planning/invitation stage. Even if they did combine, the grid would only be half full and half of them are only paying $30, as they are already in one of the other classes.

Without a bit of commitment, neither series nor championships, even for choccy fish, are working at the moment.

There must be a reason why so many FFs are in sheds but unless the owners front up with their reasons, we'll never really know and guessing is pointless. One assumes that most of them are not on this website...

[Wal Will]

Crunch seems pretty definate about the Honda motor not being on the horizon.
It is not a 5 minute fit into an existing car to have one as an example, but I guess a brave fellow could import an already converted car from the U.S. and run it on club days under Formula Libre so that it could be evaluated by interested parties for future reference.

[Racer Rog]

I'm sure Crunch has shares in a Ford dealership, but my Honda shares are performing better, and have greater long term prospects, but you are right Wal, I think if some brave soul would bring one into the country, I'll bet it would get a lot of attention.
Roger

Crunch seems pretty definate about the Honda motor not being on the horizon.
It is not a 5 minute fit into an existing car to have one as an example, but I guess a brave fellow could import an already converted car from the U.S. and run it on club days under Formula Libre so that it could be evaluated by interested parties for future reference.

[Carlo]

Are you going to have your car out for an airing on April 28th Roger?

[crunch]

I'm sure Crunch has shares in a Ford dealership, but my Honda shares are performing better, and have greater long term prospects, but you are right Wal, I think if some brave soul would bring one into the country, I'll bet it would get a lot of attention.
Roger

Daughter works for one...but they are a Suzuki motorcyles dealership as well...maybe one of those high reving motors are an option????

[John McKechnie]

Thats basically Star cars without bodies ,Crunch?

[crunch]

...or Formula Suzuki....

[Kiwiboss]

Well this brings out another issue, which im not sure's been mentioned here? but are today's kids and dads doing the Dad/Go Kart thing and them just by-passing FF and moving up to tin tops like the new Honda Cup or maybe another open wheel class's(whatever that may be) i mention this because its a forever changing world and a class like Honda Cup may possibly be more attractive and affordable,(as is E30's) and as i've mention before the kids are "hip" with these sorts or cars?????

Just thinking out loud here!!! because if we have all these FF's scattered around NZ and parked, whats the reason?

Dale M

[Racer Rog]

No Carl, the wheels are still not attached to rest of it, and I have got to go down to Oamaru, to see Dug and get the rest of the drawings for the chassis repairs, og and make some more money, but will be down on the 27th
Roger

Are you going to have your car out for an airing on April 28th Roger?

[Racer Rog]

...or Formula Suzuki....

Not a bad idea, but they are already out there, and I would have thought they clash with TRS, given that they are wings and slicks, and could be faster than TRS.
Roger

[paul lancaster]

Hi rogers, what about an ff2000 class , running as they did overseas and not monoposto, there's already enough cars in nz, and compared to a class 2 ff, they are cheap as chips, especially the way the dollar is at the mo.wings n slicks class, cheap to run, surely a great stepping stone to trs etc. Paul