Hey Samuel,
Good to hear from you again - I'm looking forward to you joining in with our racing club this winter!
Out here (West) the original foam World-GT class died a slow death over the last 2-3 years. Our club IROCC here in Victoria carried it along longer than most other clubs. CRC revived the class in the last couple of years by switching it to rubber tires and cooler bodies. That revival seems quite strong in certain specific regions in the East (in both USA East and Canada East), but I have not seen it anywhere else really. At IIC last year the turnout was weak, and at MHIC the last two years, the turnout was almost non-existent. The weak turnouts in the West lead WCICS to completely eliminate the class from the upcoming 2017/2018 season.
As for club racing with IROCC in Victoria:We like to see as many people racing with us as possible - and it's in our best interest to find ways for new club members, and new racers to be able to participate with our club.
1. You're more than welcome to run your WGT-R cars (1S 17.5) in our Scale Spec class. Based on some research, you will likely be slightly outclassed in horsepower, but you'll be out there racing.
2. Do you have a Silvercan for testing? It would be interesting to see what 2S Silvercan laptimes would be like.
3. There are 3-4 other racers in our club that have older World GT cars, a couple of which have been converted to CRC rubber. The racers that tried it here (very experienced racers) found the class quite slow for veteran racers and they weren't that excited about it. But for a newer racer it could be a cheap and fun way to learn racing. That said, we tend to point new racers toward Scale Spec with a used TC chassis since that is relatively cost effective too, it's a manageable speed, and can be raced outdoors in our asphalt racing program. Yes the 2S battery costs more, but there are so many used batteries floating around you can usually find something reasonable.
Come out on a Thursday evening when you're back in town and let's do some testing. Bring your 12th Scale too!
And lets be honest, we all love the simplicity and history behind pan cars
PS. I loved this line! Trust me, our club has had a pan car focus for decades. Our weekly 12th Scale class (13.5 to align with WCICS) is our most popular class by far.
Blake