[BAracer]

#64

"A Chat of two halves"

So the Chat started with an update on progress with the cut & shut Porsche project. I have to say, all these reports are really going to spoil the surprise for Greg when he unwraps his 'present' on the Christmas Special Zoon Chat. He really is going to have to practice his 'WOW!' face beforehand. He is also going to have to kerb his anger whenever anyone suggests that we all get a turn to run the car on our home tracks before it finals gets to him. You could see him screaming "NO!" into his microphone, but the auto-mute facility kept cutting in due to the excessive volume level.

Leo gave us some good advice on how to apply solid white decals onto coloured backgrounds, with his own cut & shut model as a good example. Chris chipped in with a recommendation for one of those North American cleaning product that help when applying sticky decals. The Europeans on the Chat all looked on mystified as to what they needed to buy.

Getting people to chat about their favouring car livery, real or fantasy, got everyone talking and showing off examples that some people drooled over, and some others could be heard tutting. That developed into a chat about real liveries on cars that never carried them, and fantasy liveries on fantasy cars, or 'thingies' as I now understand them to be called. Lloyd loves simple dark green, there were a couple of votes for blue and yellow, and Paul just likes anything that everyone else dislikes. We then all played a game of livery semaphore where we had to describe a night out on the town using only the liveries of your favourite cars. Looks like the Chat Christmas get together is going to be messy...Lots of Martinis (both straight and shaken up a bit) followed by some Buds and washed down with Jagermeisters, whilst having a JPS or Gold Leaf, and then a McD to finish off.

And then the En-Ger-Land Euro Semi-final kicked off against Denmark, and only Leo (Probable a Scottish supporter) and Paul (Definitely an Anyone who is Playing En-Ger-Land supporter) remained online from the UK.

What everyone who left missed, and the Chat probably only scratched the surface on, was a discussion on how to maintain the interest of newcomers into the hobby without blinding them with all the science involved in creating a competitive car out of the 'off the shelf' one they brought earlier that day and had with them in the hope of winning a race on their first outing. The follow up, related, question pushed the discussion further into "where is money most effectively spent on order for a beginner to become more competitive on the track?" So both pretty fundamental questions that touch on the future prosperity of this hobby. And some good answers offered that would assist a wider audience.

Anyway, Greg blew the final whistle at the end of full time, which meant that Leo and Paul still had to find something else to do for another hour before the football finished and life in En-Ger-Land got back to normal.