Hi there
I was directed to this post by an SIFF member as I have an interest in the future of the Formula Ford class and am the father of James Munro who won the championship this year.
I note there a number of comments referring to me , or my car so I thought it best to respond , in no particular order to some of these comments.

Formula Ford is very weak at present and has been on a downward spiral for some years , particularly since the GFC , and this is not just a New Zealand problem or a class problem , the Australians are struggling to put feilds together and have similiar numbers to ours.

The new FF class in England is the same even with Ford offering free entry to the first 15 cars .

So in a world of economic decline what can we do to get young drivers into the class?
Young karters who are the most realistic targets, have more options nowadays, with realistic options to make a career without leaving karting and competing internationally , in Rotax and shifter karts.
We have a number of drivers doing this

There is also the option of the tintop route , which probably excites young drivers more these days anyway.
if you look at classes like Suzukis , a majority seem to be ex karters who have probably decided that a career in single seaters is not an option as there are few drives even at the top level , that pay.
With tin tops a paid drive is realistic even in Super tourers and particularly Supercars.

There is discussion on this site that infers young drivers arent joining the class because of 4 way shocks and data loggers .
i think thats rather simplistic , we are not getting the karters to a point where they even consider it an issue that somebody might have more sensors on their datalogger or an extra adjustment on their shocks.

Having come from karting i can say their has simply been no promotion of Formula Ford by anyone and that is the nub of the problem, young karters arent aware that Formula Ford is an option.


MSNZ have dropped the ball and its good that the SIFF club , as per Russ Nobles comment have picked up the ball and hopefully it will start with a promotion campaign through the kart clubs followed by invitations to drivers from formula First.

Then it is appropriate to start looking at rules.
I personally believe the kent engine has had its day, Ford obviously do to, but any change needs to be signalled well in advance as surety of rules is important when making the purchase of a car.

there are those who say kents are reliable , but when you have young drivers learning and pushing to the limit , you are going to have a lot of bent valves which means more cost and time away from the track.
Im sure thats not a problem with older drivers but remember the basis of this class , was and is , a learners class to bridge the gap to the next level of single seaters , which leads on to data loggers.

Dataloggers dont drive cars .
they have exactly zero effect on car performance.

They have one purpose , and thats as a training tool for young drivers.
In every level of motorsport understanding data is make or break.
It would be a retrograde step to remove them as a learning tool for young drivers in a learning class.

if necessary limit it to engine functions , speed and brake sensors but dont imply those without dataloggers are at a disadvantage other than in learning progression of their drivers.

We ran 4 way shocks , because that was what was on the car I purchased.
i am ambivalent as to the desirability of banning them .
for us it would have been an extra expense that I didnt need , if I had to replace them ,and contray to a previous poster , you cant adjust them between rounds as they are sealed.
in any event they are to complicated to fiddle with unless you have full time shock engineers, which is why we only ever changed settings when it was wet.

James was quicker around Ruapuna with the Stealth he learnt in , which had 2 way Ohlins , so I dont think 4 ways are as big an issue as made out to be.

Finally there was a comment re some lala land pricing of some Mygales at $60k , on Trademe ,vs an RF92 from the UK at 13k pounds.
the UK car landed here is around $30 nz plus kent engine , which is far dearer than a number of RF92s here that have been converted to Stealths , which are light years ahead of an RF92.

Its also dearer than my car as the poster may not have noticed that my car on trade me at $55k includes more than $30k of spares.

The basic car is $25k which i think is quite cheap .

To conclude my rant I would reiterate my belief that problems with Formula Ford arent rules related they are in the main simply a lack of awareness in the class due to no promotion or marketing.
Hopefully that is about to be remedied.