I am looking into an in-car race radio for this season and I am wondering if anyone has any opinions or experience with them?

Thanks,

Victor Penner

 

Or are you referring more specifically to the driver-to-pit radio options that were discussed in the "best significant other" thread a bit before?

 

Victor... When I started shopping for radios, I looked at what all the pro teams were using. About 75% appeared to be using Racing Radios equipment.

I bought a set from them last season and have been extremely satisfied. Crystal clear reception on both ends.

 

I just picked up some Motorola P1225 radios off Ebay. I will be assembiling the rest of the system soon. There are all kinds of opinions out there. Motorolas are the easiest to get parts & service for. Most people are running the Motorola SP50's. The team I crewed for used them. We just had the radio's antenna. We lost communications on some parts of Laguna, Sears & Thunderhill. I am told that a seperate car antenna and/or a headset antenna should solve that. http://www.racetech-racing.com. http://www.racingradios.com. http://www.racingelectronics.com. I will basically be getting the long track system that racetech is selling. BTW, they have specials on system right now.

 

We're using Racing Radios also. Never had any problems with it and they work great. On the car I raced this year we also have that "special" black short but much thicker antenna mounted on the roof as opposed to conventional thin metal ones. Range is significantly better, but you get static some of the time when talking from turn 7 at R.A. or Oak Tree at VIR. It's all because of the elevation changes.


[Modified by Hracer, 6:19 AM 12/30/2001]

 

Alex... I noticed that while sitting on the grid at RA and meant to ask you about it. Where did you get it? T7 at RA is about the only place I have trouble hearing anything. The team says they can hear me but I just get a blast of static in my ears if they try to talk.

 

Thanks!

Yes, Car to pit is what I am after. I had pretty well come to the conclusion of Racing Radios myself after checking out many web-sites. I am curious why the 2 channel radios cost more than the 4 or 10 channel radios? I believe that the thick black antenna you are talking about is the one they sell for open or formula cars.

Victor Penner

 

Victor... the way RR explained it to me was that the P1225's (2 channel) were made with a steel skeleton and made to drop off a building. The P50's (?) utilized more plastic in their construction and weren't as rugged.

For as much use as us club racers give them, I'm sure either is fine. I went with the P1225's.

 

Thanks,

I thought that maybe the 2 channel ones were more secure or something. Like it would matter if anyone heard my crew chief telling me to go faster!! I don't even have a crew chief, I am planning to just give the radio to anyone that looks interested with these instructions. "When they drop the green tell me to go...every few laps tell me to go faster...when the checker comes out tell me to stop and come in." I am wondering if I really need a radio?

Victor Penner

 

Besides those things, you could also consider the radios as a safety device. The crew can warn you of accidents that you can't see around blind turns. They will be a great advantage for enduros. Let the crew know when to set up tire or driver changes. Fuel stops. Pretty sure all of the Motorolas have the "private" line feature.

 

Victor, since I'll be running the CSCC/SCCA event at Bremerton, I'll be your radio guy if you'll be mine. Not sure if I'll do any events in Canada this year though. How's your local Solo I turnout?

 

sjasmund, I don't remember off the top of my head.. I'll get back to you on the antenna.

All the good reasons about using radios have already been mentioned. Hearing green helps mostly on single file restarts where you can be farther back, but at the start of a race I've noticed that if you're anywhere in the top 1/3rd of the grid, everybody jumps the starts anyway! So it always happens I'm at w.o.t. about 1-2 seconds before I hear "GREEN GREEN gogogogogoogogo!!" on the radio. Even so I still don't know how to make good starts most of the time.

In longer races with pit stops having radios is really great especially if you're sharing the same pit spot with someone else. Knowing the interval between you and the people ahead/behind also helps to maintain the "right" pace. It also helps in qualifying knowing what the other guys are running , so that you don't go all out if you don't have to and risk making a potentially costly mistake.

ohh.. , but the most fun I've ever had with a radio was the one race this year where we ran both cars at the same time. Have any of you seen that (pretty bad!) movie Driven? Well at the end in the scene where they are both in the back of the pack and blowing though the field by coordinating their moves over the radio, picture two CRXs instead of the indy cars. Ok maybe not quite... hehe but we almost drained all the batteries from the radios in just that one 45 min race.


[Modified by Hracer, 8:25 PM 12/30/2001]

 

So all of you guys with those Motorolla systems are dropping $2k for the sets?!? I thought a good, 5 mile range, radio went for around $200. Then another $50 for a headset and push to talk button, and you're done. About $450 total or so. Isn't that the conclusion we reached in the other thread?

Matt

 

A 2 radio set from Racing Radios is around that price. I started out with FRS radios and they worked fine. I used them for pit-car transmission and never bothered getting a PTT switch or anything so I could talk back. They worked great for starts, lap times and a lot of other uses.

After using them for a while I decided, when I heard "you're driving like you're wearing panties", that I wanted to be able to reply with "fix this ^$%# car so it doesn't understeer so #%#^%# much and I'd be able to %#%^$# go faster!!"

Insead of adding onto the FRS system, I wanted a better set for longer tracks and for multiple crew members.

 

Ours cost about half that much. We got everything in pieces. Bought the helmet kits, pit and car kit separately and got the Motorola radios off e-bay for much less. The kits are Racing Radios.

 

I agree... I saved about a few hundred dollars by buying the radios on ebay and then getting the parts from racing radios... i was even lucky enough to find a headset on ebay

the sp50's and 1225's are readily available...