Fia world rally championship × nouns

[donjon]

This year,June the 24th-27th,the sixth leg of the World Rally Championship will be going down in Kenya. The event is the highest discipline of rallying governed by FIA.

Being a native of Kenya , I decided to take into my care a team of 3 drivers both of who have extensive experience and have boasted great results in the rallies they have participated in. Mr Andrew Muiruri,the lead driver,who started his career under the FIA young stars and his co-driver Mr.Edward, one of the most experienced rally drivers in the Southern hemisphere, boasting over 51 podium finishes over a period of over 10 years ,by sponsoring them with 3 stock cars for modification,and to get them registration to be able to participate in the World Rally Championship. With the partnership the nouns are assured of a cohesive team that will deliver impressive results on the grand stage.

PROPOSAL

I am proposing that my racing team partner with the Nouns in the World Rally Championship Safari Rally that is scheduled for the 24th of June. The initial ask is a one-time off cost and the rally team will be able to participate in future major rallying events (upto 20 events) for the next three years thereabout for almost a tenth or less of the current ask. (aprx 8-12 ETH)

BENEFITS

This will be the first time any NFT project has participated in Rally sports,more so the biggest Rally event in the world,generating lots of publicity from people in and out of the Crypto fraternity. The same event last year generated 832 million impressions world-wide, from streaming sites(Red Bull TV, WRC+) and 100+ live TV sports channels.

This proposal is aimed at getting funding out of this partnership to be able to cater for the the

•Nounified branding of team race cars and gear.

•Registration costs paid to the WRC.

•Servicing the cars to the performance and safety standards required by FIA.

•Multiple ad work and promotion during and before the event.

•Mechanical and car service.

•Filming personell.

•Travel and accommodation expenses for the racing team
Event Mechanics personell.

•Spare parts.

WRC RALLY CAR

WRC Rally cars are built to the standards stipulated in the FIA WRC Sporting Regulations Handbook. All participating Rally Cars are inspected by FIA, the governing body,to make sure they are up to safety and performance standards to the letter.

Like all competition cars, a rally car features a roll cage, upgraded suspension and a strong braking system. In order to pound rough roads at high speeds, however, they require sturdier parts.
Beefier engine mounts ensure the block won’t shake loose on bumpier road sections, while a thick aluminium skid plate prevents sharp rocks from lacerating an otherwise vulnerable oil pan. Meanwhile, bespoke wheels and tyres are essential for dealing with varied, challenging terrain.

Today’s WRC cars are built to the specification set by the international motorsports governing body the FIA.In 2011, rules for WRC cars became more restrictive. Cars were smaller models and exotic materials such as titanium, magnesium and composite were forbidden expect when present in the base model. Initially, gear changes had to be made with a mechanical system, so the use of paddle shifters was not allowed, however this was reversed in 2015.

In 2017, manufacturers were given more freedom to maximise aerodynamic performance, while the turbo restrictor diameter was increased from 33 mm to 36 mm, increasing the engine’s power output from 310 bhp to 380 bhp.

STEP BY STEP TL;DR

1. Get car.
2. Strip everything out until you are left with a bare chassis.
3. Use the angle grinder to chop off extensive, not really needed parts to make it lighter (flooring can be thinner etc…)
4. Reinforce the chassis by welding all the current welds and welding other spots that could potentially break while landing a jump or hitting something.
5. Install rollcage.
6. Install engine, gearbox, wheels, brakes and other things that make car going.
7. Install seats, seatbelts, extinguisher, intercom and other internal equipment like display, switches etc.
8. Make sure every part complies with regulations and has a valid homologation, if needed (seats, seatbelts, extinguisher…)
9. Test, dyno.
10. Pass the homologation, register car.
    Enter the event. Reach the finish line. If you crash, repeat steps starting from point 2, in certain cases from 1. Good luck.

inset: Stephan.L of Citroen wrecked his rally car in Poland, which his mechanics fixed completely in less than 30 min.

FUNDING POOLS- 153 ETH

•POOL 1 - 150 ETH (50 ETH per Rally Car)

Pool 1 liquidity will be used to cater for the cost of Vehicular upgrades - 15 ETH per car
Racing Gear - 5 ETH per car
Safety Equipment - 10 ETH per car
Service team equipments - 10 ETH per car
Spare Parts - 10 ETH per car

A comprehensive and detailed breakdown of the allocation is linked here

•POOL 2- Sponsored by an external Sponsor

Pool 2 liquidity will be used to cater for the cost of hiring engineers,mechanics, fuel differentuals, registration costs and event fees.

A comprehensive and detailed breakdown allocation is linked here

•POOL 3 - 3 ETH

Pool 3 liquidity will be used for:
Accomodation for the nouns team
Travelling expenses
Promotion
Media
Advertisment coverage.

A comprehensive and detailed breakdown of allocation is linked here.

I also make a small grants request to compensate the artists responsible for the designing of the car wrap,racing suits and helmets and ads the sum total of 4 ETH.

The team received external sponsorship of 40 ETH that will be deposited into Pool 2 (22 ETH) and the remainder covering part of Pool 3 (Bringing it down from 21 ETH to 3 ETH)

SPARE PARTS,REPAIRS AND SERVICING DURING THE RALLY.

Unlike other racing disciplines, the WRC and Dakar rally’s point is not to compete,but to survive. Africa’s wild gravel roads will deal a great deal of damage to the best serviced rally cars in the most unimaginable way and hence, spare parts are very essential when participating in the rally. In between stages, the rally cars will be given a 30 min window for service, meaning the mechanics team will only have time to do quick fixes. Big parts that take can take even 3 hrs to replace/fix such as the gearbox are pointless to bring to the service area. The mechanics will often perform make shift repairs in the hope that the affected part will be able to take the remaining legs of the rally. In terms of quantity, one can never have enough spare parts. It would be way better if it we’re possible to bring a spare car to pluck parts from but unfortunately, it’s not allowed. One time a rally driver had to retire from the rally because of a missing core plug on his radiator, which of course nobody thought to bring a spare. In as much as one can never have everything,it is important to make the most out of the situation.

RALLY CAR TYRES.

Tyres are probably the decider of who gets to finish the rally and who doesn’t, and that’s a fact. For a given rally, all tyres used by a driver must come from the same tyre supplier.

What do these numbers on the rally tyre mean?

On regular cars measurement are in form of 195/50/15 81V (width/profile/tyre size/load size/speed index)

With rally cars it’s a bit different, let’s take an example:

Michelin SA dry tarmac tyre 20/58–15 SA22

– 20 = tread band width (in cm)

– 58 = exterior diameter of the tyre (in cm)

– 15 = rim diameter (inches)

– SA = thread type (tyre model)

– 22 = compound type, in this case medium (00 = soft, 20=medium, 30=hard, 031B super soft

Each driver is allowed a maximum of tyre changes throughout the duration of a single WRC event, as stated by the FIA rulebook. The ruling body therefore permits only a maximum of 8 tire changes during “any one rally” under the following conditions:

Driver Priority: P1 -Max of 6 tyre changes.
P2- 6 tyre changes.
P3- 4 tyre changes
It is therefore not an odd sight to find teams hoarding alot of tyres which do infact take up much of the service area
The maximum quantity of tyres allowed on each rally will be calculated as follows: “X” number of changes multiplied by 4 tyres. In addition, 4 tyres for WRC cars and 2 for the other cars are added in the overall quantity. For the Monte Carlo rally, the “X” number of changes is multiplied by 5 tyres.

PROMOTION AND ADVERTISING
NOUNIFIED ON-SITE CLOTHING & ACCESORIES

During the course of the Rally all members of Team Nouns will be doning some form of nounified apparel. The Rally driver’s and their co-drivers, the mechanics and the engineers (Service team) will wear noun safari hats or baseball hats to shield themselves from the scorching African sun.
The team will also be supplied with nounified towels to use after completing each leg. Any sort of supplies will also be carried around the site in nounified duffels. We plan to give away loads of t-shirts and umbrellas to willing spectators. Hoodies will be worn by the team throughout their stay in and out of venue

•OUTDOOR ADVERTISING.

There will be a total of 3 ads bearing Nouns DAO selected media. One billboard,one vide adboard and a projection mapping on the Kenya International Conference Centre

DESIGN AND BRANDING
CAR WRAP DESIGNS.

FIA WRC Art 27-29 compliant decal sizes as illustrated below.(shown only for illustration purposes.)

•Racing Suit Design

The rally suits only need to pass the FIA 8856 Homologation Standards for the material used to stitch the branding labels on the suits. Apart from tobacco products,every other form of branding is allowed on the racing suits.

•Helmet Branding and Design

Apart from the FIA Homologation Standards for Rally helmets, there are also no rules on the branding to be used for WRC Rally helmets.

•Branding

While the car wrap will have a very dominant Noun motif,contribution towards the proposal by nouns will not go unnoticed.
The ever generous Noun 194,The Moxsly @straybits1 donated these beautiful pieces from his collection for the development of the branding design.
The car wrap will comprise of

•Linur #248 owned by straybits.eth(possible background)

•Eponym owned by straybits.eth (Possible background)
•Subscapes by Matt Deslauriers owned by straybits.eth (Possible background)
•Messengers by Alexis Andrés owned by straybits.eth (Possible background)
•Apparitions by Aaron Penne owned by straybits.eth (Possible background)
•City lights owned by straybits.eth (Possible background)
•Rituals by Aaron Penn owned by straybits.eth (Possible background)
•Generative masks by Takawo Shunsuki owned by straybits.eth(Possible background)

Noun 32,skilift.eth will also have his noun,the skilift head noun,on the racing suit and helmet for being the first person to contribute to the proposal.
•Cryptopunk #678 owned by myself,will also be used on the car wrap.

•ACCOMODATION
#TeamNouns will reside at the Trademark Hotel Nairobi for th entirety of the event.

•MEDIA AND COVERAGE.

The event will be broadcasted on more than 30 live sports channels in over 50 countries all over the world. The Kenyan leg of the rally garnered 832 million impressions, putting up higher numbers than the Super Bowl and the Champions League. Streaming services such as Red Bull TV and WRC+ will also stream the event live.

[Oni]

red bull vibes!

who is designing the car wrap / outfits / helmet?

The link for Pool 3 actually goes to Pool 2 (and pool 2 links to pool 1). How many people is the “nouns team” and are all these potential positions already identified /w people?

you mentioned already sponsoring the team/drivers directly so that they can participate, would that be covering some of the things being mentioned in pool 1 and pool 2? are they going to have everything they need to compete even if the dao doesn’t have the appetite for such a large sponsorship?

[donjon]

Hello Oni! Sorry for the mix up with the links fixing that right away. Since I haven’t identified a good enough artist for the designs, I was thinking of running a competition on Twitter and picking the best designs but would be completely open to any suggestion by the DAO. I sponsored the drivers by getting them the actual cars and paying for 2 months access to a racing track for practice. Without the modifications on the cars requested in the proposal,the rally cars will not be eligible to participate in the Rally. There is already a complete team of 6 (3 drivers and 3 navigators)who will be registered once the window is opened.(edited)

[Oni]

cool. you mentioned filming personnel (and quite a few marketing activations/promotional opportunities)

what is the plan for distribution/sharing of these things online ect? would definitely want the nouns (and larger nft/crypto community) to see all the cool things that would be happening

[Noun142]

Maybe we can help

[donjon]

The filming will be done by a professional photographer and videographer (Will link his repertoire here and in the discord once we get hold of him). They’ll be responsible for the videos and photos that’ll be sent directly to the DAO to post on the nouns official twitter. Depending on what the photographer has to offer,we can get them to compile the videos and photos or have them worked on by the nouns studio workshop that’s on chain if it passes. The photos and videos will be of the launch event,the ads being ran,the team,the rally cars in action and an ‘aftermovie’ of sorts.

[donjon]

Would be happy to work with you on that!

[Max_Power]

love rally/WRC. this is really interesting and i have a bunch of questions. main few: how much of the cost are you (and other sponsors/drivers) sharing? who owns the car at the end of the season? can you give us a sense of the caliber of drivers participating? if we are likely to come in back of the pack, that is good to know when we vote. alternatively, if we have pro drivers with several recent WRC podiums, that changes the story.

thanks,
Max Power

[Max_Power]

also, who is the garage/race shop doing the auto work. i have a pretty good race team and if i gave them $500k, there is no way they would have a WRC car ready to go in less than 3 months, especially if you want a few practice/shake down sessions.

[donjon]

Hello Max… happy to answer your questions. The team has not been seeking active sponsorship from other sources and as of now,I have taken care of the costs of purchasing the vehicles for the team and practice sessions at a racing track. Good thing,the drivers are not amateurs. In fact,the lead driver has a WRC appearance while his co-driver is one the most experienced players in the game with about 10 years worth of experience under his belt. I’ll be meeting the lead-driver of the team and will be updating the DAO about it. The cars will still be owned by the team and in good faith as they will probably be part of the nouns racing team, a project that we are hopefully going to be building on for the future. Fortunately for us,the Sparco Auto shop around here was built specifically for the WRC safari rally (gravel). Once the timetable comes out, they’ll be able to do the auto work which will be to the standard of the governing body FIA and on time. With the experience with gravel tracks common in the hosting country,the drivers will definitely have an edge over first time participants and other drivers in the WRC Safari Rally. As a result of this, they’ll probably have more hours practising on the gravel track compared to the other participants.

[sirsu]

This is fire. I would love to support this as a designer. I used to do some livery design for one off street builds for some folks some years ago. But currently I run an esports DAO (BLVKHVND), and it would be cool to sponsor an IRL racing team since we’re building a Rocket League Comp Team after this season ends.

[donjon]

For the sum of the ask, majority of the car mods being done are standard and a few have been compromised to bare minimum for eligibility. Fortunately,after the rally,the nouns will be able to field a rally team for the WRC for the next 3 years with far much less cost since most of the mods are a one time thing. Afterwards,only a few spares and event fees will ever need to be paid for.

[donjon]

Thank you! Will definitely let you in if the prop passes on chain since it seems like an area you’re well versed

[Max_Power]

awesome. just curious. do we save money (per item) if we do 10 helmets and 10 race suits through you all at once? i suspect that we will sponsor many teams globally and could be nice to standardize that part and follow your lead since you’ve done the work

[donjon]

Yes we’ll certainly save up nicely if we make it one big order

[donjon]

Order of Events.

The procedure right from entry to being on the published entry list is strongly demarcated by very strict deadlines. The following are the important dates that’ll be used as deadlines for the FIA WRC Safari Rally.

•20th April - Opening date for entries (completed)
•8th May - Final date to notify FIA on Racing Fuel. Requirements (AVGAS)
•26th May - Closing date for entries

• Final date to receive import papers
  •28th May - Final date to order extra material
• Final date for shakedown registration
• Final date for final request forms
  •29th May - Publication of entry lists

Due to shipping logistics, racing suits should be ordered extra early as they will need to be shipped from Sparco Italia.

[donjon]

After much needed feedback from the noun community, I was informed that the general sentiment was that the ask needed to be trimmed, possibly through onboarding other sponsors to cover part of the costs. I decided to call an impromptu meeting with the team this weekend to discuss potential sponsors we could onboard. After thorough planning and talks, I’m glad to announce that the team has been offered $120k (40 ETH) in form of sponsorship for the procurement of rally car spares by a regional sports betting firm. Part of the deal involves adding branding to either racing suits or helmets. I shall update the proposed funding ask on this discourse post the new proceedings.

[Noun12]

Thanks for responding to feedback and moving so quickly to adjust @donjon and for all the work you did in laying out your detailed proposal.

Question:

What is the typical cost to sponsor a top 10 team for one of these races? Just a quick search suggested this price is very high given the duration.

I would be voting No as is.

1. My concern is that there’s no real cohesive team or track record here, so we can’t be sure what we’re getting, whether this will be an effective team in the race itself but also how well managed 192 ETH or now 153 ETH would be with everything else that has to be executed (marketing, nounifying, logistics) and also on a tight looking timeline.

2. The cost, even after the 40 ETH worth of adjustments, remain extremely high for what is effectively awareness advertising. FIA Rally sports seem badass but I don’t think there’s a huge overlap with potential Nouns community members, and in the US at least, it’s an extremely niche thing.

3. It’s very short term. 3 days.

[donjon]

Hello noun 12! I appreciate the feedback.

In terms of record, I linked the FIA profiles to the team in the discord and one of them (Mr Edward) is one of the toppest drivers in the region with about 51 career podiums, which is quite impressive meaning the team is assured good results proportional to the input.

The team rally car mods will be done and done within the stipulated timeliness,since there is a WRC tuning garage dedicated to the specific race around here. For every single mod done every single day, I will be there to capture it in the most detailed way possible (in pictures and videos) and update the work for everyone to see on a dedicated twitter page and on the discord.

I personally think that the Rallying space is crypto native with big exchanges (crypto.com) partnering with the Rallying event. Having spoken to many members of the crypto community, inside and outside of nouns, I’d tend to think that one may wrongly assume (as I did myself) that the WRC is very niche. For the same leg last year we’re doing this year,the rally gathered 800 million impressions worldwide. That’s on par with the largest sporting events such as the superbowl and the champions league final and with the nouns not just appearing on an ad or a billboard but owning a competing team, I am confident the nouns community will catch a lot of eyes.

Upon funding, the team will be owned by the nouns meaning for every single calendar rally event, the nouns team will participate under the same standard of branding as during the FIA WRC Rally. The cost of mods,being a one time thing will be completely cut out from the budget and being that i don’t believe the team should be let to die off after this one rally,the cost of fielding a rally team for potentially the next three years (since the WRC Safari Rally event was under a 4 year contract) would be in the tens of ETH,just covering accomodation and a few spares. While the team will also have attracted lots of eyes,I am sure if the door for external partnership we’re to be opened, other brands and NFT communities could potentially display their branding on the said rally cars, meaning that the budget could be covered without even acquiring funding from the DAO and even possibly generate a little revenue,all of which will be wired to the nouns.