EFRA and Europe: a founding told two ways, and rules that changed by date.

EFRA runs the European Championships in RC car racing and represents its member countries in IFMAR. Its 2024 handbook calls it the first and sole continental authority to regulate and run European Championships in the sport; that is EFRA's own description. This page covers how EFRA began, who has led it, and the dated changes in its rules. How EFRA works today is on EFRA.

When EFRA was founded: 1973 or 1976

EFRA's own pages give two dates:

• 1973: the constitution in EFRA's 2024 handbook says EFRA was established in 1973. An EFRA news article of 12 April 2021 tells, as what it calls a "legend", that in 1973 the national federations of Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and the former Yugoslavia met in a small pub in Switzerland for the first annual general meeting, and that those five members have since become 30.
• 1976: another EFRA news article, of 18 March 2021, says EFRA has led organised RC motorsport in Europe "since 1976".

No EFRA page explaining the 1976 date was found. Wikipedia sides with 1973, giving May 1973.

Five founding members or six

• Five: EFRA's 2021 "legend" article names Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and the former Yugoslavia.
• Six: Wikipedia says EFRA was set up with six original members: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.

The difference is the Netherlands, which Wikipedia includes and EFRA's article does not.

Presidents

Wikipedia lists EFRA's presidents as follows; no EFRA list of past presidents was read.

Wikipedia's own article on Longshaw gives his EFRA presidency as "1977?" to 1983, with the question mark in the article itself, so the start of his term is uncertain even within Wikipedia. Mathiesen also led IFMAR from 2005, as told on IFMAR history. Wikipedia also says the BRCA's Ron Moody withdrew British membership of EFRA at some point; it gives no date, and nothing else read confirms it.

EFRA and the first "world" races

EFRA says its magazine archive goes back to 1977 and covers the very first RC world championships and many early European events (EFRA, 18 March 2021). Wikipedia adds that Ted Longshaw organised a 1977 race in California at EFRA's request, which European drivers attended, and that Monaco hosted a "World Cup" race in 1978 under a compromise with EFRA. Wikipedia's IFMAR page lists an EFRA Group C IC Track winner for 1977, Michele Baruzzi. These Wikipedia points are unconfirmed elsewhere. How those races relate to the first world championship is on the world championships.

European Championships

The date and place of the first EFRA European Championship in any class were not found. One later first is on the record: LiveRC (Aaron Waldron, 17 August 2015) reports the first official EFRA European Championship for 1/8 electric buggy at Fehring, Austria, won by Robert Batlle. The 2026 European Championships are on EFRA European Championships 2026.

EFRA's rule changes by date

EFRA's current handbook records when many of its electric rules took effect. These are EFRA's rules for EFRA events only. Most dates come from the 2026 Handbook's Appendix 4, with rule numbers.

Two of these dates are given differently in different parts of EFRA's own handbook:

• Listed motors only: Appendix 3 and Appendix 4 section 4 say "from May 2016", while Appendix 4 section 5 says homologated 05 motors are required from 1 June 2016.
• 3.8 V cells: Appendix 4 (note to rule 1.4) says 3.8 V cells have been allowed since 1 April 2017, while the 1/12 rule in Appendix 3 (A 3.1) gives 1 March 2017 as the effective date for 3.8 V 1/12 batteries.

Driver licences are less certain. Search summaries of EFRA handbook files, recorded in the research for this site, indicate "A" and "B" EFRA licences in 2009, and that from 2019 EFRA stopped issuing licences and moved to registration approved by national federations. The files themselves were not confirmed to say this, so both points are unconfirmed.

The wider story of these battery and motor changes, including ROAR's and IFMAR's, is on motors and batteries history, and EFRA's battery rules as they stand are on battery rules by body.