axman Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 (edited) It's Christmas and time to start dreaming about next years project.. I'm lying here totally bored.. and cant move around as I just had my knee operation so the mind has started to wander...again. A few years ago when I had a commercial slot car track in Toowoomba I had a logistics problem. The track was ideally located upstairs above a take-away in the main part of town and had a constant flow of foot traffic, especially with late night shopping and weekends when tourist's came to town. Best of all the rent was really cheap and it was a nice place to be as it was carpeted office space converted into a shop. The logistic's problem was I only could fit in one track so in peak times customers got impatient waiting for lanes and walked out. I reasoned If I moved to a bigger building (like commercial shed space) I would lose the bulk of walk in trade and track time sales and visibility... Or I could build a 2nd track - bolted 6 foot up in the sky and stay where I was. The room was roughly a rectangle. I figured if I built a six lane banked track that swooped around the walls above head height ( and over the coke machine) and had one of the main straights coming down low enough for a drivers platform it would fit. I figured steel brackets bolted to the wall would hold it up, clear fencing and a large apron on the inside of the track would keep the cars of the floor. Just for the excitement factor a section of the routed track above the front door would be clear perspex so when customers came in cars would be buzzing overhead. In true speedway style I decided not to have brakes and the cars wind up to speed over a couple of laps by running higher volts (18V) but really low amps so the cars would be rely on momentum to get fast laps. Unfortunately the project never eventuated.. I had an offer to buy the raceway so I sold and went on to building tracks around Australia. Shame really as I always wondered how well the track would have been received. These days with the advent of digital I could really see this working in a commercial application or for some of you with large sheds already filled with other toys. Think Flexicars or Cams V8's with digital lane change capabilities. A 4 lane speedway track with huge radius turns could accommodate how many cars at the same time? Merry Christmas and consider yourself lucky to be racing in what I think is the best era of Slot cars ever. Kim Edited December 28, 2015 by axman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry J Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 Hi Kim, It must be killing you sitting around doing nothing. I like this idea http://www.blst-circuits.co.uk/ Quote Cheers, Garry J Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springbok Racer Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 Hi Kim, I am surprised that you did not build yourself a track to race around in your room while you are lying around doing nothing..... Get better soon buddy!!!! Cheers, Jan Quote 'The older I get the faster I was.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axman Posted December 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 Thanks Guys.. hopefully up and around in the new year. The "BLST" system looks good Garry, only trouble is if Jan was in front you would never get past because he would alway's have the fastest line! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springbok Racer Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 ...Kim, thanks for your confidence - but I am getting use to following these days..... Quote 'The older I get the faster I was.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ember Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 You couldn't have your upstairs track today unless there was an elevator installed. BLST seems like a great way of doing things for a commercial type of situation. No worries about putting a car on the wrong track. No desperate calls of "rider." It's not a cheap system needing to be teamed with Oxygen, Scorpius or one of the other digital systems. The biggest difficulty is in getting the design of the corners right. They need to be designed in such a way as to allow a car to travel around either the outside lane or the inside at about the same speed. Needs to be done so that there is no real difference if/when the car changes lane as the driver is not in control of the change. SlotsNZ has a partially built 1:32 BLST track. I'm sure he'd be able to explain the design requirements better than I. Quote Computers. They'll never catch on. Tiny Tyers Targa - The build saga continues - Aging wood - A recipe for staining wood - Don't take a fence - Step by step paling fence - An old shed for my new cars - Wooden garage under construction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4orceracing Posted December 24, 2015 Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 Kim, hope you get well soon mate. We miss your quips and bright smiling face around the SEQ tracks...!!! Have a safe Christmas and hope to see you racing again soon. Mark... Quote https://www.facebook.com/BonoginValleyRaceway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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