10 replies to this topic

[Denney]

Hi guys. Me again. We've just finished moving and that means I can now build a new track! I'm finally going to take the plunge and do elevations and scenery on the new routed track.

The space I have to work with is 2.1m by 5.3m. It's against the wall in the downstairs garage so space isn't really an issue. I have quite a few mates interested in this one so 3 lanes will be the minimum. I also want to stray away from a "quick" circuit. A flowing circuit is preferable but I don't want sub 8 sec lap times if I can help it.

I've bought the first lot of MDF to work out the design and I've been using Ultimate Racer to play around with. Here's the first iteration of the track layout I've settled on. Any suggestions are welcome.

Edit: The back straight (at the top) is a raised section which goes OVER the track on the bottom. Ultimate Racer has it backwards. Also forgot to mention, on the 3rd straight, just before the last turn coming onto the front straight, I'll be putting in a chicane and squeeze section. The corner in the top right at the end of the back straight, I'm considering a "racing line" through that corner with the 3 lanes. I'll probably squeeze a few other corners once I get the design on the board.

Edited by Denney, 01 June 2010 - 01:20 AM.

[gzminiz]

Looks familar, hehe. Except my cross over is in the upper left. It is a nice fast track.

My dimensions are 2.2 x 4.2 An decent overall pic without any scenery:
http://www.auslot.com/forums/index.php?sho...st&p=115322

Edited by gzminiz, 01 June 2010 - 11:02 AM.

[Denney]

Yeah, same sort of idea. Didn't see yours until now though.

I've done a second design (this time labelling corners to make it easier to explain).



I'm not sure where the squeezes will be at the moment because I just want to get a basic design down and then play with it later. Turn 3 is actually at a higher elevation than turn 8 below it. I'm not sure about this design because of the possible view block to turn 2.

[gzminiz]

T2 might be hard to see the entrance if going the revers direction (assuming t2 comes after t1 in normal direction), the sweeper turn of the first one makes it no big deal. I like the first one better, but i am biased, hehe.

[Denney]

lol. I can see why you're biased. I'm still playing with a couple of other ideas but I seem to have hit a dead end at the moment. The last 2 tracks came to me almost straight away and fit the space well. This track on the other hand...

I've thought about the blind corner and if I raise the driver platform up a little, you should be able to see the corner fine.

[Johnnyfly41]

Sight lines are important to your enjoyment, if you cannot see your braking point before that turn, you feel more like a passenger than a driver.

I recommend you look into the flexible strip method of routing. This results in a realistic driving line, better flow even in tighter sections and just plain looks and drives better. www.oldslotracer.com has hundreds of tracks and should have videos of track building.

Three lanes is a good compromise. Good competition and fun when you have three drivers. Not so wide as to limit your layout options.

I could never make any of the design packages work to my satisfaction. Plain old graph paper and pencils taped together to represent lane width. My actual track is probably 80% true to the graph paper layout. routed tracks are too free form to be well served by a typical track design program that typically works for plastic track.

Squeezes, thats a hotly debated topic. Used to be, folks thought they worked best in straights. However, things happen very fast in straights. Putting squeezes in a tight radius turn to me makes more sense, the turn can be made more open and drive better and since it's a tight turn, things are happening slower there, easier to drive the squeeze.

My track is about 85' running length in a 8.5' by 23.5' space. In the early days, a 11 second lap seemed good. Learning to drive and set up a car and making my own urethanes, a good lap is now under 8 seconds. thats me and I am a noob. Hard to tell what a real driver could do.

keep up the good work and post some pictures for us.

John

www.pretzelcityspeedway.com

[gzminiz]

Good point regarding the design programs, I did mine in UR3 and then printed it out. and traced the generally design modifying it as I wanted. Also made custom "3 lane" pieces with the spacing i wanted to get it closer.

I would suggest the same, allows you to smooth out bits you aren't happy with.

[Denney]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I agree that design programs don't work to well for free form routed layouts. This is the first of my layouts that I've actually done with a design program. For the others, I usually just draw a basic design on an A4 sheet of paper and rough out the design on my board.

This time is different because I want to do elevations, meaning I have to cut the road base out and don't want to waste to much of the board. At the rate I'm going, I may just draw it out on the board anyway.

I agree that squeezes on straights are a bad idea. I prefer to have them through hairpin turns where it seems natural that everyone would merge in together. Makes it more realistic.

[popdog]

Denney, on Jun 1 2010, 12:59 AM, said:

Hi guys. Me again. We've just finished moving and that means I can now build a new track! I'm finally going to take the plunge and do elevations and scenery on the new routed track.

The space I have to work with is 2.1m by 5.3m. It's against the wall in the downstairs garage so space isn't really an issue. I have quite a few mates interested in this one so 3 lanes will be the minimum. I also want to stray away from a "quick" circuit. A flowing circuit is preferable but I don't want sub 8 sec lap times if I can help it.

I've bought the first lot of MDF to work out the design and I've been using Ultimate Racer to play around with. Here's the first iteration of the track layout I've settled on. Any suggestions are welcome.

Edit: The back straight (at the top) is a raised section which goes OVER the track on the bottom. Ultimate Racer has it backwards. Also forgot to mention, on the 3rd straight, just before the last turn coming onto the front straight, I'll be putting in a chicane and squeeze section. The corner in the top right at the end of the back straight, I'm considering a "racing line" through that corner with the 3 lanes. I'll probably squeeze a few other corners once I get the design on the board.

It looks good but have you considered the unequal lenghts of the lanes? Green lane looks like it would have a distinct advantage over distance

[Denney]

Another day and I’m another step closer to getting the track running. I got that frustrated with the design software that I just went ahead and designed the track on the boards with the brainstorming help of my housemate. The design has changed quite a bit and I don’t have a sketch of it yet but will do in the coming days for you guys.

We’ve fleshed out the track on the 4 MDF boards and have worked out we’re going to need another 3 boards to complete the circuit. The next step is to start cutting the road-base out and getting elevations sorted out. Meanwhile, here are a couple of shots of the area we have to work in.

[Denney]

Sorry popdog, didn't mean to ignore you. The unequal lane lengths haven't been an issue with the last 2 tracks I've designed. I find that if I can work in a couple of right radius turns, the advantage is negated due to the outside line carrying more speed through the bends.