Northlands International Raceway is going wood, A re-build Options

[Black3sr]

We have raced Scaley Sport for two years. It has proven to be an excellent layout. Laps times in 6 second range. It had variation in all the turns. It was quick. No R1s here.

The last few months I have been racing on a 120' commercial MDF track painted with flat latex and copper tape. Just so smooth and quick I wanted one to test my cars on during the week and to give us a new track for our local Monday night series.

OK get to the pics.


This was Northlands after the Homies went home. They stole all the vehicles and cut down all the signage and trees.





The deciduous trees. The evergreens have been packed away for now. Some parts of rock wall will be used in new track.



Trees look so nice grouped together. They are so easy to make.



There are two sheets of MDF in the Mini Van. One bungee cord held them in.



The underside of MDF gets a cost of paint. Supposedly it keeps the dampness out. A clean canvass. Looks nice eh?



We did rout the track yesterday using Luft's strip and video. The design is very similar to the old track but with more sweeping turns and a squeeze section. We put the straight at the back to assist in marshalling. We did have a few errors. Mainly due to inexperience with router. It was a great learning experience. While they are fixable we are debating whether to continue or get a couple more sheets of MDF. It is cheap. About $40 Cdn for two.

Routing dust was not a problem. I have an outlet for central vac in the garage and just duct taped the hose to the outlet on router.

I will post updates.

More pics and video of old track here - My old Scaley track

bill

[cudak9]

Wow! Sad to see your old track bite the dust Bill, but looking forward to pictures of your new adventure. Good Luck!

[Umbra]

Nice licensplate ;-)

[JBriggsK9]

Bill

You will love the routed track.. And a friend of mine did the same thing you did, and took out his 4 lane Carrera track and made it into a routed track.. here is a like to what he did http://slotcarillustrated.com/portal/forum...rid&t=28518

And I would suggest using the magna braid.. you get the best of both worlds for non magnet and magnet cars... I took out my old routed track and went with the magna braid after running on my friends track..

Chris

[Black3sr]

THanks Chris but prefer to use copper tape as same as I run on at other track.

Have been busy. Holes are filled. Need a bit of sanding and ready for paint and tape.

I have race day and evening tomorrow (2:30 p.m.to midnight) and a swap meet and Enduro race of Sun so not much track work this weekend.

Here are the pics.

Expensive recyle



Back straight with dip



Coming off back straight on to this section. The white section was a screw up on slot for barrier.


Sweeper(corkscrew) into tricky section. There is just a hint of banking on both. There is a squeeze to 2 inches coming into turn on the right and widening going up the hill.

Esses. The white sheet on the right are the messed up ones. I wonder if I can return them The grey ones are my table cover.

[knoath]

Looking good Bill!
What will you paint the track with?

This was Northlands after the Homies went home. They stole all the vehicles and cut down all the signage and trees.

Sounds like your average after race activities at Bathurst!!!

[Black3sr]

Ths Knoath. I will be using Behr brand flat latex in a light grey. I want to see racing lines. I had discussion with guys that race here about the colour. One said go look at the street and others wanted a dark grey. My track My choice - lol.

bill

[knoath]

Sfair enuff

[Black3sr]

I took night off from racing to keep working, besides the weather was crappy for driving.

Tape is laid and wired. Need to finished off driver stations. The guardrails are temporary. They fit in routed slots.

Track drives well. Only needed a couple small adjustments to slots. Will improve as rubber gets laid down. All the cars run well with no adjustments. Handling on some can be improved with weight and tire changes. I turned voltage down from 13 on some to 11. For the Minis went down to 9 and find stock tires better than silicones. THe Artins and Fly Rileys both go well. THe RIleys are on Super and may go better with original tires. My Slot.its are fast as they have been setup for this type of surface.

All of the corners drive well. The 180 in squeeze while small radius drives really well. The decending radius turn in the infield after coming down the middle long run is a challenge. You can feel yourself push the brake pedal. The dip going down the backstretch would be an sphinter tighener in a real car. You can hear the cars get lighter as they drop down. The Esses at both ends require a bit of driving.

Overall I am please with the results. It will be interesting to see how it races with the squeeze and limited passing opportunites.

A couple of pics:

PS I did not break the tape while laying it

[Umbra]

Looking good :-)

[PSRRFH]

excellent build, it really makes me wanna try the routed way.
keep the images coming, and I'm sure the homies will be back for yet another rampage drinking looting spree for the next race.

Cheers

[Fergy]

I took night off from racing to keep working, besides the weather was crappy for driving.

You wuss! It was just cool and rainy, not frigid and snowing like normal here! Okay, okay... if I was in the midst of building a track I'd have done the same...

Eagerly waiting to hear from both you and Tim as to how it drives when racing.

I will be using Behr brand flat latex

Wait a minute! You're trying to gain an unfair practice advantage for Friday nights, aren't you?

[Black3sr]

Well TImmy said the drive Fri was not pleasant. So I was happy to stay home and tape two lanes.

Funny how the surface is the same as Race Haven eh? Coincidence? Timmy is coming this morning to give it a try. Darn we got snow here.

TImmy and I finished third in the Enduro yesterday in spite of some awful driving by both of us. Swap meet was good. I sold 4 cars and 4 bodies and maybe some track.

[Black3sr]

"Wow" I said. We had a testing day yesterday. I am pleased. The track is just so raceable. Lap times are pretty darn close on both lanes. The squeeze section in the 180 works well. It is the slowest section so the cars when they collide are not doing it very hard.

Now to put the controllers down long enough to start on some landscaping. I am waiting til the last blast of winter goes away. Geez last week had garage door open now this week if I had tried that there would have been snow on the track.

bill

[Black3sr]

Started repairing retaining walls and installing them. The Shell one is temporary. The BP one is new. Well the signage is. I printed off and folded. I then taped to the OUTside of retaining wall. Not too clear in pic but you can see scuff marks from cars meeting the wall. Gives a nice used look. I am going to make all the walls the same height. I will recut the plexi glass as soon as I get fence on table saw repaired.

When I was routing I cut slots for the walls. So much easier to install.

I also put up the outside walls. The back wall and one end are fine so I do not have to repaint.

Next part is to seperate the weeks worth of newspapers and paper for landscaping. Also waiting for inspiration on just what to do for landscaping. I liked my previous rock wall and would like to use it. The Homies want a new home. They are tired of living in a box and they are beginning to smell.