[Matticus]

I'm a child of the 80's, and a bit of an F1 nut to boot. Couple these facts with that of my place of birth, Adelaide, and you have a recipie bettered only by the fine makers of Guinness.

Over the years I've moved around quite a lot and haven't called Adelaide home for some 5 or so years now, however one particular piece sits close to my heart. Each November I would camp at the airport and city hotels for hours waiting to meet Formula One drivers, and on that one weekend a year would have Christmas a couple months early as I stood fascinated by those glorious cars and their pilot I'd had the thrill of meeting.

This is a fascination which continues to this day.

With this in mind it only seemed right that once I had the space available to build myself a track that it could only possibly be that at which I spent the most enduring part of my childhood.

I give you all the Adelaide Grand Prix circuit, in Scalextric format!

This is a work in progress, I will update as work continues;

Checking the layout fits;

Putting it on the board for storage against the wall;

Building up the board around the track;

Into the hairpin at the end of Brabham Straight;
http://www.number1-thelarch.com/album/Slot...092007(005).jpg

 

[Black3sr]

Now that is a really interesting layout. How does it run? What are dimensions of your table?

Scenery would like really good on it.

bill

 

[dgersh]

And how long was the original track? Looks huge!

Don

 

[Jaak]

Hi Matticus

that is a good start

will be nice to follow your progress please post pictures of your progress!!!
looking forward to them

cheerio

 

[LMP]

Oh yes! Can't ait to see this one develop

 

[ferraif40]

This will be great to watch! I guess the era will be 1980's-1990's, so look on ebay for some Benettons, Williams, Lotus etc. Also how about some buildings, from the reel circuit?
Jon

 

[Slots-O-Fun]

I think that is a great circuit although it wasn't my favourite era. I am jealous of the long straights and it is good to see the sweeping right hander. Is it R4?

 

[Matticus]

Hey guys. THe dimensions of the board are roughly 5m by 2.1m, a lap length in the region of 12m (yes, that's all!). The original track, if memory serves, was something like 3.9km, including a 900m straight.

It's quite a challenging track to drive; the Senna Chicane is much faster than it looks, but Stag Corner is the key to the whole lap. Get that wrong and you're slow going into Brewery (which is an R4, but can't be taken flat). Get Brewery wrong and there goes your lap as you tank slap it down Brabham Straight.

In time I will be adding scenery to it. At the moment there are power issues which I need to resolve; the standard Scaley power supply just ain't got enough guts. I'll be upgrading that next and putting some taps in so I don't have dead spots. Once that's done I'll start on the scenery.

 

[Ontheflipside]

I'm waiting for you to build the pub at the bottom of Rundle Mall

For those who haven't been to all (11) the main motor racing circuits in Oz I believe the Adelaide circuit is the best spectator track in Australia.

Then again Adelaide is the biggest above ground cemetery in Australia.

 

[Matticus]

Ah the Stag Hotel, I've spent many a drunken evening within her walls.

I don't think my scenery will get that extravagent. The whole thing has to stand vertically against the wall when not in use, so there's a bit of a limit as to what I can do. For the moment I'm thinking it'll be grass, sand traps and catch fencing. After that, depends on how fragile/heavy the thing is - it's already almost too heavy for me to lift on my own.

 

[Black3sr]

Matticus. It must be a tad heavy to lift. Mine is 15 x 5 and heavy but then I do not have to lift it. Can you get away putting it on castors like mine and just move it around or must a car go in there?

When making your runoffs which are similar to mine I would suggest you make them as wide as possible and keep any fences far enough away so that the rear of the car on the outside does not hit it when it is turned at 90 degrees to the slot.

Will there be any elevations?

The more I look at that layout the more it begs a lot of landscaping. Have fun

bill

ps the page for mine is here Northlands International

 

[Matticus]

I wish it were as easy as castors! Unfortunately I live in a complex, so I've basically only got that area to play with, which also happens to be where the real car lives too.

I'm setting the walls and runoffs back a little from the track; I've tried to keep it reasonably authentic without going nuts. Down the straights the walls are about 1.5" back from the track, on the corners it varies quite a lot. Thus far though I've managed to deslot and spin without ever reaching the end of the 'run off' area, let alone where the wall will finally go.

I've finished adding the curbing today; I'll get some photos later tonight or tomorrow and throw them on my site (linked in my footer).

 

[Black3sr]

Well if really serious sell the car. I just read your website. Table build same as mine pretty much.

I forgot to mention before about your power problems. The taps will help but I would go for the copper tape. It is cheap and really works well. Then just add a second wall wart for other lane unless you want a variable power supply. A couple of the Parma 45 OHM controllers would work just fine as well.

bill

 

[Miker]

Very nice looking track you have put together for yourself

Might I suggest the racing line treatment, has a really good effect for plastic tracks.
Have a look HERE at Graham Lane' track, (post #38) to see what I mean. It does give a whole new dimesion to a track IMO.
I would also suggest copper taping the track. I hav'nt done this myself, but from what I have read here, it is a very worthwhile mod. And something I will be doing in the future.
Once again, great track. Some more fine work to follow

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Matticus]

I will be upgrading to a variable power supply, and controllers to boot. I've got my eye on a set of Parma's, but that will have to wait until next month; spent me pay cheque already this time round

As for decorating it, I had played with the idea in my head. I guess until the thing is painted and I get a feel for how it'd look I'm just not sure. I've got a lot of 90 degree stuff which it would work well on, not so sure how it'd go for the front straight though.

Still, something (else!) to think about

 

[Matticus]

I've thrown a few more photos on my site, just showing the curbing I've finished off;

Looking back from Stag Corner to Wakefield Street;

Also I've thrown a couple videos up on YouTube. Interesting to see the performance difference between the Scaley GT40 and the Ninco BMW M3 GTR. Both are running stock with the mags removed;

Scalextric GT40

Ninco M3 GTR

 

[Eno Dog]

Stag Corner's the one with the big old pub in it isn't it? Now THAT'S gonna be fun to build..