I fancy a rally track (excuse for some different cars, whoes? How do you do a rally track? lots of R1's, no borders, barriers, smooth off some R2's to make a skid/mud sectoion, put PVC tape on wheels? How best to run it using SSDC. Inspirational SCX/Scaley tracks for rug racers anybody? As always a chance to use your imigination.
How do I design a rally tarck and use it
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first off, is this a rally STAGE -ie one car at a time against the clock -or a track to race several cars at the same time over rally like terrain? From this we can all work out a few different tracks. Also, what size of rug we talking about here?
One word of advice I'd give is to use borders - even if it's just cut outs of carboard built up to track height. If you allow sliding on the bends it's great fun.
Vary the bends so they open or tighten, just to add to the thrill. If you want to see some great tracks that you can pinch ideas from, go to the events section and look at the various rounds of Slot Rally GB. this weekend at Pendle we had one ninco track that had some very clever opening bends, so you could get a good head of steam up as you exited. Only to have to hit the breaks for the next R1 90degree! Great fun.
I bought a load of old classic with loads of different size R1's ( 90, 45 and 22.5 degree sectiopns) so I could get a right old wiggle on in the bends. Lots of crossovers to double the track length, but I was using purely analogue power and controllers for it.
Whatever you do, you'll love it. Good luck and put some pictures up as you go about your experimentation.
One word of advice I'd give is to use borders - even if it's just cut outs of carboard built up to track height. If you allow sliding on the bends it's great fun.
Vary the bends so they open or tighten, just to add to the thrill. If you want to see some great tracks that you can pinch ideas from, go to the events section and look at the various rounds of Slot Rally GB. this weekend at Pendle we had one ninco track that had some very clever opening bends, so you could get a good head of steam up as you exited. Only to have to hit the breaks for the next R1 90degree! Great fun.
I bought a load of old classic with loads of different size R1's ( 90, 45 and 22.5 degree sectiopns) so I could get a right old wiggle on in the bends. Lots of crossovers to double the track length, but I was using purely analogue power and controllers for it.
Whatever you do, you'll love it. Good luck and put some pictures up as you go about your experimentation.
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Just came across this article in one of my old mags from 1969 UshCha.
Why not try a bit of a gradient like the one pictured!?
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Good luck with the build!
Cheers
Kev.
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Why not try a bit of a gradient like the one pictured!?
Good luck with the build!
Cheers
Kev.
Loose saloote,
Thanks but that is almost what we have for our LMP races (I love tight bends). Following our race session last night we hardened up our ideas. What we wanted was a race where the requirement is for carefull driving in challengeing situations not all out speed.
We would run some sections no barriers 'cause in the real world e.g Spain some roads are narrow and have a drop off.
We need to know how to make the scaley track slippy (we though boot polish). Also we want to know who makes reasonaly priced cars that have drop guides so we can have off road rough track. Start the cars off at say 30 sec intervals for fixed number of laps. Large time penalty if you come off. The accent is staying on while getting round clean. I guess more of a trial than rally. Maybe use the LC's to define a route so if you miss it you have to go round again! That adds navigation ;-). Are there other track surfaces that can prove a challenge without resorting to coffe or coco powder. We though the banked curve set up for reverse camber. How do you get a rally loop in scaley sport?
Thanks but that is almost what we have for our LMP races (I love tight bends). Following our race session last night we hardened up our ideas. What we wanted was a race where the requirement is for carefull driving in challengeing situations not all out speed.
We would run some sections no barriers 'cause in the real world e.g Spain some roads are narrow and have a drop off.
We need to know how to make the scaley track slippy (we though boot polish). Also we want to know who makes reasonaly priced cars that have drop guides so we can have off road rough track. Start the cars off at say 30 sec intervals for fixed number of laps. Large time penalty if you come off. The accent is staying on while getting round clean. I guess more of a trial than rally. Maybe use the LC's to define a route so if you miss it you have to go round again! That adds navigation ;-). Are there other track surfaces that can prove a challenge without resorting to coffe or coco powder. We though the banked curve set up for reverse camber. How do you get a rally loop in scaley sport?
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For slippery, try some Inox, if you have some. Very slippery. Alternatively, a bit of vaseline type petroleum jelly seems to do it for my track.
I really like the idea of your time trial - will be interested to see how it goes.
Great article Kevin.
I really like the idea of your time trial - will be interested to see how it goes.
Great article Kevin.
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3,636 Posts
The only reasnobly priced drop arm cars I can think of are SCX Raid cars, I bought a Tuareg for £18 from a certain dealer in Blackpool, the SCX Pro Xsara also has a drop arm and can be found for about £20, Avant Slot and some MSC rally cars have drop arms, prices start at about £40.
Sport track is pretty slippery to start with, try using a silicone spray to make it more slippery.
Sport track is pretty slippery to start with, try using a silicone spray to make it more slippery.
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I wouldn't put anything on the track unless you want to clean it all off later.
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I guess if you're ONLY going to run rally on the track, and have MANY cars you don't want to set up specially for that kind of driving, then it makes a little sense to put carp on the track.
If you only plan to use a few cars and/or you want to use the track for other things, then I suggest modding the car(s) instead.
Put nail polish or super glue on the tires. If you don't want to "ruin" the tires, then get some "zero grip" tires to put on the rears so you can put the original ones back on at some point.
Of course, taking the magnet(s) out is a given. If you don't want to use glue, and/or zero grips aren't slippy enough, a friend of mine used large diameter shrink tube on his tires for his rally cars. To get them even, though, he had to shrink the tube (in narrow pieces) down onto a dowel that's just larger than the wheel it goes on, then he put it on the wheel of the car, and shrunk it the rest of the way. Be sure to keep the heat away from the car chassis and body if possible (usually by removing the rear axle entirely), and keep the wheel turning to shrink the tube evenly. In the end, it worked great, and the cars are all evenly slippery. If he ever wanted to, he could snip off the shrink tube and have normal rubber tires again.
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He did try the flour trick, but that didn't give any advantage, and made a big mess that took a while to clean up.
I guess if you're ONLY going to run rally on the track, and have MANY cars you don't want to set up specially for that kind of driving, then it makes a little sense to put carp on the track.
If you only plan to use a few cars and/or you want to use the track for other things, then I suggest modding the car(s) instead.
Put nail polish or super glue on the tires. If you don't want to "ruin" the tires, then get some "zero grip" tires to put on the rears so you can put the original ones back on at some point.
Of course, taking the magnet(s) out is a given. If you don't want to use glue, and/or zero grips aren't slippy enough, a friend of mine used large diameter shrink tube on his tires for his rally cars. To get them even, though, he had to shrink the tube (in narrow pieces) down onto a dowel that's just larger than the wheel it goes on, then he put it on the wheel of the car, and shrunk it the rest of the way. Be sure to keep the heat away from the car chassis and body if possible (usually by removing the rear axle entirely), and keep the wheel turning to shrink the tube evenly. In the end, it worked great, and the cars are all evenly slippery. If he ever wanted to, he could snip off the shrink tube and have normal rubber tires again.
He did try the flour trick, but that didn't give any advantage, and made a big mess that took a while to clean up.
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