[Boy Racer]

Ok, I have decided that the removal of a few walls in my house peresents an ideal opportunity to redisign my track...

It's Scalextric Sport Digital. The previous wall mounted timber frame is to be replaced with a roof mounted aluminium frame, and the footprint is marginally increased from 2.2m x 3.2m to 2.2m x 3.6m.

Here is the old version, which was about 24m and quite nice to drive, with lap times between 9 an 12 seconds (depending on car): old track

...and here is the proposed new layout:

The inside back straight will reduce to single lane just after the hairpin and continue around to the inside front straight, about a meter before the loop down.

The track length is about 26m (approx 87') and will be on 3 levels. The change in layout and the new style (which is not evident from the layout sketch) was inspired by wmsjms 'targa florio' track, and will have rock walls, clifftop corners, a steep winding section and a single track set nto the side of a cliff. The scenery will probably be a bit half-arsed, but I'm more concerned with the racing

I propose to paint the track with 'stone finish' once I work out the best method of application (see stone finish)

Any insights as to proposed layout improvements etc. welcomed...

Cheers

Andrew

 

[IRB]

Andrew

Track looks great. I wish I could knock a few walls down! I would put the change over track on the back staight at the end of the straight so that you could encourage 2 cars or more to duel down the straight with the victor cutting across the defeated at the end of the straight. I not also that you propose your lane change curve on the downslope to the underpass. I remember on the instructions for the LC that it states they should be laid flat. Have you or anyone else had problems with LC's on steep slopes?.
Looking forward to seeing half arsed cliffs, do they have deep fissures?

Boney

 

[Tileguy]

She looks like a Pure flat out racer.........Not much room for scenery but the way you designed it I can tell you were not thinking scenery you were thinking GO MAN GO LOL

Some really fast sections and enough technical to keep things interesting.. I like it!!
In fact, I like it enough I saved it so I could set my HO track up similar one day to get a taste of what your dealing with

How long are the lanes??

 

[Boy Racer]

The lane lengths are 2600 and 2738mm

I'll be putting in 2 or 3 more xlc's once they come off the boat (I've been waiting about 3 months for new stock, incl. F1 chips)

I am building the aluminium frame today and will post some pics when done. Then I'll be soldering the track connections and power taps into place, so I get constant power all around the track - particularly for those steep hill climb sections.

Cheers

Andrew

 

[Boy Racer]

I've now completed the frame

...next, the thin ply base will go on

 

[knoath]

G'day Andrew!
Looking like a well built unit there.
Can I ask, why such high sides? Did I read somewhere you where thinking of hoisting this to the ceiling?

Keep the pics coming.

 

[Boy Racer]

QUOTE (knoath @ 3 May 2007, 13:43) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Can I ask, why such high sides? Did I read somewhere you where thinking of hoisting this to the ceiling?

Yes. I plan to have it sit up against the ceiling as I have 11' ceilings and it's the easiest place to hide a track. So the idea is to have the whole track contained within the frame so it becomes a 'feature ceiling' (I'll plaster the outside when I can be bothered - if ever)

The down side is that it means the rails at the top will interfere with the line of sight to the front straight.

 

[Boy Racer]

Ok, I have started laying down the track and fixing the connections between the track pieces etc.
I need to get some of the elevations worked out, but it's a start. The twisty ascent is good fun, and the R3 banked corner at the end of the back straight (top right corner of pic) works a treat when it is at the top of a hill - it will ultimately be at the height of the frame - with the ascent steep up the back straight and coming gently back down around the front straight.

The track pieces are soldered together in 1-2 metre sections with a power tap going to each section (and one across the 2 lanes in each section) from a chunky ring main runing off the powerbase. I haven't completed the process yet, but the improvement in conductivity - and hence acceleration - has been dramatic on the parts I have done. The picture below shows some of the ring main (red cable - 50V 17A), the power taps (clear h/duty speaker wire) and the seperate power for lane changers (light duty hook-up wire). (sorry for the bad pic)

I plan to use polystyrene to build up the elevations, as it is light and strong, but I would be grateful for any suggestions of other solutions of similar stength and weight that might be easier to use (and obtain).

Cheers

Andrew

 

[Black3sr]

Boy Racer I don't mean to be critical but would like to offer a couple suggestions and a couple questions.

First I do not like designs where the goal is to cram as much track as possible. Have you driven yours? Are you happy with it? I prefer a fast track so have only one esse section in mine.

Do you plan on putting in borders? If so some sections are too close together and you may be too close to the edge of the table.

Your current design does not leave much room for landscaping.

Sorry if this sounds like sour grapes but I am just trying to help.

bill

 

[Boy Racer]

All feedback is appreciated.

I do plan to use borders, but they are not really needed on straight bits, which is where the very close bits are. The straight sections will also be on different levels mostly, so I can get away with some overlap - so long as I don't muck up the sight lines. I have driven the track (and its predecessor, from which a large part of the layout was drawn), and it's a pretty fun drive. The twisty bit works well as long as the angles are right - when the r1 corners are banked they drive very differently to when they are flat.

Obviously, most of the track is fairly quick, and the straights work well for that (the added benefit is that you can cram a fair bit of track into parallel straights), but I have tried to include some more 'technical' bits to keep it challenging and break up the rhythm a little bit.

As for the landscaping... well, mostly cliffs I expect

but there will be a few places where I can go crazy with the modelling

Cheers

Andrew

 

[jmswms]

QUOTE (Black3sr @ 17 May 2007, 02:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Boy Racer I don't mean to be critical but would like to offer a couple suggestions and a couple questions.

First I do not like designs where the goal is to cram as much track as possible. Have you driven yours? Are you happy with it? I prefer a fast track so have only one esse section in mine.

Do you plan on putting in borders? If so some sections are too close together and you may be too close to the edge of the table.

Your current design does not leave much room for landscaping.

Sorry if this sounds like sour grapes but I am just trying to help.

bill
Certainly these are things to think about, but ...

The layout doesn't look that crowded to me. It is worth driving it to get a feel for the design before you make a final commitment to it, but it looks like you have a challenging road course with fast and slower sections. I like the design, but then I don't prefer a fast track. The advantage of a faster track is that newbies will have an easier time learning to drive it.

Second, you don't need borders on every curve. For example, mountain switchbacks shouldn't have borders. Borders are an interesting part of the design, but they're not a necessary part. I like variety with borders, which makes the track more challenging to drive. Think of the choice between borders and no borders as "features" -- usually I like them, but sometimes there are scenic reasons (or space reasons) to omit them.

Third, given the planned elevation changes, there will be more than enough room for landscaping. I don't personally like big open dead spaces on a track, but this is surely a matter of personal preference.

These are good things to think about, but in the end you need to create the track that you like. I would strongly encourage you to drive it a bit just to make sure you like all the little features of it.

 

[Tileguy]

I'm still trying to figure out how I could do a 9 second lap on that circuit

Must be some hellacious magnets you got in them cars!!!

 

[Boy Racer]

9s was the best time on the old layout with an A1 GP car (my Revel Corvette wasn't far off). I don't expect much under 12s on the new layout, given the twisty bits - but I can't wait to find out how quick it is once I get the elevations right and the borders on

Andrew

 

[Boy Racer]

OK, it's been a while since I updated my track building progress. That has largely been due to a total absence of such progress for a few years... But now there has been movement and so I will start posting the photos (and maybe some video) to get things back on track.

This is the basic layout of the track. It is across several levels, which you can sort of see in the next photos.

I have started grassing the open areas and have purchased paints and trees to start doing a bit of landscaping soon(ish). You can see from the position of the track at the top of the frame (left) and the bottom (right) in the top photo, that the track has about 18" of variance in the elevations across the course.

The track has some interesting and challenging elements. For example, it reduces to single track half-way along the inside back straight, after the hairpin, as it goes into the canyon behind the switchback and emerges on the right before the start/finish line. The back straight has R3 banking that follows through to a R3-R2 corner which is slighly banked and leads onto a downhill straight the whole section has now been painted with a textured 'stone effects' paint to enhance the grip throught the corners. That permits almost WOT across the whole section - giving the effect of a 25' straight.

I have also painted the hairpin to allow cars to maintain 'reasonable' speed after battling it out down the hill before the hairpin and into the single track. The following picture shows a test piece that I painted, which gives you an idea of how it looks...

The switchback has been lightly dusted with 'grit' to provide adequate adhesion coming onto the top of the hill. I am particularly chuffed with that treatment and would recommend it to anyone who wants to have the asthetic and/or space efficiency of tight sections without making an otherwise-fast track undrivable. You can also customise the amount of grip you want to achieve in different parts of the corner.

Each of the track connections have been soldered in sections about 5' long, and there are powertaps to each section:-

I will post more photos, and more detail for anyone who's interested.

Plenty more to come in the next installment...

Cheers

Andrew

 

[raikkonen_webber fan]

nice work, along time between posts