[Ronan]

I made a decision to take up the 3 lane track I routed last year and start fresh with a new 4 lane layout. Overall the track width is now 4 feet for the whole length of the track which frees up a lot of space in the room, and makes the track easier to marshal. The lane lengths are shorter, but I think the new design flows better. I went for a 4 lane design as I recently started meeting up with a group here in Dublin who race every 2nd Thursday in each others homes on 4 lane tracks so I felt it was the way to go.

The track is a figure 8 and the bridge section is removable. I have more wood sections to fit in the space and I'm going to use my router to make a section to turn the track from 4 lanes into one lane when using it myself (as what Luf has done many times on oldslotracer) and I think I'll also route (rout?) a squeeze section. I think for racing though the standard straight bridge piece will be used.

Hopefully I'll have it running in a few days kids and wife permitting! LOL!

 

[ju5t1n]

i like what youve done there whats the grip like? and what paint did u use?
and also what rms system are you using assuming you use one

 

[Ronan]

QUOTE (ju5t1n @ 26 Aug 2009, 19:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>i like what youve done there whats the grip like? and what paint did u use?
and also what rms system are you using assuming you use one

Glad you like the look of it! Those photos were taken yesterday and I've spent today building the bridge supports and getting the removable section to fit properly so no experience of running cars on it, but I'm hoping the grip will be good. I bought a pot of dark grey exterior wall paint (a water based paint from Woodies which is the Irish equivalent of Homebase) and I mixed in some plain white tilers grouting powder into it (at a ratio roughly of 10 parts paint to 1 part grout) which gives the paint a chalkboard feel and certainly appears to grip the tyres well. I hope to have it running by this weekend and I'll be able to judge if it works as planned!

On my last track I used a racecontrol sensorbox with the slotman software which was good but limiting I found in that the car database was limited in size and the magnetic sensors occasionally missed a lap when a car was sliding when crossing the line.

For this track I have a sensor harness from Carlson's slot car sensors which works with most RMS software and the one I'm planning to try out is Ultimate Racer 3 as it seems well supported and has a car database too.

That's the plan anyway! Hope it works now!

 

[ju5t1n]

keep me posted on the grip situation,im gettin rather close to the stage of painting my touted track just trying to get the best grip a can,hooked up a 9v battery to onf my cars on the track and it just drifted everywhere(bear in mind there isnt any pain yet just plain mdf board

 

[Ronan]

QUOTE (ju5t1n @ 29 Aug 2009, 09:23) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>keep me posted on the grip situation,im gettin rather close to the stage of painting my touted track just trying to get the best grip a can,hooked up a 9v battery to onf my cars on the track and it just drifted everywhere(bear in mind there isnt any pain yet just plain mdf board

Sorry for the late reply, the exterior wall paint with some tile grout mixed in to give a chalkboard finish seems to give quite a good level of grip for rubber tyres, so in general I'm pretty pleased. I'm currently trying to figure out how to get my DS300 timing system to link to my old laptop now, and once I do then I think it will be a lot of fun to race on!

 

[Ronan]

Here are some pics of the completed track:

I've hosted one race night on it so far and it was a huge success. Indeed the other guys I race with are now actively planning a change from plastic to wood which of course would please me greatly!

Ronan