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Viper's Track Needs a Name

11400 Views 50 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Viper4Slots, 
V
11
Hello Slot Forum
I figured the best way to introduce myself is to show you the progress on my tracks over the past year or so.
A bit of background, I am an ex HO Slot guy who went from that to N Scale Model Railroding to HO Scale model railroading.
I then dropped it all for some years due to life getting in the way and somehow stumbled onto a YouTube Video of 1:32 Digital Slot Car Racing and the rest as they say is history.
I'm now totally once again addicted this time to Digital Racing and so are my friends thanks to me & my new found old addiction, lol.

I will say this, I wish I had found this forum before I found out on my own what I didn't like about some of my previous tracks, it would have saved some $ and time.
However I have learned allot on my own so I have no regrets thus far.

My particular problem is space or lack thereof, I only have so much room that I can dedicate in my basement to the track without getting myself in deep trouble with my better half.
I am sure we all have that shared dilemma, we want more space but reality steps in and sqaushes our dream tracks.
I also have the added issue of my basement being under renovation as you will see in my photos so I need to keep my track mobile while the Reno continues so we can keep racing during renovations.

I was very lucky in the fact that I found a relatively large used set that came with 14 cars most of which were chipped for less than I can buy a new set that only has 2 cars and half the track. I also got a ton of extras with it as well so I am very happy with my initial purchase that got me into this 1:32 hobby.

Here is the basic track that I got and my first layout I set up on an extended 4x8 sheet of plywood in a custom built platfom (fancy word for it's on wheels) ,with an L extension.
You can see some of the cars I got with the original set, it was a 4 Car Power Base that came with multiple Lane Changers both straight & curved as well as a Lane Counter as well as two complete Pace Car sets.


I soon grew very board (a week or less) of this layout and changed it to this new design


The above was a much better layout however it still didn't do it for me which is when I found this forum and a layout that was very similar to what I was attempting to build
http://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23127
I couldn't believe how close the above track was to mine.

This is the start of my final design with special thanks to the above mentioned track as a helper


I started to envision a Pit Lane under my main straight away




I ordered & finally received the Pit Lane expansion Game and absolutely love it although I just found out today there is a better way to use it, more on that when I learn more.


A front view of my pits prior to expansion


A shot of the front of my table and driver stations, much work to be done yet, slowly but surely


I then expanded my Pit Lanes so that my Teams could have two garages per Team


Close up although I am not finished with these garages


Here is an overall shot of my current track


We have had two race nights and so far the track works well as is but I want to run a few more before I start on my scenery.
In my case I won't have as much scenery as I would like due to my limited space, I opted for more racing space than scenery space.

I still have some guardrails to add and some minor tweaks yet to make.

I look forward to your feedback as stated I am a rooky at this so any help can only make my track better so advice will be appreciated.

Here is a video of my track in operation, hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/http://s28.photobucket.com/user/onemadviper/media/Slot%20Car%20Racing/MVI_1501_zpsdacaafda.mp4.html?rel=0
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MrFlippant
2
Hey, Viper! nice track progression! the name is up to you, but try drawing inspiration from local landmarks, race tracks, street names, bodies of water or mountains, etc. I named mine "Rainier Raceways" because the nearest mountain is Mt Rainier.

Your layout looks pretty good, but it's hard to see much detail as far as where lane changers are and what types of turns you have. But, so long as you're enjoying it, it's all good. From the picture, though, it looks like you have some of them right AFTER turns, when they should be set up right BEFORE turns. This is especially important when running low/no mag cars, but even still a little important for magnet racing.
Welcome to SlotForum, and please keep sharing!
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Hey, Viper! nice track progression! the name is up to you, but try drawing inspiration from local landmarks, race tracks, street names, bodies of water or mountains, etc. I named mine "Rainier Raceways" because the nearest mountain is Mt Rainier.
[/quote]

That's actually a very good idea, thanks!

QUOTE (MrFlippant @ 8 Apr 2013, 01:02) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Your layout looks pretty good, but it's hard to see much detail as far as where lane changers are and what types of turns you have. But, so long as you're enjoying it, it's all good. From the picture, though, it looks like you have some of them right AFTER turns, when they should be set up right BEFORE turns. This is especially important when running low/no mag cars, but even still a little important for magnet racing.
Welcome to SlotForum, and please keep sharing!


I used to have Lane Changers in three corners and decided to remove them at least for now.

There is only one after a turn which is in the photo you can see just before the long straight.
I have three straight LC's in the layout two on the upper portion and one on the corner before the pits just after the start line.
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QUOTE (MrFlippant @ 8 Apr 2013, 01:02) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>From the picture, though, it looks like you have some of them right AFTER turns, when they should be set up right BEFORE turns. This is especially important when running low/no mag cars, but even still a little important for magnet racing.
Welcome to SlotForum, and please keep sharing!


I have two before a curve and ONE after, can you explain to a rookie why the LC should be before the curve and not after?

What I saw was a TON of de-slots and roll overs when I had my LC at the end of my straight away?
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MrFlippant
These are my reasons, some may disagree.
- drifting cars, magless or stock, will very often miss the sensor when a LC is right after the turn. This results in missed changes, as well as unintended changes, because the flipper only moves (straight or turn) when it sees a car LED, which is on center, behind the guide.
- you want the LC to be near a turn for more realistic overtaking, so put them before a turn to avoid the problems with them after a turn. You should already be slowing down for the turn, so slowing down just a tad earlier to safely take the lane changer doesn't lose you much distance.
- putting a lane changer in the middle of a straight forces you to slow down and lose too much distance to a car not taking the lane changer. While some cars can go full speed through a lane changer, it's not a sure thing, so a slight slow down is a good idea. Again, if you're slowing down for the lane changer, why not put it in a braking zone?
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Minardi
Nice, fast track you have there Viper ! And some nice progress you made from track to track. A lot of people will be jealous of the space you have, looks very good. I agree with MrFlippant about position of lane changers. Only other advice I can give is if you can extend the pit lane a little, do It, it is hard to see on the pictures. Have fun !
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V
Thanks for the feedback gents I appreciate it and will concider moving the LC's as suggested.

I will try and get some better pics of my pits, unfortunatly expansion is out of the question at the moment as I have used every inch of bench space I have for track to make the biggest pit possible without effecting the racing.

Like I said my main focus was to get as much track as I could phsyically fit on the board so that I could have as long a track as possible.
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Redlines
5
Hi Viper
Grandstands ! Yours need to be seperated as where they are they drawf the track ! You can put the roof on the base part or as on the top part so as mine your base part
becomes an open grandstand. Play around a bit with them and see which way works best ! Using the base section as an open grandstand leaves the girders poking up in the air doing nothing so roofing these
would not give you to much height,leaving the top section as clean smooth open grandstands.Mine I have no choice as the top part only works on top of the pit building ! Im thinking of cutting my girders off on the open ones ! a good clean cut then resprayed n you wont notice
I do think having just having the grandstands all as one are very tall.Mine work well opposite the pit lane as ive got a raised section ! and turning the middle 3 top sections around works really well and in all honesty was my best idea on the layout to date

Liking your circuit n coming along nicely.Looking forward to more work being done n pictures of progress.Got a name for your layout yet ? An easy way to name your circuit is by using your 1st name and the area you live

Example :-

Name = Richard

Area = Whitestone in Nuneaton,Warwickshire

I choice RickStone as it had a certain ring about it
but theres lots of names you can make out of that ! Hope you get the drift,drift


Rick
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V
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Rick I will certainly keep that in mind about the Grand Stands, I think I will play around about before I do anything perminant..
They don't look over bearing in real life so I don't know why the photo makes them look that way?

Someone asked for a better photo of my Pit Lane so I took a better head on shot of them


Here's a look heading through the pits


And with Insperation from Rick's Rickstone Track I have figured out what I am going to do with three dead areas of landscaping.
Like any good track owner I am adding more grandstands so I can get more ticket sales at the gate


Turn # 1


Turn # 2


Turn # 5


I also took the advice to move my LC into the corner and it is much better thanks for that


You will notice I still have an LC on the other side of the turn, this is because when I moved it to the other end of the straight away the cars would de-slot during a LC.

My track is super quick I can do it at 5.8 seconds and its 55 feet long so LC's after the long straight away simply won't work for me.
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MrFlippant
That makes sense. Clearly, you're still running with magnets, so LCs after the turns aren't nearly as big of a deal as with low mag or magless racing. Since you're running at such high speeds, and not slowing down nearly as much (if at all ;-) for the turns, the LC at the end of the long straight will be prone to deslots. If you have space, and it looks like you do, try moving it just one full straight away from the turn. That way, even if your car whips out a little, you won't miss the changer. Magless cars will also be much less likely to miss it, and you won't be going fast enough to deslot when taking it.
Or, just leave it that way until it becomes a problem. If it's not broke, don't fix it.
Just remember all this if/when you go with some low/no mag cars and find lane changing is unreliable.
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V
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You are correct I am full mag right now and having a blast although at some point I think I will try magless at which point all teh advise in this thread will come to bear quickly


I just got my F1 cars working on Analog Mode ONLY so I can't wait to chip them and go full Digital with these cars, WOW are they fast
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sealevel
Your video clip does not seem to work for me.
Would you please check it?

Thanks.
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V
Try this

http://s28.photobucket.com/user/onemadvipe...caafda.mp4.html
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sealevel
Much better.... many thanks!

Cheers!
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Marty
Hi Viper

I like the track, you have got a lot into the space available, I'm guessing the reno plans include a final position for the track.

There will probably always be a compromise between scenery and track, when ever I look at re-designing my layout I just can't bring myself to leave the scenery off to have more track, good challenge though!

Have you got Pit-Pro and some sort of RMS?

How abour VIPER RACEWAY.

Marty
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Thanks for the compliments much appreciated.

I am actually in the middle of getting Pit Pro and the RMS software right now.

Thanks to one very special member here I have some really cool new lights that I am just dying to try out.

Hopefully I will have an update soon with some more videos.

In bewtween Race Days I have added some cars and some more grandstands around the track.
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V
6
Just a quick update on the track, after thinking about the comment regarding the Scaley Grandstands being too big I took a chance and bought a Carrera Grandstand and boy am I ever glad I did.
Thank you for pointing this error out as it really worked out well.

The Carrera Grandstand is far superior to the Scaley one IMHO, I immediatly bought a second and I think I will be filling the back row with two more I like them so much.
In addition to having better Grandstands I now have a VIP section for the track which I never had before.

They come in plain white so I painted the stairs to the VIP Loungs and the hand rails Grey to mimic steel, I am not done with these just yet and I have not added the seat stickers as I am not sure I like the ones that come with this kit.
Does anyone have any ideas on making them look more realistic as the multi-colour stickers that comes with the kit just don't do it for me.


Here are two Granstands side by side, more to be added later.


The next update is I accidently bought Black Gaurd Rails instead of the Beige ones and it turned out to be a mistake that worked in my favour.

I never liked the beige colour but you cannot buy black and get the red and white rumble sticks (think thats what they are called?) so I wondered about paint and after seeing another member here do exactly what I was thinking of doing I decided to take the plunge as well.

This is a very tedious job and it takes time but IMO it is well worth the effort.

Here you can see the transition from Beige to Black and I like the Black much better.


I wanted my start line to look a little more realistic so I ordered and finally recieved the start grid pieces.


After racing for a few weeks I found that we lacked take over areas so I decided to add another LC on the straight in front of Pit Row, this drastically improved passing.

Here is an overll shot showing the new Black Gaurds and the new LC along Pit Row


Thats it for now, thanks for looking and for the feedback it really is helping me improve my track


Oh BTW as far as a name is concerned I am starting to sway towards Caledon East Speedway, thoughts?
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Minardi
Nothing wrong with that name ! Nice job on the track borders, it looks very good. About the start grid, I would put a straight between every start grid piece, to avoid crashes at the start.
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V
I really wanted to do that at the start line but it would put some of the cars uner the overpass making it difficult to line up, bad design on my part!

Thanks for the comments I am really happy with the boarders
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Q
Looks fun track. Long straight (every track needs one)and technical parts. Carrera and scaley both sure can make grandstands. Lane changers can be anywhere you feel them work right. I think after or before aint important but they work on slow sections. I see you have given up on corner lane changers. You could make chicane with racing line from them. I also like one x-over on my track because everyother lap is on different lane.
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