Track Layout Dilemma/UPDATE

[Scatman]

Guys, my current track is a blast to run, a lot of trigger action. but DocDoom made a good point about Ghost cars and my current setup. The car is not really moving as fast as I have seen on YouTube. Seems, there’s a lot of straight track layouts, and I like more turns. The reason for my dilemma, I will be racing by myself about 95% of the time and the ghost car moving slower will get old. So, I’m thinking layout change.

If anyone has a layout or ideas for an 8x16 I’m all eyes and ears. Here’s my current layout. Everything I come up with looks like the photo below.

[docdoom]

what do have for curves just the standard ones that come with kit? the big things with ghost cars is they have a hard time with tight turns and sudden switch backs. try a make a track were the corners have a easy*open entrance and exit say r4 down to r3 r2 and back out to a r4 will get you started. you almost want to make your best handling cars into ghost cars and race with the poorer handling cars

[Scatman]

Doc, before I took the track apart, I ran 180 laps against a ghost car. This one had good speed and well tuned. I was driving with no magnets, which is the way I role.

[docdoom]

that the only way to go. wish I still had my track up. tore it all down to make room in the garage for the remodel.

[Broman62]

I like the second one...some speed and some technical!!

[Scatman]

Rough draft. Also, didn’t have to move power taps. Thanks for playing. Not really a fan but it’s a start. The beauty of plastic, you can take it apart. One last thing, I can add another Pit area for the pace car.

[Fourshipp]

Are you running both magnets in your ghost cars? I have found a well tuned ghost car with full magnets is on par with my tuned magless cars.

[Scatman]

Yes on the ghost car.

[dw5555]

Come on Tony, you can be more creative than that. Unless you like going back and forth on straights with a few curves mixed in them. Use your imagination, mix it up. You have this huge table to go crazy on. Run diagonal, do crossovers, keep the curves mixed. OK I'll shut up now.
Dave

[Scatman]

That track is coming down. It was a brainstorm late last night. Even ran some laps and didn’t like. I have to replace the tabletop with plywood today or tomorrow. That’s when I will use all my imagination. Have to come up with a final layout so I can move on. Which by the way, when it comes to slot car tracks, I never finish a layout. My wood track never got scenery. This one will.

[Scatman]

Clean slate. Added new plywood to hold me up 😂

[Scatman]

Wasn’t going to build a track tonight, well, I could not resist.

[32lbking]

Another thing you can try is to put short lengths of tape on the rails [to cut power to the car and slow it down] just before tight turns where the cars deslot. You can adjust the lengths of tape to try to get it so the ghost car can be programmed faster. Not a permanent solution, but it looks like you have quite a few 1/60 curves and this will make it more drivable at higher speeds until you get more larger radius curves, if that is your plan.
Also, if you haven't done it already try some shims under the offending curves. Start with 1/4" or so and go higher if you want. You will be amazed how much difference just a small amount of banking will help.
If you are running stock rubber tires, try some urethane tires on just the ghost cars.
Depending what cars you are running, you may want to remove or install shims above or below the magnets to get them closer to the rails, depending on what chassis is on the car. Older Carrera cars have some magnets under the chassis [add shims] and the newer cars have them inside the car [remove shims if there are any].
You can add more magnets to the ghost car too, but be careful not to add to many or the motor or digital chip could possibly overheat and be damaged.
Randy

[Scatman]

After looking at this current track layout, I’m leaning towards going back to a modified version to my first layout.

[Scatman]

What about this layout?

[slothead]

If you go with this layout, or something similar, would you be able to include some elevation changes? Have the front straight at 'ground level' and slope the track as though on a hillside with the highest points be at the opposite side of the table. If cars are going right to left on the front straight then the short straight on the left would be uphill as much as he flexibility of the track will allow. From there the track would flow downhill then back upward.

I like the flow of the design and think some significant elevation changes would make it very interesting, especially when you add scenery that depicts how the track was carved out of a craggy hillside. Driving on track that is sloped or slanted adds a challenge the will require you to learn how individual cars need to be driven for optimal performance.

[SlotCat]

Great ideas Slothead!

[dw5555]

So I take it you're opposed to crossovers?

[Scatman]

No, just can’t figure where. My brain is on overdrive.

[Scatman]

Slothead, yes on the elevation.

[waxgroove]

I don't have the room for a permanent track - I'm a solo racer that gets things setup around the holidays and when the mood strikes. I've tried a few track plans - but always came back this one as it just seems to flow nice. It has the longest straight I could fit and some technical areas - using one crossover and a single controller to utilize both lanes. According to Ultimate Racer the track is around 8 by 13 - with the lanes being 37' and 39' feet. It's not too big but I like it - good luck!

[slothead]

Do you use Ultimate Racer just to design layouts or do you also count and time laps? I'm a solo racer too with 2 routed tracks (an oval and a road course) and use lap data to simulate multicar races. To me the most interesting thing about a car is not it's fastest lap, it's how consistently it can turn in fast laps.

[SlotCat]

I like that layout, as you said looks flowing with one long straight! I'm still racking my head (as I finish my garage sheetrock and second track table) for a good layout.

[waxgroove]

I used UR to design the track above - haven't used any of the additional features. When I want to run some cars - I grab a few off the shelf and run about 25 laps (50 total both lanes) - keeping an eye on times and try to better the lap without crashing. Not too exciting but it's something I look forward to in the winter months up here in the northeast. Thanks for asking -

[slothead]

I'm a solo racer too and something I do for fun is called the 1 Mile Challenge. Select some similar or evenly matched cars and race each of them for one full mile. A complete lap for you (twice around) is 76 feet. A mile, 5280 feet, divided by 76 feet equals 70 laps. For me it's 92 laps and I do it in 3 segments of 25 laps and a final 17 lap segment. Since you already do 25 lap runs you could try 25-25-20 to get to 70 laps. Time each car to see how long it takes to complete a segment and declare a leader at the end of each. The sum of its segment times is a car's total time which determines the final standings.

I use a running clock so deslots can determine the outcome, meaning speed alone is not more important than being consistent. A car can race into the lead and then with a major crash end up in the back. Keeps you on your toes as the race progresses.

[SlotCat]

Waxgroove, Do you like UR or Carrera Track Planner better? I coudn't get UR to work on either of my WIndows10, 64bit laptops.

Slothead, great idea and sounds fun!

[waxgroove]

SlotCat - UR worked fine for me - I found it to be pretty accurate when assembling the track. I switched to Mac so don't really use it anymore (don't want to fuss with Boot Camp). No plans to change the layout - I like it. Have you looked at SCI forum for assistance with UR?