Aaand they're off!

[War Eagle River]

https://youtu.be/AcItXRhHKJM

[SpeedyNH]

there's an awful lot of right turns on that track. how's the difference between lanes?

[War Eagle River]

there's an awful lot of right turns on that track. how's the difference between lanes?

How else could you get back where you started!?😁

[SuperSlab]

How else could you get back where you started!?😁

As Chris Walker recently pointed out to me (thanks Chris!): I think most of us intuitively think that, if you have an overpass you even out the left/right turns and roughly equalise the lane lengths. And this does hold true for a conventional figure 8 track.

BUT:

If you have an inside loop (as you have here and we have on our new club track), you actually exacerbate, not mitigate the preponderance of one-direction corners.

To clarify:
* On a simple oval or square track, you will have 2 x 180 degree corners (oval) or 4 x 90 degree corners (square) with the one lane ALWAYS being on the outside. In other words you have a total of 360 degree corners in one direction and the one lane always being outside.
* If you do a figure 8 with an overpass, you will (in simplified terms) get 180 degrees of corners going left, 180 degrees of corners going right with the one lane being on the inside in one loop and on the outside in the other, This evens out the distance and corners between the lanes.
* If you have an internal loop (like your track and our club track), you actually end up with FOUR 180 degree turns in one direction with the one lane being on the outside ALL the time. So instead of 360 degrees in one direction, you have 720 degrees in one direction. And yes: I am ignoring the little squiggles as they do not change the situation materially.

Is this bad? Not necessarily. On our track the lap times are actually quite similar in all 4 lanes.

Alwyn

[SpeedyNH]

that's why i asked the question.

[War Eagle River]

Why does it matter if the lanes are of different length? It doesn’t. Everyone has to race every lane. And no two drivers are identical, even racing the same lane. So, in retrospect, it doesn’t matter.

[SuperSlab]

Why does it matter if the lanes are of different length? It doesn’t. Everyone has to race every lane. And no two drivers are identical, even racing the same lane. So, in retrospect, it doesn’t matter.

No judgement from me: as I said, our club track is the same. SpeedyNH asked a technical question (why so many right turns) and I answered technically (because of the inside loop).

Like you, I, for several reasons, do not consider it an issue.

Firstly: as you said, everybody has to drive in every lane so the issue is the same for everybody. Issue that is the same for everybody = no issue in my book.

Secondly: typically the inside, shorter lanes are slower and more tricky to drive. So lap times end up quite similar. Ergo: not a real issue.

Thirdly: if for some reason somebody is really stressed by the lane length differences then they can run their races based on distance: (laps in a lane x that lane length) added together for all lanes. I am not sure why one would bother as I think that is the perfect solution to a non-existent problem FWIW.

Alwyn

[SpeedyNH]

well, a lot of us like to have the opportunity for side-by-side racing over a lap.
that's where our fun is, as opposed to having to either make the best of a bad lane or trying to blow through traffic on the best one. we find that's like driving in your own race on almost every lane, which is not typically why we come and race. matter of fact, there are quite a few tracks that spent a lot of time trying to equalize the lanes for that very reason.
to each their own, man, but gee whiz, i was just curious how the lanes were in comparison on a double inside loop track, not trying to tell you that you were wrong.
never mind.

[War Eagle River]

No worries Speedy. We have plenty of side by side racing here. Not all racers are created equal, so to speak. Everyone has the opportunity to race, and that’s what is important.

[LegOutOfBed]

I am deeply convinced that when two slotcars, traveling in the same direction, come within a yard of each other, a piece of invisible elastic is spontaneously created, which connects to both of them, then causes them to remain in contact, no more than 1 foot in front or behind each other, until the elastic breaks in about 6 - 8 laps, or one of the drivers suffers a brain-fart, causing his car to veer off at right angles to the track and wake a dozing marshal.

I just haven't been able to define the exact scientific principle which actually proves it.

[Courtney s]

I think it’s something like this:




vf = vi + at

vf = 0.00 m/s +(9.80 m/s2)(15.0 s)
and if you divide it by pi it gives you the year you started racing Slotcar’s

[SpeedyNH]

what's 'at'? my v_i was zero.