Future track plans - Policar 1/32

[jfuente]

Alright, I've been reading up on track design and have scoured the forums. I really dig a track posted by Mitch58 in the 'Track "Themes"' thread. My plan is to lay my track atop foamcore board and add boarders using 3/8" thick pieces of 1" and 2" wide foam (from McMasterCarr). Once it's setup, I'll cut out the empty sections as I've got my table lined with green felt and will look to add some scenery and add finishing touches to the layout.

I've used an equal number of radii curves on the track and the length is as near equal as I can get. I also tried to maximize the length of straights and tried to put the tighter corners (only two sections) near the front of the layout for ease of reslotting, as well as kept the single overpass near the front of the layout as well.

The rear curves are made of larger radius curves and I also plan on using some sort of wall, guessing from some shower and or styrene from Home Depot.

Here's the layout I'm starting off with, will have all my pieces arriving this Tuesday.



And here are the shots of my proposed layout.




Planning on going with Viasue & Race Coordinator and using two light bridges, so I can do some fuel races.

Again, this was inspired by Mitch58 's design and I think it maximizes the space I've got without trying to fill it with too many tight curves. As always, I'm incredibly new to this so open to feedback. I've been trying to hold off from rushing out and acquiring pieces, bits and cars without having a plan in mind.

Thanks all!

[slothead]

The 2 turns on either side of the start/finish line are tight and will probably require the most skill to negotiate. Not bad, just features of the design.

As for scenery touches consider going with model railroad grass (sprinkle on over glue) rather than green felt. It's much more realistic and lends itself to the variability found in nature. Add some rocks, shrubs, etc. and you'll have a great looking track that makes racing more realistic.

The entire overpass and back straight can be elevated. Consider continuing the elevation all the way around the outer part of the track so there are multiple levels and the track isn't up against itself. Uphill and downhill sections are fun to drive.

[jfuente]

The felt was already in place on my main portion of table, for board games/wargames (ie. wargame mats underneath plexiglass w/ playing pieces atop) so just extending the felt on the 4'x6' section I added. However, I could just opt out of cutting out the scenery sections of the foam core and going with the sprinkle on grass. I'll wait until I get it all assembled go through there. Good idea though, I think I might actually have some of the stuff lying in old hobby boxes.

So no major concern about the two tight corners? I tried to mix in some other radius corners to avoid the straight hairpin corners that came with the standard set. Was pretty happy I only ended up with two tight corners. I also opted to place the pit/start light bridges in between the two tight corners, as you'll be slowing down anyways to navigate the corners. Not sure if that's a good design or not, but it sounded logical to me!

Good idea about elevating the back straight! I dig it. Appreciate the input!

[slothead]

You could always put a 1/8" sheet of something (even cardboard) under the track and cover that with scenery stuff. It would be easy to remove if needed.

[jfuente]

Good call! I like it.

[Bal r 14]

I tried making something similar, but the L shape meant too much dead space for the area I had available, as the area inside the L is a lot more than track marshals need. But, it is a cool layout if you have the room for it.

[slothead]

Which way will cars be going on this track? From start bridge toward pit bridge, or the other way? This might effect how you want to do the rise and decent for your elevated sections.

[jfuente]

That was my original thought, from start bridge to pit bridge. Gives me that straight section prior to the curve to get a good portion of the rise, similar to descent, the back straight portion of the dog leg prior to the curve.

[HO RacePro]

You don't have to worry about equal lap length. Any track that is essentially a figure-8, that is, with one overpass forming an external loop, will have equal lap lengths unless the lane spacing isn't constant.

Normally I'd suggest you reverse the levels of your overpass. The way you have it now there is a fair chance cars deslotting will end up under the bridge, where they will be hard to retrieve. But if you want to take Slothead's suggestion and raise the entire back straight -- which I think is a good idea -- then you should leave things as they are. Just try to create enough elevation at the overpass so you can reach deslotted cars easily.

You might want to start elevating the track as early as the hairpin curve. Doing that without creating a reverse camber in that curve might be tricky. On the other hand if you want to make that curve especially challenging, a reverse camber is a good way to do it.

Ed Bianchi

[jfuente]

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, kind of my thought as well, try and get the rise going as soon as I can to maximize the space under the overpass. Thankfully the overpass is right near the table edge so should reduce the difficulty in retrieving cars.

[slothead]

As a retired nerd with lots of time on my hands I've printed of 2 copies of jfuente's track design and am about to play around with elevation ideas as if it were my track.

My road course has 2 reverse camber turns which were problematic at first but now are easy-peazy, it just took time to learn how to drive them. The first one is a left handed switchback turn immediately after the right hand banked turn at the end of the back straight. There was no way I could twist the MDF to get it to have positive camber (normal banking) or even to be flat. Gravity helps cars stay on thru the banked turn then wants to pull their tails outward at the switchback. PG urethane tires helped but it was mostly just a matter of practice to gauge speed both into and out of the banked turn. A good road course should be challenging and benefit from practice.

[jfuente]

Haha! That's awesome. Glad I found HRW, though my hobby account isn't so sure. Curious to hear your insight.

[slothead]

I probably had about 20 cars when someone on HRW suggested I build a road course. At the time I was only interested in an oval to replicate dirt track racing I used to follow back in NY. But, the thought of a road course took root in my mind and before long I was designing a table and layout on graph paper. I made a paper model of the track and decided to add banking then got the materials to start working on it. That was in 2013 and I now have over 100 cars for that track, as well as about 100 oval track cars. Hours and hours of fun and the best money I ever spent (if you don't count NY pizza).

[mattb]

Equal lane lengths doesn't always mean equal lap times. Usually it's pretty close, but one lane may still be easier to drive than the other. Only time can tell you that. A plain "L" shape without a crossover may provide equal lap time, you just won't know until you try so different setups. I would do some temporary track setups before I started mounting track permanentyl.

A flat "L" would let you raise the back straights and curve to give you a little change in height and some variation from a flat track. Could be the lap times would be real close. You don't know until you try it.

[jfuente]

Slowly acquiring track pieces, so just trying to brainstorm designs as I go. Not sure when I'll have the funds to put this design into use, but even if so only permanent pieces of it would be the foam core board with foam tape for boarders.

Got enough today to do a flat L and the original figure 8 so will be trialing those over the next few weeks.

[jfuente]

Had to tweak the design as the R2 22.5 degree turns aren't in stock here in the US yet.

Here's what I've come up with. Just had a bunch of OT $ roll in, so got everything on order.

Same concept, back straight section will be elevated.

[jfuente]

All track and race management on order. Excited to get things assembled as they arrive.

Also got two new slot it GT40s in. Wow, very impressed by the quality of them compared to the set cars.

I then mounted my power supply under the table for future plans of using SCC's track wiring kit.