custom track building

[Admin]

just re-posting this topic…

about being too small (1.5 by 2 m) wat size would you recomend?

i might also add a skid pad or sumfin if i make the track size bigger, just for the fun of it i guess :).

[DaveF]

The lanes on my track are about 17cm wide. It’s good, but maybe a litle tight and technical – the kids are still bouncing off the walls a little. Perhaps 20cm wide might be better. Get yor bit to drive in little circles and mark out the circle it drives in. Use that as a template to make your corners. No good making a track it can’t get around.

[GT-ahh]

smaller tracks are more suited for 1.0s and 1.6s. for a track running a 3.0 i’d recommend about as big as alarge room, about 50cm wide

[DaveF]

True. You wouldn’t get a 2.2 around my track without problems.1.0s are ok, and 1.6 would need a lot of skill to get aroundsome parts.

Again. this is where running your car around in a circle to see the turning circle is useful. Also, do a tight figure eight and see how much room your car needed to turn. This will help you have some ideas on how wide to make the track, how tight to make the corners, etc.

[Admin]

Well just get 2 X a1 size material and put them together!! big enough!! i think??

[Admin]

it should be big enuf. GT-ahh and i raced on my track and a 2.2 is a bit to fast, nice to hit the rails with tho lol. a 1.6 is almost a perfect motor for most technical tracks

[Admin]

ok, i’ve drawn up my track design and its going to be something like this pic…

the indy track is 20 cm wide and the f1 track is 15 cm wide.

i did this because although some of you say its need to be real wide for the char-g to be able to steer properly around the track.

that i found is indeed true, but considering you shouldn’t need something like a 35-50cm wide track to just go straight in it (lol hard to imagine using up the whole track width), i designed it so that although the f1 track is 15cm wide, the tightest corner is fairly passable, errrm… how to say, so that instead of using a much wider track ive put grass (the green stuff probably gonna make from old carpet) between the 2 parralel tracks making it big enough for most char-g’s to be able to manouver around it, as long as you know what racing lines are all about , u should hav no problems even for the faster engine cars.

so yer that’s about it so far, just ignore the red outlined stuff in the background of the pic, just me insignia put into it for net purposes 🙂

[Admin]

oh btw, i used my 2.2 motor in my char-g to measure the turning circle of the char-g, which was… im not too sure anymore but i think it was average 23cmfor the inner circle diameter and + 3.5cm on both sides for the char-g itself makes 30cm diameter for the outside circle.

but i found that instead of trying to crawl through the hairpins, instead going reasonably fast into it and holding the turn until the char-g faces the other way (provided you have a grippy tyre, or not – i dont really know for sure, the car will stick flat all the way round the corner) it will cut the innerng cicle diameter down to about 17-20cm, which will make the hairpin on my track seem kinda huge (estimating).

the indy track by calculation is 611.33cm(2dp) in length (measuring the path which follows the centre of the track) and the f1 track including the indy circuit part is about 896cm (also centre of track line thingy..) making it almost 1.5 time longer than the indy track itself. to my surprise if you didnt include the indy part which the f1 track uses, the lenght would be a mere 1cm shorter than that of the indy track (explains why its 50% longer).

enough of that, the inspiration of this track design corners came from 4 different international f1 tracks:

1. the indy track in the u.s. with the oval circuit.

2. the first few corners in the f1 track are from monaco gp, consisting of the famous loews hairpin and the hotel undercover carpark straight… (not exactly straight but you know what i mean)

3. next section is from suzuka-jap gp with the lead up and execution of the spoon curve just after the hairpin section on the same track.

4. and finally the weirdsection before the track leads back into the indy circuit is the veedol schikane (in deutsch) from the new nurburging-luxembourg gp which is actually in germany. chose this coz its good and it was michael schumacher who designed it!

s’all i can think of typing at the moment…

keep the suggestions, ideas, comments, whatever coming though…

(p.s. please don’t hate me if you dont like schuey yourself ok ;P)

[Admin]

what materials are you useing??

[Admin]

oh yeh 1 more thing,

with the barriers, im gonna make them out of clear plastic (like overhead projector slides cut into strips) ansecuring them near the two ends of the strip (about 10cm each lenght) so that it has a more cushioning effect than a brutal top speed crash into a steel barrier, sure not realistic but why would we be racing char-g’s if we had enough money to race in a real man’s racing car eh?

so yeh the barriers will be placed pretty predictably along the indy track but the f1 track will be a different story:

there will be barriers but they wont run along the track like the indy one, more like just placed on the grassy bits separating the track lengths so no 1 will be tempted to cut across them.

since it doesnt run along the track what if people decide to cut corners?

well i put this question into account and decided to put old carpet (spray painted green or something) as grass so that if one should decide to cut a corner, they might find themselves stuff on it, resulting in more of a disadvantage.

THE MATERIALS TO BE USED

being in the woodwork class, ill use wood to construct the main frame of the circuit.

for a better racing surface, my dad has this huge roll of black vinyll (i meanREAL HUGE) that i should be able to cut in the one peice to cover the whole track in one go, trimming off bits where my ‘grass’ will be placed and then glueing it down (if clean cut) of staple gunning it (if overhang left around it) and then applying the grass where it should be and after that the barriers i suppose.

might just paint the starting lines etc… straight onto the vinyll itself.

and later on when i’v finished the building of it might just get fancy and stick a few decal adverts onto the plastic barriers and stuff like that…

easy talk but gonna be a realy f#@*ing big job taking an estimate 2 & half terms to complete (hopefully get mythird 1st in the grade for woodwork prize as well, lol)

[Admin]

easiest thing to use is AFX gaurd rails man, drill some holes the correct width apart and baically slot them in, what i did

[Admin]

well if you take a look at the hardboard track in the technical section you can see that he uses infill strips!! i find these the best!! the do no harm to ur char-gs!! also i bought a piece of mdf backing board with a white glaze over it!! it makes the char-gs go fast!!..instread of liquid nails i use masking tape tabs!! this holds the barriers still and i can keep on customizing the tracks design ova and ova again!!!! altogether it has cost me about 27$ for all the materials!! some i alreadyhad etc. (masking tape)

infill strips – $10.64 a pack! you would need 2 packs!! comes in white or black strips!! i chose black!!

mdf backing board-white 900x600x3mm- $5.91!!

try this if you havent got much money to spend!! plz it looks good too

[Admin]

the gaurd rails are offfical TOMY items and they do not harm your car at all, they are $12for 20 or so, not expensive at all and very easy to fit.

could u not do so many exclamation points boungah its kinda hard to understand how u are trying to say things

[Admin]

sorry shypo, im not use to putting fullstops but ill try.

[Admin]

nah thats cool man, i was jus reading and i kep going up at the end of a sentence, its not a warning or nothing like that i was jus asking to make it a lil bit easier

[Admin]

nah ill just go with what i have in mind but thanx anyway.

as i said one of my elective subjects is woodwork so i fairly much have all the wood in the world to construct my track + its all free, besides the fact that you pay 50$ at the start of year but thats nothing when you can make about $850 worth of stuff each year (going by ikea, freedom, watever catalogues that is…) and most of the other stuff is lying in the garage so i wont really have to buy anything. ie total cost = $10.00 for spraypaint and metal hooks each? then again i could use the paint from the visual arts storeroom… so back to $5.

the list below is the predominant materials to be used:

mdf base – subject – free

plywood track – subject – free

vinyll – garage – free (this is the really good stuff manufacturers use)

old carpet – garage – free (these came in squares of about 30x30cm, the chequered ones they used in banks, think they were getting new carpets so they had them piled outside the entrance, still nice and flat though).

plastic railings – in my room – free (dont use them so ill cut em up)

small metal assembly hooks – hardware store – $5.00? (to put up barriers)

that’s most of the stuff atm apart from other minute stuff like glue, track grid paint stuff, etc… which will most probably be free.

btw, i did want the barriers to be clear anyway because i was thinking of being able to add som logo stuff onto them. so anyway, still open to any more suggestions.

[t00l]

ive got a nice cardboard setup with lino for the road, big long drag strip 😀

[Admin]

i use the lino in my kitchen floor alot, it has a bit to much dust on it tho lol

[DaveF]

The 15cm wide track sounds a little too small for racing 4 cars on. Is that your plan? The rest of it sounds good. The clear strips could have the advertising stuck on the reverse of it so it’s visible through the plastic,, and it would stay protected against bumps. I like the idea of grass area before the barriers. I thought about doing that on my track, but ask the kids were to be the main drivers on it, I thought I’d make it easier for them. The barriers aren’t always a help though, so you still need to try and drive through the corner and around the barriers.

[t00l]

heaps fat id say, better to get sideways around corners 😀

and considering that the cars are 6x3cm 15 cm is pretty wide 😀

[Admin]

my track is 17cm wide and in the skinniest bits its about 13cm, its only suitable for maximum 3 cars

[t00l]

3 is enough anyway, you wouldnt want toooo many cars on

[Admin]

i wanted a 6 car race but i will need a big track

[DaveF]

I figure as there’s 4 frequencies any track should be designed for 4 cars. I know there are infact 6 frequencies including the Aussie 40, and the USA 49, but I have heard mixed reports about them being able to race together successfully without frequency crossover causing drivers to influence the control of each others cars.

[Admin]

yeah the 45 and 49 are supposed to cinflict a bit but still a 6 car race would be awesome. i have a 49 and it hasnt had any probs with a 40 although a clone 35 gave it a stutter lol

[Admin]

well i would say mine isa bit more of a profesional track where its not designed to be easy but to be challenging instead. as i mentioned its all to do with racing lines (on the road) and knowing where the overtaking spots are so… probably a little frustrating for beginners but it should catch on relatively quickly…

but because its 15cm wide all the way around it shouldn’t be too hard to manouver around anyway considering that the loews hairpin is well wide enough for 2 char-g’s to race around it side by side.

but as i said it will be the better racers who will be heading onto the main straight first because of the acquired skills of control that you get from practice and (for me) watching lots of f1.

[Admin]

exactly DaveF, thats why i stated ‘clear’ plastic barrier strips specifically so that the ads can be reverse stuck onto them.

[Author]

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