Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

I would love to know peoples thoughts as I am still very early on in the planning stage ad ironing out problems now would be beneficial.

I am planning to have it on 4 pieces as is 1200mm x 3600mm approximately.
The main straight is around 3000mm long and the tightest corner 115mm radius on inside lane.

Turn 1 Elf and Turn 5 Seat will both be crossovers to try and keep lanes approximately the same length.
I am planning on using non magnetic braid with piano wire underneath on the corners to give a magnetic effect for some of my friends cars.
Thanks for looking and any thoughts welcome.

Do track braids wear out?
Do they wear out car braids quicker?

Thank you
Fred

It represents  Monza in 1928 with 46deg banked curves.
It is 2 lane routed with copper tape and I am using Race Coordinator and an Arduino.
Surface is semigloss enamel
Left lane       15.23mtrs
Right Lane    13.79mtrs
2 corners on the inside lane are very tight so kinda evens out lane length

Really enjoying having a track again in my shed

Drives anti-clockwise in the main, but as with my existing track, will have a set of reverse switches, so it can be driven as a VERY different track in the other direction.

I also wanted to ensure it could be marshaled from 3 positions, these being at turn 10, which will have the outside following the track line,. so that marshal can reach into turn 2

One inside the "L". who will also cover the esses, and one at the left hand end.

Driver stations 1.2 metres apart on the home straight, so no views are obstructed by marshals or the overpass.

So all thoughts, comments, suggestions invited - except my local guys who will be going "oh no, he's getting worse, shutting off passing spots deliberately"

I am leaning the way of many of Luf's tracks, and ones like the White Lake F1 Ring, and the constructions of Farley Slotmods that I highlighted on forum recently as "interesting" tracks.

I am also dispensing with standardised lane spacings, preferring to optimise the appearance and the racing flow and lines.

One tight "monaco" hairpin is no passing on adjacent lanes, but lanes 1 apart will pass apart from excessive tail action - which oughtn't be with good drivers.

Other turns have varying spacing of lanes, wich we'll tweak a bit, bt the idea is that each lane has to be learnt, and passing spots have to be chosen.

Actual track "flow" and racing lines will need tweaking, my drawing ability with Google Sketch-up was hopeless, and hand drawn not much better.

Notes attached give some idea.

But basically

T1, elliptical turn, fairly symetrical, tightening at apex, flowing entry and exit.

Straight 1, - isn't straight as you can see, rising 150mm up into

T2, highly eliptical, opening out at both ends though.

Straight 2 retains the elevation, and will have a "swallow" up and down effect viewed from the side.

T3 a sort of "hook turn entry", leading onto

T4, typical Monaco hairpin, narrow lane spacing, constant radius

T5 through T7 are the esses, but the lane spacing is not constant. Lane1, and to lesser extent, lane 2 will drive faster, natural advantage here.

T8, tightens slightly at apex, but nothing exciting, opens into

T9 which is a double apex curve, opening in the centre. This is like the evil entry to the main straight on Taupo for anyone who has driven it. A tiny "blip" will be possible for the brave, OR, it will serve to fix an over driven car into the corner, creating a save from excessive tail action. - either being possible.

Onto short straight 3, also not straight, and also having some increasing elevation from base level to the front (bottom of picture); onto

Onto T10 which is mis-drawn, but will be a fast flowing sweeper, leading onto

Front straight, dipping down to base level, and which will have the pits sitting inside it, with part of the pit buildings underneath Straight 2 at the right hand end.

I struggle to see how a scale drawing will look full size, assuming I could produce a scale drawing.

My solution is to use my plastic track to give me a better idea, then smooth the transitions. Hopefully I will be able to line everything up neatly when I get to the last section. Tightest diameter corner I am looking at is 300 mm, lane spacing 100 mm. Some work to do yet, so please no holding your breath.

Tightest diameter on the BLST track is 235 mm.

this came to me this morning. Basically a home track to play with the grandkids, and a test track for club racing, - at a club not a million miles away

from me..... Would "Eggs" give it away to some local guys, or the Ministry of Silly Hats..... in case you missed the first one.

The brief :

So I've put some designs to paper and now seeking some advice of which would best suit the needs of a "test" track and something to have some serious

(did I just say serious) fun on. The max area in board size is approx 130x280.

Your opinion and suggestions would be much appreciated. Stay safe

below is a pic for a 2 laner a guy I know is planning. He is now limited for space, and just wants somewhere he can tune cars.

It mostly fits on 2 sheets of MDF - So it's the old "asking for a friend"

I gather he would like to be able to glue it up and test some steel chassis, but also run it clean for RTR 1/32nd.

There is no RTR club near him, but I know a couple of guys who may hang out there if he gets it going

Thoughts, ideas?

A year or so ago I made a small test track which meant I'd gathered a few of the main tools and concepts together.

I tried selling it to raise some funds but alas it didn't go - so rather than give it away it is now been stripped down to act as one of the track tables.

I built a playhouse for my two little girls recently and so had lots of odd lengths of timber lying around to knock up an adjacent table to the first.

Given my other addiction - Matchbox cars I needed to leave the main wall clear for model cabinets, so this has left me with a 3m x 3m L shape with about 1.3 width each branch.

It really surprised my how much width you need for 3 lanes & slide zones so after approx 1 million drawings I ended up here - It ticks most things for me. The longest straight I can fit in the space, Space for some form of Pit lane diorama, a small squeeze, 3 lanes and most importantly fairly simple.

The table came together quickly, and bolted to the original it's made a nice solid base.

and added a lower shelf for storage

It was a bit daunting digging out the router and trying to remember everything I'd read or been told. Thanks to Munter for his straight edge and hose of many nails... The squeeze line will be done that way but the rest is mainly straight with varying radius corners.

Setting up the trammel and making the first cut was freaky

But it's a bit like riding a bike with earmuffs and face mask on....

Plan to braid this one but will get the main routing and construction done first before routing the braid slots...

With a young family it's going to be a slow old build but will update when I can.

Cheers Pat

track and use to mount plastic track.

The imminent arrival of the Policar track system - next Monday to be precise, and my need to have a test bed, gave it a nudge. But it is also the

opportunity to create a rally and RAID track that I have wanted for well, most of my time slotting.

I can run the Policar track mostly around the outside, crossover etc, then interlace it with the RAID track, using the natural elevations of the hill climb pieces

So this morning, full of coffee and optimism I wandered down to our local M10 Mega (That's the Kiwi equivalent of a Bunnings Aussie-Jim), and had the

nice bloke shorten some sheets of MDF and some lengths of 40 x 20mm kiln dried pine, to save me a lot of saw time.

The two sheets of 6mm MDF have been shortened to 2 metres, as this is the longest I can tuck away under Oakland Raceway.

The 40mm x 20mm kiln dried pine is light and fairly rigid. I had them cut 4 lengths of 5.4 metre into 8 x 1,960cm plus the leftover of 4 x 1,460 cm

That provides the framing for both tables.

The 40 x 20 rings the sheet, and supplies two extra stringers to run length-ways, and all I had to cut was the extra off the cross pieces sticking out below

Oh look, the legs of those resin folding tables look just right. - "Off with their heads/tops"

On this table I was able to pull the end rails apart, removed the two black plastic frame retainers that clip the ends of the metal frame together when

storing away, and use these in the ends of the legs in the new frame to hold the legs up and away for storage.

The other table I cannibalised had plastic retaining clips that wouldn't fit the legs there, so I will have to manufacture an alternate solution for table 2 legs

And in they go, screwed onto the internal stringers

If you do a bit of woodworking and don't own one of these, you're a masochistic mug. Two set screws allow changing of the drill bit - or setting of depth,

and setting the dept/width of the screw head rebating. I am using 30mm #10 screws. I can drill a run of holes identical depth, rebated, in about 30 seconds

Presto - each table took about 90 minutes start to finish once i had everything ready to go.

Next up I am fitting some 10 x 20 off-cuts underneath screwed and glued with construction adhesive to the frame and underside of the MDF, for

mounting of the casters this first table will roll on.

Went for 3 lanes so i can now fill all 3 steps on the podium.

1) wash the family cars

2) mow the lawns

3) catch up on some paperwork for the accountant

4) Build a small Rally track just coz I can

guess which option I chose.....

Having recently sold 3 of my routed tracks I think it is about time I built another.

Sold

sold

sold

The new one shall be 3 lanes, braided, variable PSU and timing by Trackmate (get ready for more business coming your way Slotsnz).

Measuring just 4.8m x 1.2m (limited space!!).

I wanted a digital track, for space, because I like the idea of digital, and because I needed to be able to test stuff I actually sell. But our local club have almost zero interest in digital racing, and are not all about to go out and buy digital controllers. So whatever I did, needed to be self-contained, with me supplying controllers and cars.

It also needed to have a low learning curve, as we won't spend a lot of time racing this way.

So I decided on the BLST system, married to Slot.it's O2 digital.

I was going to make my other modular build a BLST digital track, but as the main lanes were already routed, I felt it would be less than optimal.

What is BLST you say? Well for those who may not have come across it on other forums.

BLST was the brain-child of French slotter David Caille, and it has been around for nearly 10 years. He markets it through his "Sillage" (slipstream) racing site. http://sillage.racing.free.fr/

Or in english.

BLST = "Best Line Slot Track" - a track where there are 2 traditional lanes, but also a "meandering lane" which is the "best racing line". It wanders happily between and overlapping the 2 ordinary lanes. It is an anti-collision automatic lane change system. The drivers don't change the lanes themselves, the BLST system does it, you just concentrate on going as fast as you can, and getting up the back end of the guy in front, which then forces his car on a lane outside of you, so you can scoot under him.

It also requires to be run on a digital system so the cars can share lanes, ANY digital system, so long as the cars are controlled by a digital signal, and the track has fixed voltage on the rails at all times.

SSD, N-Digital, Oxigen, Scorpius. - I am not sure about SCX or Carrera digital systems, I just don't know them.

The cars drive by default on the "best line" but when one catches another up, the multidinous lane changers set into the track automatically divert the following car to the shortest distance around the track and ensure the other one stays on the outside lane until they are clear of one another. Once clear, they are both permitted on the best racing line again.

What has happened recently is that David has integrated the electronics and flippers to a new level, and is now able to offer cut flippers to suit the exact track design. - See below in the pictures. Each flipper is individually CNC cut to fit it's place in the track. All this makes for the smoothest possible car path.

I suspect he gets a lot of time wasters as he was slow in replying a few months ago when I first broached it with him, and I misunderstood his reply, so didn't pursue. But when I went to him again after the new integrated electronics/flipper was announced, he was fairly prompt.

Once he saw I was actually serious, his service in getting the track designed, and answering questions was superb. His english is a little limited, and his replies are always short, but get the job done. He is very professional. He had the CAD plan done within a week once design details were sorted.

He has his own floating head CNC machine on which he cuts actual tracks for sale within Europe, and cuts the flippers.

He designed and cut the track owned by Doug - co-owner of Slotforum International.

I opted to have David design my overall layout, and include some extra CAD to cut shallow "V" cuts which will form the effect of a rubber stripping either side of the track.

The CAD has four layers, for the individual tools and actions required in cutting. Each layer,

Red - lanes cutting

Green - cutting out track sections

Yellow - cutting in for flippers

Black - for cutting "effect" and outline of track borders is a different tool and action.

This level of CNC work required a CNC machine with "floating head" for some tasks. We have only one of those among the local CNC shops. Fortunately, they have done a few track here before, so understood what was required.

I opted for a mirror image of his Maranello track - Maranello is the town where Ferrari's Fiorano in-house test track is located. So my track will be a simplified Fiorano.

Presto

The interpretation. It is quite small, 3.95 metres by 1.45 metres, running length about 12.5 metres.

I included a pitlane, even if I may not be using "fueling racing" at first.

The teal coloured lines are the two regular lanes, and the red is the best racing line.

To give an idea how this works in practice, here is a video of racing on David's Maranello track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogFljnfp5s4

And 6 ghost cars circulating - gives a really good idea of how the system functions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4sb4sRsI8

Can someone who knows better tell me, - are those SCX Meganes running on those videos?

The flippers are acutally paired throughout the track, and for my design the are 14 pairs of lane change flippers excluding the pitlane. So in all, I have 30 lane changers in 12.5 metres of track.

Because it IS an anti-collision system, it is practical to have more than the usual digital benchmark of 1 car per 3 metres of race track. Oxigen [O2] can accomodate 20 cars per track, I expect 6, perhaps 7 will be max for this track length.

The flippers look like this, see how they are individually cut, and follow the lane curves.

While I am away, the CNC shop should get the cutting done, and David is currently building the electronics, and cutting the flippers. He gave me a lead time of about a month for his construction, so they should also be ready for shipping, just after I get home early October.

I am going to build the track in 4 sections as per the cut lines in blue; which will clip together for use, or come apart to be stored on the rolling trolley under my existing Oakland Raceway track.

It can also be transported in my wife's station wagon - I hope.

BLST runs on 13 - 15 volts, so I need to use fairly low powered cars. I am considering

a - ) SCX GT cars

b - ) A bunch of Ninco short nose McLarens

c - ) Depowering Slot.it Group C cars

But I am really unsure right now. That could change. - Any ideas of a really good "house class" for digital racing would be appreciated from those of you who race digitally.

They need to be able to take a hammering mechanically and body wise, and be reliable.

If needed I can throw in some diodes to slow motors down, or depower, or just gear down.

I am braiding it with 3/16th (4.8mm) magna-braid, to give a few options on handling and driver skills management.

If needed I can mix car with and without magnets, or differing downforce levels.

Cost - well it's sort of like the 1:1 cars that run around the 1:1 track at Fiorano.

"if you need to ask; you can't afford it"

But as a clue, each electronics pod and flipper is costing me EUR50 - and I am getting spares.....

I hope to rent it out from time to time, as a corporate tool, I know a few people who use stuff like this in their coaching/team building/mentoring businesses.

I have always wanted a routed rally track but I do lack some basic diy skills ("some" that might be an understatement). Nonetheless I want to join in the fun of competing in those Proxy rallies that are a big hit on this forum.

It shall be on an 8 x 4 sheet of MDF.

I have to keep the costs down after the Scalex track budget was blown out.

Initial beginning.

"Mother made me do it"

Chiselled out insert for power and lap counter (i warned you i was on a tight budget)

Now I await friend with router to implement my track design.

https://flic.kr/p/RrH3ge

https://flic.kr/p/RoaGrq

https://flic.kr/p/Qabyfh

https://flic.kr/p/RrH2QV

when he retired from slots it ended up in the pie'tin

the home of Pieguy

but when he decided to make the move back to sunny California USA

I put up the cash and it came to my place

once it was up and running and we had our first night racing in it's new home

the guys started pesting me to do some work on it that the last 2 owners never did

1: paint the slots in lane colours

2: get rid of some of that blackness, this was Vivs,{ Munters resin twin } request as he kept getting lost as he couldn't tell what was track and what was infield

3: fix the barrier that would come out and block the track every time someone hit it

so I set about last xmas to make some changes

this is how it looks now

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so last xmass I started sortimg all those issues the guy's had and done a few things I wanted as well

repainted the track surface with a lower shine

added ad signage

updated the race control to trackmake and wired in track power switch etc

I am working on some flood lighting for night racing

I'm not the best at drawing stuff on the pc but here's a photo of what's going on in my head. It looks better in my head than it does here but I figure you'll get the idea.

Effectively it'll be 2 right turns 2 left and 4 straits which should be long enough to get a bit of speed up.

.

Since meeting up with the HBMRC back in October - it has really rekindled my love for slot cars. Having had an HO layout on a board as kid and then collecting diecast since then, seeing the detail, range and quality that the rtr cars have now - it blew me away.

So long story short, a few cars later and many fantastic race meets with the lads, inspired me to build 3 lane routed track in my shed at home. Months of reading track builds on forums like this I realized a practice build would make sense. I saw some neat car-park themed single lane tracks, so that was what I decided to do.

A - give me some experience of building a small track - i.e could I build the big one or have to outsource?

B - allow me to acquire some of the items for the big track - power supply, tools & one controller station.

C - give me something to actually run a car on once I'd faffed about fitting tyres ( nothing worse burning the midnight oil on preping a car and then having it bunny hop down the straight on race night.)

So this was my basic idea:

The idea is for an outer oval - and then I had an idea for a simple, manual switch to divert the car onto the in-field, with a few tighter turns for a bit of interest.

So I've taken a few pics of the build and i'll endeavour to update this thread regularly.