Saw a thread somewhere indicating that Tjets don't like Tomy 9" and 12" banked turns. I was planning on adding a banked curve set to my 4-lane layout, but we race lots of TJets, and if they can't negotiate it, that might be a problem. If it is a problem, what happens?

I have seen a problem with some of our Tjets not liking the inside corner of a 6" radius (the pickup shoe loses contact with the rail apparently). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ed

Tjets with stock rear tires will have trouble on banked track. But put some silicone slip-ons and they'll get along fine.

As for 6" curves, the 'S' shaped rails at the joints will catch tjet pickup shoes (and other brands) and pop them out of the slot. To fix this, just (gently) push that 'S' shaped rail down so they won't catch the shoes. They don't lose contact though.

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Are old Aurora AFX banks different (maybe less steep) than Tomy? I race once in a while on a friend's 4-lane track that has a 180-degree banked turn at the end of a 16-foot or so straight. I know he uses old Aurora AFX track, but I don't know if the banked curves are 9" and 12" or 12" and 15". (Did they ever even make a 15" banked curve?) Point is, I run stock Tjets with Weird Jack's slip-on silicones around the bank with no problem. Full tilt down the straight, just lift for a split second at the start of the turn, then full throttle again, no problem. Now, the split and the Y-tracks in the next straight get me sometimes, but that's a different story... :rolleyes:

ATMMs... that's hilarious... :lol:

--rick

There is not a ThunderPlus ever made that can negotiate the 12" radius banked turn in our 2-lane door track layout! :p However, with silicone rear tires, virtually all cars with adequate shoe travel can do it, just fine.

It gives me a reason to keep the Willys pinned through the turn. :)

Thanks for all the good feedback guys, I appreciate it. I will probably give it a try to satisfy my own curiosity. I'm also curious about whether the bank should be at the end of the straight or the beginning. I always assumed you'd put it at the end of the straight so there was less need to back off the throttle. I'll have to try them both and see.

Ed

--rick is refering to Around Town Speedway.
The old Aurora AF/X track is a 9" and 12" for the banked turn.
And --rick has it for the driving style. Full speed into the bank, a quick blip on the throttle and through the turn you go.
A big deal about the banked turns is working them until they are smooth.
(One day we will have Around Town Speedway's bank turn sorted out...)
An advantage with the AF/X track is that the 12" turns use only 2 sections to make a 180 turn as opposed to Tomy track which uses 4 sections to make a 180. The AF/X track also has a built in wall on the outside lane...
That being said, Tomy track will work. It will just take some more tweaking to get it there.
The banking is too steep if you are looking for "realistic" track...
But it sure is fun to throw a car into the turn... :p
Scott

Well, after some tweaking, I'm pretty happy with the 9"/12" Tomy banked curves. I ended up with them at the end of a 10' straight (preceded by some 12"/15" corners) and the tjets can fly through pretty much wide open. Magnatraction cars need to back off, as do G-plus. However it did accomplish my goal of providing a fairly large section of track on the back side of the table that the cars can run flat out with little fear of de-slotting.

Next step is to try and get rid of the 6" curves in the tight sections of my track. Even though I can marshall the course myself, we still have a tough time getting the tjets and even some of the xtraction cars through the tight corners. I think everything is going to 9"/12" minimum.

Attached is a photo of our work in progress showing the banked curve set.

Thanks for the advice guys.
Ed

Nice layout...
Are you going to add ant sceanery to it?
Scott

Looks great, should be able to get up to speed for that banked turn with no problems! :thumbsup: rr

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Yes, permanently mounting the track and putting in scenery is in the plan....once we settle on a layout. I think the next step will be to rid the track of the 6" radius turns. I have them confined to an area where I can marshall the course for the kids, but even I get frustrated with them at times!

I also want to put in electronic lap counting and timing. I suppose I should get that operational before hard mounting the track too. Right now we split the lanes and use a pair of mechanical 50 lap counters. I had one from when I was a kid, and bought another recently (see below). They do work well for the kids, so maybe I'll keep them around.

Right now we split the lanes and use a pair of mechanical 50 lap counters. I had one from when I was a kid, and bought another recently (see below). They do work well for the kids, so maybe I'll keep them around.

I've been wondering about those things. Do they work well?

Great layout Ed :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Trev

The lap counters work pretty good, but after a few hundred laps they leave wear marks on roofs. I've got a Chrome 240Z with a nice rub right down the middle.

Honestly, I've never seen any wear marks, but none of my cars are collectors, so I haven't cared much. I just checked my #31 Merc Stocker and #43 Plymouth Magnatration cars that I've had for well over 20 years, and they don't show any indications of wear whatsoever. I know those cars have gone through the old red lap counter several thousand times....easily. I think both are on their 3rd armatures.

They are especially nice for kids since you can easily run 50, 100 or more lap races and keep track of where they are at.

How about a little slip of "scotch" tape on the roof to protect the finnish?