Pete McKay
07-08-2007, 09:41 PM
My 4 lane oval is currently being sold, and part of the proceeds will be used to build a dedicated T-Jet street course based on streets found in central San Francisco.
This is a fictional course, and the whole idea for this is to link a series of hairpins with a decrease in elevation between them for the Lombard Street switchbacks. This is a famous landmark, known as the "Crookedist Street in the World" has been seen in the original Love Bug in the 1960's and many other films. Imagine racing vintage sports cars through that mess.
Here's how the city course would be laid out actually in San Francisco:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/FSGP.jpg
Using some GPS measurements and GOOGLE Earth I've determined this would be a total of 1.93 miles in actual distance. About average for a real world street course. Today I laid it out using 6" radius corners for the hairpins to get an idea of the track pice count. Because this file covers a big area I'm just going to offer the image link instead of posting it here:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/SFGP.jpg
This uses a LOT of the 6" corners because simply those corners are pretty sharp. Now, I reall want to use the 3" hairpins for the Lombard Street switchback but I didn't have an accurate image of them in scale with the rest of my track pieces. Ulitmately it will use the 3" instead of the 6" once it's laid out, but this was to get a general shape and how big the layout would wind up being. Which is only a 12' X 5' layout, well within my 15' X 10' area I have to work in.
Elevation change from the top of Hyde Street to Powell Street is only about 6" to 9", with a 1" elevation change between the Lombard Street switchbacks. All of the elevation changes will be made with expanded (styro)foam boards because of the ease of working with it and weight. There won't be a lot of buildings on the inside of the roadcourse because it would block the drivers view, but along the outside and in the background there will be a generous amount of row houses and images of the downtown San Francisco city skyline.
The start of this project is dependant on the sale of my oval, which should come pretty quickly at only $250 since I'm also throwing in a bunch of cars. Track alone is going to cost about $200, I will be going with the G-Jet power again and using Parma 90 to 110 ohm controllers because of the complexity of the track. I'm hoping to get it laid down by summers end, basic landscaping maybe this fall and completetion by this time next year.
Racing would be with T-Jets primarily, vintage cars like 1960's Jaguars, Cobra's and Ferrari's, maybe a few Mustangs (Bullett anyone?) and Corvette's. I wouldn't rule out a magnet or G-Jet race once in a while too.
I'll keep everyone up on this project as it progresses.
This is a fictional course, and the whole idea for this is to link a series of hairpins with a decrease in elevation between them for the Lombard Street switchbacks. This is a famous landmark, known as the "Crookedist Street in the World" has been seen in the original Love Bug in the 1960's and many other films. Imagine racing vintage sports cars through that mess.
Here's how the city course would be laid out actually in San Francisco:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/FSGP.jpg
Using some GPS measurements and GOOGLE Earth I've determined this would be a total of 1.93 miles in actual distance. About average for a real world street course. Today I laid it out using 6" radius corners for the hairpins to get an idea of the track pice count. Because this file covers a big area I'm just going to offer the image link instead of posting it here:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/SFGP.jpg
This uses a LOT of the 6" corners because simply those corners are pretty sharp. Now, I reall want to use the 3" hairpins for the Lombard Street switchback but I didn't have an accurate image of them in scale with the rest of my track pieces. Ulitmately it will use the 3" instead of the 6" once it's laid out, but this was to get a general shape and how big the layout would wind up being. Which is only a 12' X 5' layout, well within my 15' X 10' area I have to work in.
Elevation change from the top of Hyde Street to Powell Street is only about 6" to 9", with a 1" elevation change between the Lombard Street switchbacks. All of the elevation changes will be made with expanded (styro)foam boards because of the ease of working with it and weight. There won't be a lot of buildings on the inside of the roadcourse because it would block the drivers view, but along the outside and in the background there will be a generous amount of row houses and images of the downtown San Francisco city skyline.
The start of this project is dependant on the sale of my oval, which should come pretty quickly at only $250 since I'm also throwing in a bunch of cars. Track alone is going to cost about $200, I will be going with the G-Jet power again and using Parma 90 to 110 ohm controllers because of the complexity of the track. I'm hoping to get it laid down by summers end, basic landscaping maybe this fall and completetion by this time next year.
Racing would be with T-Jets primarily, vintage cars like 1960's Jaguars, Cobra's and Ferrari's, maybe a few Mustangs (Bullett anyone?) and Corvette's. I wouldn't rule out a magnet or G-Jet race once in a while too.
I'll keep everyone up on this project as it progresses.