Speaking in oval track tense of course, what would you consider to be a preference; a longer straight or a wider radius corner for higher speed? The consideration is for an 8’ long layout, and even using 18” radius corners 40” is wide enough. But with a wider radius corner comes a shorter (marginally) straight. Here’s the lowdown.

Layout one uses 9” inside and 12” outside radius corners and allows for a 66” main straight.

Layout two uses 12” inside and 15” outside radius corners and allows for a 60” main straight.

Layout three uses 15” inside and 18” outside radius corners and allows for a 51” main straight.

From experience the 18” corner allows for a huge amount of speed, which may make for faster laps even with the shorter straight section. Cars will be anything from T-Jets to stock magnet cars running on 12 volts.

Preferences?

Bigger turns = more fun :thumbsup:

My $.02 worth

Uhm....pardon me pete....but why not use em all and do an 8 lane oval?

:thumbsup:

Crim, basically for scoring. For that matter I can go from 18" all the way to 6" and get a 10 laner....10 lanes, no waiting! The system I'll be using will only score 4 lanes at a time. I'm considering Greg Braun's set up but why have 6 lanes if we only have maybe 8 racers running. Plus I want to so some serious infield things so a nice wide infield would be nice. No so much racing transporters but 1/64th scale John Deere dirt grading equipment since this will be a dirt track. I already have a really nice water truck I have to make look more realistic.

The 18/15 configuration I think will be the best bet. Here's how it lays out on a 4X8.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/fairgrounds.jpg

The infield is 2' wide at the widest, just over 4' long. Like I said there won't be buildings or anything inside but push trucks, dirt movers, emergency vehicles and possibly lights will be in the infield. Outside the main straight will be a grandstand with 2D spectators, maybe some bleachers in the corners. Outside turn 1 will have the display for the race which includes the leader, laps run and fastest lap. The layout will not be a full 4' wide though, more like 42", giving me 3" on either side of the track. I'm still measuring as to how high the sides will be, but they won't be more than 6" high. The bottom will be 1X1 framing, and the track will be sunk into stryofoam like LSMR is.

The coolest thing is the landscaping. Since this is a dirt track I will be taking a short roadtrip next weekend and get me some real dirt. I still have some grass left over from LSMR but I will be painting the track surface brown as well just to make it more real. Later this evening I'll have some big news but there are still some details to work out.

[quote=Pete McKay;2308443] . . . I will be painting the track surface brown as well just to make it more real . . . quote]

Pete -- Since you are going to be painting it brown, let me chime in here with a pic of a track I built about 5 years ago:

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/BrushyMountainSpeedway.JPG

I wanted to make a dirt track that looked better than just brown so what I ended up doing was spraying three different shades of brown across the track surface. I did the whole surface in one shade (brown), then at the top of the track (the cushion) and the bottom of the track (the berm), I shot another shade that would be representative of an area that was holding more moisture (darker brown). Across the middle I then shot a lighter shade (tan brown) to show an area of the track that would be drying out from cars running over it.

I covered races at a local short track for 10 years, so it had to look right for my personal tastes.

I also added the Life Like white guardrails along the inside of the straightaways because they resemble the old horse guardrails that you still see sometimes on fairgrounds dirt tracks. I also went with 1/32 guardrail cut short around the outside to further remove it from a modern look.

So there's a couple freebie tips from when I did a dirt track -- have fun with your next project. :thumbsup:

I have a butt load of guard rail left, plus what I will salvage from Laguna Seca. The dirt track I grew up near had 3 rails of armco in the corners and two in the front straight. The back straight was open into a farm field. But varying shades of the dirt sounds good.

This project is a ways away. Unfortunately LSMR will meet its fate in the coming weeks unless a buyer steps up, which is unlikely. Yoshi has expressed interest in having it but just can't meet my price even with discounting his own investement in the course. But putting together the fairgrounds track, or at least gathering track pieces and scenery stuff has already begun. Laying the track is still months off.

The Dobe-ster... build'n tracks... The Trackmeister... Track-a-saurus.... Toulouse La-track.... :thumbsup: nd

The Dobe-ster... build'n tracks... The Trackmeister... Track-a-saurus.... Toulouse La-track.... :thumbsup: nd

:lol::lol::lol:

The Dobe-ster... build'n tracks... The Trackmeister... Track-a-saurus.... Toulouse La-track.... :thumbsup: nd


ND,
Put the glue away. You're getting to close to the fumes! :freak:

Or turn off those SNL reruns! :devil: rr

Another proposal has been made for the fairgrounds project, and that is to bank the 4 lane track. This would narrow the footprint of the track by half, the banking would be stacked 9/12 inch Tomy. I've run XT's on banking but not too much with T-Jets and I'm wondering how they would hold the outer lanes at high speed. By narrowing the footprint that allows even more landscaping for grandstands and other scenery.

It looks more and more like the cars will be Back in the Day NASCAR stockers. Even down to the politically incorrect Winston Cup signs. I just need to find another Union 76 ball for the end of pit road. I had a ton of those but I think they got tossed. I'm already working up two of the '66 Mercury Comets* that Mike sent me, those will be privateers for the series.

*These are the pullback cars identified as "Fairlanes". While the roofline and general shape is close to the Fairlane the grill is 100% '66-'67 Comet. By removing the B pillar it makes them more identifiable to the Mercury than the Ford.

Cordoba,

I notice the inside track on your layout is TYCO. What brand is the outside track ?

GoneGonzo

Cordoba,

I notice the inside track on your layout is TYCO. What brand is the outside track ?

GoneGonzo

WOW -- Good eye! :thumbsup:

The outside lanes (except the terminal track which is also Tyco) was all Life Like track. I used the banked turns on the outside and just Dremel'd off the molded on outer wall so I could do the Scalectric guardrail all the way 'round.

I was a nice little track but the outside lanes were too good with the banking so I ended up bulldozing it and building a Menards on top of it.

(That's a local joke re: a dirt track that closed a few years back and is now a super Menards or whatever they call the really big ones)