In another thread I asked this, but figure it can use it's own thread...

I know we'll get various answers, as it's an individual preference type question, but...

What makes a good fun track?

For me, I like a mix of small straights (5-7ft long) and a lot of tight turns. In my very limited research on videos and testing at home, a super fast long sweeping track is amazing to behold but not as pleasurable for me as navigating the twisties.

Others?

I'm more of a pragmatist. Good rail conductivity and smooth joints make a good track!

Given that most folks dont have a small warehouse for a slot cave; the "one track blend" with design elements from high speed chutes and the technical twistees are the logical compromise.

Personally I'm a big fan of 'Doba's setup with a huge GP circuit and a door bangin' oval flat track. Driving mag cars on an overly technical course is just as annoying as running a box stocker t-jet on a hi-speed course...while eating a sandwhich...are we there yet?

I lean more towards a modified question..."What makes a good track for which cars?" Over time my perception is that to get the full effect; different cars require different courses given the extreme performance seperation between models.

I vote for four tracks! A GP course, a road course,a dizzying flat track, and a scale 1/4 mile strip! Alas at this point my space limitations dictate a modified flat track as the reality and sweet dreams of the others.

What makes a good fun track?

Bill Hall, a couple large pizzas, and a pony keg of ice cold Becks. :hat::hat::woohoo::hat::hat:

nuther

My personal preference.

A combo as Bill described,
I don't have a single car (mostly Tjets and magnas, with a sprinkling of tyco 440 & x2s) that doesn't benefit from a 14' back straight with a couple of big sweepers at the ends.
A bit of technical is always welcome with some moderately curved transitions between the elevation changes.

Scenery is always welcome, but should be durable and uncluttered.

A good/fun track will also be cat-proof. A cat that is hell-bent on chasing down that slot car as it swings into a high speed curve can skid into the track at the end of the bench and make a real mess if the track is elevated and/or not fastened down.

OR, as 'Nuther said, Good pizza and any of my very cool friends that I have made through HT!

I Like LONG strights, bank turns, a multi level section in part of the layout

Bill Hall, a couple large pizzas, and a pony keg of ice cold Becks. :hat::hat::woohoo::hat::hat:

nuther

Fine, 'Nuther, but I'll trade out the beers for cokes!
Actually ANY of the HT friends I have made would make for fun track time. From 'Dobas racers special to 'Nuthers door track and many in between.

My personal preference is a 14' back straight with big sweepers at either end, a short technical section and some moderately curved sections to ease transitions in elevation changes.

Scenery is always welcome as long as it is durable and uncluttered.
(I.E. cat-proof.) When a cat is hell-bent on chasing down a slot car as it swings into a big sweeper at the end of a straight, said cat can make a real mess of an elevated track or one that is not secured to the bench.

Any of you guys are welcome to run on Mullet Raceway.....:)....as long as you don't mind my four-footed fury mobile obstacle course!:thumbsup:

you should see hilltop's track. that's a fun track! :thumbsup:

Wes

One without 6" turns and squigglies (sp?)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/medic57/IMG_0107.jpg

Any track that's not dirty, has no rusty rails, and has decent power is fun. If you're going to get picky and I have to decide which piece of cake I want...

My favorite tracks...

1) Custom routed one of a kind tracks with nice drivers stations. Here's slot car nirvana in wood...

http://www.slotcarmarks.com/track_2.htm

2) WizzTrackz & MaxTrack with nice drivers stations... smooth as butta'

3) Big tracks with long straights and sweeping turns that will accommodate slimline TJets to (at least) SS magnet cars. And oh yeah, with nice drivers stations. My home track fits the bill and is "eatin' a sandwich while listening to loud music and drinkin' a beer" friendly too.

The smoother the better.

Now that we have even more options for track pieces . . .

1 -- No 6 and 9 inch turns. Sorry, just too tight for my taste. My track is mostly 15 and 18s, with I think only four 12 inch pieces.

2 -- Some nice straights so you can zooooom WFO for a while before you hit the next bend or twisty bit.

3 -- Like AFXToo said . . . smooth is a good thing.

4 -- No "S" turns and dang sure no consecutive "S" turns. Just find it very annoying.

I personally prefer tracks that resemble real, full scale race tracks and courses. Pete's Leguna Seca. The Italian and Spain road courses. Tracks that actual racers race. I think its a great way to get some fun racing with a course that has challenged full scale racers for years!

PD2:thumbsup:

Back in the day we used to run on a 4 x 8 Watkins Glen layout and that was a lot of fun.

Without being too philosophical and/or soft, good friends having a good time running on track X, Y, or Z (doesn't matter) makes it a fun track to run.

I like some nice straights in order to hammer the throttle a bit.

I don't care for excessive wiggle curves.

Originally posted by medic57:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/medic57/IMG_0107.jpg

Wow, that's the 3rd biggest track I've ever seen.........Bet that is fun with tjets, TO's and Afx MT/AWXT's.

Almost any track can be fun, as long as it's smooth. Nothing is as annoying as racing a car, then suddenly see it pop out of the slot because of uneven track joints.

dlw, that track looks like a lot of small tracks grafted together. It's big, but it's lacking a central theme and smooth flow. No doubt it would be kind of interesting, but parts of it look rather tedious.

Life Like M chassis only

I think this is a great question, and one that all of us ask at one time or another.

Assuming good electrical conductivity, smooth surface, etc., here's my take:

1. The track is matched to the cars that you race on it. You need a fast track (long straights, wide sweeping turns) for fast cars, and a tighter track for slow cars. You put a fast car on a track designed for slow cars and you get frustration. Put a slow car on a track designed for fast cars, and it can be boring waiting for your car to make it's way down the straight.

2. The track is not too hard to drive. This is something I have heard from more than one professional track builders, and I think they have the right idea. Too hard of a track discourages beginners. And an easy track is still hard enough to go around quickly for 50 laps or more during a race. Better to err on the side of 'easy' than too hard.

3. The track has good sight lines (you can see all the track), and is easy to marshal.

4. Make straights long enough to react to (you move your finger on the controller). Conversely, don't build things like long sections of esses that you just keep a constant speed on. You want to be moving that controller trigger all the time.

-- Bill

This is a really interesting topic for discussion, even if it can be so very subjective.

With some givens that have been stated (clean surface, smooth joints, proper power, etc), the 'horses for courses' is really the key factor. The problem with this, at least for people new to the hobby, is that there is good chance that they are not familiar with the different car types that are available.

"Do you like to race TJets or super-fast magnet cars"? (I don't even know yet what the proper 'class' term is for the later, but I think you get my point). This question will be answered with a 'huh?" in many cases.

I think that the experienced and knowedgable people on this forum could come up with an extremely accurate set of questions for a newbie, that would result in providing that person with an objective answer as to what type of track design they might want to embark on.

Defining the persons outside limits, such as available area and budget might be some initial key factors.

If the newbie embarking a track build doesn't yet know the answer to the "Do you like to race ..." question posed above, I think we could actually help them get by this real important question by assessing some other factors.

Bill Hall, a couple large pizzas, and a pony keg of ice cold Becks. :hat::hat::woohoo::hat::hat:

nuther


That would be fun, if one could get Bill to show up when he says he is going to! :rolleyes:

I like at least one good long straight, followed by a big sweeper turn. A smaller straight here and there is good and some nice squiglies and a killer corner is a necessity. That layout sounds very familiar to me.....

Throw in a dash of Mike King in a gutter lane for some chaos in a corner with the potential for all 4 cars to be bombed off the track and you have yourself a good time. :freak:

I thought I would go ahead and get started on a question/answer guide to assist newbies with deciding on what type of track to build.

I think with some more input from everyone here, we can come up with a very useful tool.

Attached is a draft. Feel free to add more things.

OMG! LOL!

Scaf, I tried to add a bit but the program wouldn't let me?

"one or two other sets of your choosing." should be "Racemaster sets of your choosing."

We don't want to confuse the newbies with compatabilty issues, yeah? :thumbsup:

I added the word doc version so that people can download and modify. :)

That will depend on what sort of cars you like, how much space you have, what kind of real racing you like, and what style of slot racing you like.

1. What sort of cars - I like the 1960s-1970s pancake cars - T-jets and early Aurora AFXs. These cars are at home on a road-course where they can slide their rear-ends out and slither through the curves. If you like the very high-speed modern magnet cars, you'll want more and longer straights and fewer and wider curves, so the cars can reach their full speed potential.

2. How much space - I don't have space for a permanent setup, so I will build a small temporary course on one or two hollow doors and invite some old friends over for a race event. To get a decent length of run, I have to double the track back on itself and pack the table pretty densely, so once again the course will have lots of curves, and no space for a super-long straight.

3.Real racing style - Clearly, if you like Indy or NASCAR, you'll build a different layout than if you like sports car racing.

4. Slot racing style- If you just love raw speed, enjoy tweaking or modifying cars to get the last bit of performance, or are a competitive guy who races in organized leagues, you need a track that will let your cars show what they can do on the top end. Long straights and broad curves will maximize the advantage of a faster car. On the other hand, being a social racer who just has friendly race nights with non-slot buddies, I want a course that will minimize the hotter car's advantage. I don't want somebody to feel that the other guy won because he just happened to pick the hotter car. I seldom modify cars for high performance; I just group them into performance classes and run the first races of the evening with the slower classes, letting folks get the feel of the course. So it's more twisties, tighter curves, and shorter sustained high-speed sections, giving the good-handling cars a chance against their high-revving competitors. You have to balance it, though, because too many curves can give a course a cramped and constipated feel if the driver doesn't get to wind it out often enough.

Beyond that, I want a few things for feel and style:

I want a main straight ending in a broad curve where the cars can stretch their legs, and at least one shorter back straight, so there is some relief from the constant cornering. I want track shapes that have the look and feel of a real raceway, not a '60s slot-set right out of the box. So constant-radius curves everywhere are out, as are wiggly sections made from the same radius of curve. I like to have some curves that wind down and others that unwind, some with a sharp apex, some chicanes, etc.

I want turn borders where the cars can fishtail out instead of leaning on the guardrail and powering through.

I like a layout that crosses over itself, so the lane length is approximately equalized, because on our short races I don't want to have to mess with stopping the race and rotating through four lanes.

Changes in elevation make a course visually interesting, so I like to have lower and higher areas. That's another strength of the early pancake cars - if you're racing low-clearance high-performance magnet cars, you can have only very gentle elevation changes, or the cars high-center on the bumps and bottom out on the dips, stopping them dead.

I like a four-lane track, because it's much more fun than a two-lane (if you have more than two drivers). With four lanes, everybody gets a lot of racing time, instead of just watching, and if somebody spins early, it's still a race.

I like a table that is narrow enough for a person to reach over without resorting to grabber mechanisms - that means not much over 3 feet in width.

I don't have anywhere near the amount of racing experience of most of the guys on this forum, so some of these prefs may just be from my ignorance of all the options. Anyhow, that's where I am at the moment.
-- D

I thought I would go ahead and get started on a question/answer guide to assist newbies with deciding on what type of track to build.

I think with some more input from everyone here, we can come up with a very useful tool.

Attached is a draft. Feel free to add more things.

An absolute riot. I cannot stop laughing.

Interesting topic and some interesting points have been made.

Here's a few things I think:
I like that a few people mentioned smooth track joints along with having good conductivity, it may seems basic but it is very improtant - one of those thing that needs to be said.
I think it is improtant to have a four lane track, when more than two people race it is really lot more fun.
Something not previously mentioned is good throttle control, too many tracks have too much voltage and very poor throttle control, this is somethig else that some may take for granted but many of the people I've let race on my track have asked what I did to my cars to make them run so good - it's funny because the car are all totally stock (T-Jets have slip-on silicones) and all I did is run a lower voltage so they have good throttle control.
A simple track with four lanes is usually a lot of fun, I had some of the most fun racing slot cars on an oval track. An oval also helps people learn how to race, the simple rhythm of an oval helps novices learn how to race quickly. My experience is that it is a total waste of time to worry about equal lane lengths.
The key thing to having a fun track layout is a decently long main straight, I think at least 8 feet for T-Jets and AFX cars and maybe more for some of the newer cars, but you could get away with 6 feet. I like the main straight to end going into a hairpin so that every lap is a test of nerves to see who can hit the brakes last and not wreck. Having some short sections of straight between some moderatlly fast turns (12" radius or larger) is important to give the track a good rhythm. Too many really tight turns can slow things down too much, one hairpin is good and then a few larger radius turns make for a fun layout. Borders on the outside of the turns help a lot.
Drivers need to have good sight of their cars for the complete lap
Notice I don't think it matters what type of car that is raced, the faster cars just a bit larger track.

Let's review the recipe:
1- smooth track
2- good electrical conductivity
3- good throttle control
4- a long straight leading into a tight turn
5- some fast curves
6- cars visible for the whole lap