Drag strip, something completely different
A little background about myself first, I am a scale modeler and have been involved in model railroading most of my life. So when I got the idea to build a drag strip for hot wheels it never occurred to me to use the orange tracks that we’re all familiar with, but instead create a scaled down version of the real thing.
This project began during Covid when my son and I were looking for something fun to do while we were spending so much time at home. The first version of our track was simply a 12 foot long by 6 inch wide piece of MSW that we painted black, installed guard rails on either side and a divider down the middle. We also decided to cut it into four equal sections so it could be stowed away when we weren’t using it. Around that same time, I began searching for cars on eBay that would be appropriate for drag racing like the Drag Strip Demons series cars.
The joints where the sections of track came together created problems for the cars so the second version of this drag strip was the same dimensions, except it was one continuous piece of plastic trim. It was also painted black and featured the same guard rails and center divider, but needed to be supported from underneath to prevent it from sagging so I screwed it onto piece of aluminum channel. I installed some racing logo stickers and placed a Johnny Lightning Christmas tree at the start just for aesthetics, but we always thought it would be much cooler if we had a functioning Christmas tree.
The second track was exciting for a little while, but it had two problems: the first was if a car didn’t roll perfectly straight, it would hug the wall all the way down the track ruining its momentum and any chance of winning. The second was when the cars were released automatically from the starting gate, the fastest car we had would always be the champion time after time. My collection of drag cars continued to grow, but my son quickly lost interest in the dragstrip and it sat unused.
As I stood there looking at it, I noticed that it might be better if I got two of those 12‘ x 6“ pieces of plastic trim and placed them side-by-side with a lane divider between them, it would be much closer to being the scale width of a drag strip. But since I was now about to double the width of each car’s lane it would make it much more probable that the cars would wander from side to side and be wall riders. The real cars don’t do that so it would be unacceptable for my scale versions to do it. The search for a solution to that problem is what led me to the design that I have currently and is where our journey here now begins.
Discussion
If you're using rubber tired cars, they do tend to drift left or right and are also prone to not being fast on a track. Have you tried using any plastic tire cars? You should see a remarkable difference in speed.
- I have tried plastic vs rubber on my track. The lane groove system I came up with to keep cars centered works equally well with any and all cars. The rubber tired cars hold all the speed records believe it or not! I will continue to post photos and commentary on my build. Stay tuned! — Sals_Speed_Shop
All of the materials I used were sourced locally.
Before any construction could begin, I had to make some serious decisions. The material that I used for the track surface would be crucial when it came to figuring out how I was going to keep the cars going down the center of the track. At this same time, I began to think how a starting gate and winner detection system like the ones for orange track would create two more problems: I would have the same boring outcome of the fastest car always winning and the commercially available starting and finish line systems didn’t fit my track.
The lower part was from existing benchwork. The upper part is the adjustable foundation for the track.
I wanted the track to appear smooth and the shallow routed grooves are hardly noticeable.
The angle is adjustable and was set to give more scale speeds and acceleration.
Applying paint
Retaining walls in place
Masking the center lines
I knew that electronic timing systems existed for slot cars and ended up collaborating with someone who makes a slot car drag strip timing systems called the FC the Slotcar-Luthier www.facebook.com/p/FC-The-Slot-Car-Luthier-61557730626671/ You can find his products on eBay and videos on YouTube. (The system he made for me is available now for purchase.) We worked together for months developing a system tailored for my track that works exactly like the real thing. It features a working Christmas tree, functioning stage and prestage lights, red light detection and ET’s. The system uses photo sensors embedded in the track to detect a passing car, so now there was a serious need for each car to pass directly over the sensors to get accurate times.
This was achieved by using a router to carve out two 1/8th inch deep by 1 3/8” wide groove for each car, centered in the middle of each lane. Since the cars would stay in their grooves now, I no longer needed a center divider which aesthetically would look terrible and be hard to design and was able to simply paint the double white stripes like in real life.
The Christmas tree, as small as FC could make it, yet large enough for human eyes to see
Wiring the system was simple, even for someone who doesn't understand electronics
A timing bridge over the track wouldn't work for me, so I custom fabricated life-like displays out of styrene, complete with yellow LED win lights
Foam bumper with an angled face to catch the cars safely with little rebound
Finish line displays in place
Starting to look like a drag strip!
A look underneath of the cables that control the cars, all custom made by me out of auto and bike parts and things from the hardware store
Track is in place against the wall and the sky blue backdrop is in place. Time for scenery!
- I really dig the timers on the sidelines rather than overhead on some sort of gantry. I'd like to see/know how the sensors you're using at the finish work without it. It's been a long while since I bothered with any electronics for a track but I dig seeing the guts of things. — redlinederby
- That was a design feature that required the creator of the timing system and me to tailor the system to my needs. The production version has the displays and win lights housed inside a gantry while the photo sensors are embedded in the track. I was insistent that the displays needed to look like the real ones, so the displays and timing lights were separated and wires had to be made longer to pass under the track since the module was mounted beneath the track instead of above in the gantry. My persistence paid off as we can see it turned out exactly how I wanted it — Sals_Speed_Shop
I scratch built this announcer's tower in a weekend. It's called a "low relief structure" because it fits against the backdrop in a way that minimizes its footprint.
Just needs logos
The cables that protrude through the track to stage the cars are hardly noticeable and the routed grooves don't grab your eye much either.
Here we see the pre-stage and staged cables at the start line. There are actually three holes per lane drilled for the photo sensors and you can't even see those!
The orange blocks replicate the foam ones that protect the sensors on real drag strips. I made them out of wooden dowels.
The drivers station
The timing system is absolutely brilliant. It is programmed to be a sportsman style light sequence on the Christmas tree. The sensors are arranged so it detects when a car is staged and when the second car is staged it waits 5 seconds to begin the start sequence. The car is released by depressing a foot pedal, it rolls over the first sensor to begin the timer and stops the timer when it crosses the finish line, an exact scale 1/8th mile.
The foot pedal at the driver station is an actual race car gas pedal with the throttle cable running through a bracket beneath the track and protrudes just enough to hold the car back. I like how the cable is functional but not imposing to take away the realism like other starting gates.
But in real life, cars stage by the driver rolling into the beams. I just had to make that work on my track, too. So I added a second cable connected to a button on the steering wheel so a driver places their car at the start and has to press the button to allow the car to roll forward against the throttle cable to be ready to race. In all respects, this is as realistic of a scale drag racing experience as one could have!
The best part is, since most cars will run the track in around 3.000 seconds, give or take 0.200, it really does come down to a driver being faster off the tree than their opponent. Sometimes, a slower ET beats a faster one because the delay at the start is factored in EXACTLY like in real drag racing.
Most races involve a crescendo of hooting and yelling as the cars make their pass with a huge yip from the winner and an agonizing groan from the loser. We race for hours and the championship winning cars are always different. The driver of the fastest car could red light in the final and hand the win over just like in real life.
So now the track is up and running, where do we store all the cars between races? Well, in staging lanes of course!
Pro Mods, nostalgia dragsters, stock eliminator, gassers or top sportsman? Let's race them all!
The 2x4' sheet of plywood fits perfectly atop a utility cart with extra storage space underneath and below. It can be rolled easily into position for racing and out of the way when we're done.
The cars don't really do wheelies. This is a staged photo
Now here is where things may become controversial. The friction of the wheels, especially the rubber ones, had to be minimized to prevent a car from hopping out of its groove. At first I rubbed paraffin wax onto the track and it did succeed at reducing the friction enough to keep all cars but a few from leaping out. The major drawback is it stuck to and built up on the wheels, especially the plastic ones and made them bump around.
Next I tried carnauba wax. Anyone who has waxed their car and placed an object on the fender and watched it slide off knows it's slick stuff. It is safe for the painted track surface, went on super smooth and left a realistic shine on the track similar to a real drag strip. However, over time it dried and left a hazy film that needed to be wiped every day we raced. Nope.
Finally it hit me. WD40. Safe for paint, safe for rubber, safe for plastic, shiny, slick and reduces friction so well that I had to lower the inclination angle of the track because the cars went way too fast. So the track gets treated far less frequently if at all, we keep eye droppers in a small glass jar with WD40 in them to apply drops to the axles and we have a lint free paper towel soaked with it to roll the cars on before each race.
The rubber tire cars dominate, but plastic ones run equally well and with a good driver at the wheel can be very competitive. We have raced new Hot Wheels straight out of the package against cars that I personally customized with custom axles and wheels and it's always exciting, though the custom cars with rubber tires always win in the end.
I will post about my cars in the appropriate thread and would love to discuss my tuning methods. The end game is to build a community of scale drag racers around my track, hold weekly single events, have a season-long points series with a crowned champion at the end and maybe just maybe do mail-in races. The only problem I see with that is the driver is a huge factor since the cars are not released automatically like on other tracks.
What do you guys think? Do you wanna race?
Speechless, absolutely Speechless. That is an amazing track. I hope one day to be able to build a car worthy of sitting in the parking lot across the street from the track.
Holy nuts...I wish I had the time, space, and patience for something of that scale. But really, gotta say that I'm very happy to see a drag strip get the luxury treatment. Looking forward to seeing this track in action. Thanks for sharing the story...this will certainly inspire others!
And yeah, the driver's station is a wonderfully fun approach, just really cool.
I'd love to see more of the electronic guts and cable stuff to manage the start and finish. Maybe another post just about that would be cool and could be great inspiration for others.
I'll also say, I think you could sell this setup if you really wanted to. I know guys that have dropped serious coin on making drag strips that are half this fancy and interactive. Because what you have here is more than just parts, it's an experience. I mean, look at what Slot Mods does and you're not far off from that.
- Thank you very much for your compliments. I’m happy I found this forum to share my work and I look forward to learning from all of you as well. I appreciate you seeing the value in a track like this being manufactured for sale, but if I had one message to send to anyone thinking of a track like this is to just get busy creating your dream. It’s not as expensive as one might think and i admit I didn’t know how to do some of the work required, but I took the time to learn it, figuring it out as I went along. Solving problems while creating new ones is part of the experience and I encourage everyone to do that. It’s much more rewarding than making a purchase. I hope I have inspired others but you guys must know that you have inspired me with your tracks and your creativity to do this. I’m happy to make more posts about how the timing system and starting system works. I’m quite proud of it. I also want to share all the car customizing I am doing but I don’t want to hijack the threads. I hope you all will reach out if you have questions. Looking forward to getting to know this new circle of friends. Cheers! — Sals_Speed_Shop
- Please share what you want here in the Forum...post away! Don't worry about flooding anything. As long as it's about racing and tracks, everyone will be super stoked to read it and get new ideas. I know we're all looking forward to what you've done already and what you're doing next! — redlinederby
I'd love to race on it! When are you hosting?
- Now this is an area where I can learn a lot from you guys. Are the mail-in events live streamed or filmed so we can enjoy seeing our cars in action? I know nothing about cinematography and film editing, but I know with the right camera work, voiceovers and sound this would look like you were watching a real drag race on TV! — Sals_Speed_Shop
- It varies, really. When I did videos they were not live and very basic, showing the action. Some folks go all out like it's ESPN...also cool, but not everyone's skillset. I'd encourage you to hit the Forum in the menu and check out the Collections section. You'll find threads dedicated to video, lighting, all that stuff, amongst other things. — redlinederby
- But much like you said yourself...jump right in and have fun figuring it out. All you really need is a camera, which you likely have a good one on your phone. Start simple and get the basics, then grow to fill your time and skill. — redlinederby
@Sals_Speed_Shop that is totally awesome. That kind of realism is what I'm working to (I'm a model railroader too). But I'm starting with the guts first. Here's my current project... realistic timing. 60 ft is done. Working on 330 and 1/8th. Keep up the great work! I can only hope mine will be even close to what you got there.
- That looks like an amazingly accurate timing system. You’ll get some great data points with those intervals. I had the choice of being able to include speed in either actual or scale mph, but decided against it as it wasn’t totally necessary. I also sorta wish reaction times could be displayed for bragging rights. As it is now, RT’s are only perceived by comparing say a 3.000 that beats a 2.900, we know the winning car was at least .100 faster off the tree. — Sals_Speed_Shop
I'll also encourage you to add your strip to the Track Directory here on the site once it's finished. The Track Directory is a registry of tracks all over the world. Pretty much a showcase of all sorts of tracks, from simple builds to fully detailed models like yours. And since you have great photos it would be awesome to see.
Eitherway, hope you add it there at some point and join the other great tracks from past, present, and future.
- Thank you, I shall add it once I add the scenery and more detail items. To borrow from the model railroading world, a layout is never “finished” but I will post to the directory once it’s presentable — Sals_Speed_Shop
Welcome to the hobby! That track looks pretty sweet!