Putting together a complete fat track system
I got an email from a dad that got caught in the 3DBotMaker web and is looking to make a open-lane track to play with his son. He's not looking to compete or even do any hosting...he was just asking if there is any all-in-one solution for the fat track style that's popular right now.
Unfortunately, I kinda had to tell him that there isn't. There are plenty of all-in-one drag strip systems out there, but none yet for the KotM style everyone is building. Toy companies just can't move that fast to act on a trend.
So, somewhat on his behalf, if someone came to you and said, "here's $100, please go buy me all the parts so I can make a wide-lane road course like I see on YouTube," what products, parts, etc. would you buy for him?
There are lots of links around Redline Derby that talk about and point to the pieces and parts we use to build our tracks, but this dad is right in that there doesn't seem to be any nice Buy List to make your own. Lets help him and others out...because while many of us enjoy the DIY fun that comes with track building, some folks are happy to just buy a kit and have fun.
Please include links if you have.
Discussion
I agree, get 3 of the Crash Racers sets. The quickest/easiest off the shelf to put together something worthwhile.
Interesting challenge... I would for sure start with the Crash Racers. It's just the cheapest system out there that allows you to build your own setup similar to setups that you see on YouTube. I have an Augmoto set arriving next Tuesday, so jury's still out on whether or not 3 lane is fun enough to make it worth the extra cost.
After a crash racer set or 2, I would get a JLH Krafts start gate. They're cheap, and I just ordered one... I'll post a review when it arrives.
Does this $100 have to buy benchwork/scenery as well? I would get a board of wood measuring somewhere around 6' by 6" by 1" from Home Depot and a green bedsheet or section of turf. Cheap and looks great. The board of wood in conjunction with some cardboard/plastic boxes make a good surface for the track. You can see this sort of build in action on my YouTube channel here.
You could get some of those Max Traxxx turns and Hot Wheels orange track if you so desire. The Hot Wheels track connectors can connect Crash Racers straights or you could use them for a longer downhill between your start gate and wide track. They connect to the Crash Racers great. The Max Traxxx turns are great if you want some seperate-lane corners before the start of open lane chaos.
So that's pretty much my 2 cents. If anyone has any different methods for supporting the track, or anything really, I'm all ears, as this is far from perfect.
- This helps so much for someone like me that is on a budget...I have the space and Lord knows I have the collection to race, but cash flow is a bit tight nowadays! Thank you — KPS_Kustomz
ditto on the Crash Racers
Hi guys! I am the dad that was mentioned.
As stated, I've seen the videos, and I want in! We don't have any real interest in the scenery or surrouding extras, just the racing. 2 lanes, an initial downhill straightaway into a 180 turn, another straight, another turn, into a finish line. An accurate timer would be amazing, but I guess not 100% needed.
I am completely new to this and I'm not looking to dig into electronics, and I don't have a 3D printer. I do have a collection of orange tracks, although I suppose they may not be entirely useful here? I have no idea how to connect the parts from the Crash Racers set to any other parts.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks.
- Check out a couple of the DSPN reports for inspiration on tracks built at home with no scenery etc. There are some great setups in there and you don't need to be super fancy with it to have a ton of fun — Chaos_Canyon
- The Track Directory here on Redline Derby is a great place for inspiration too — redlinederby
Hey there! I've been making different parts to make almost a complete track! Check out my facebook page, facebook.com/slanmancustoms, to see all the products I currently offer.
Most things I make are made to work with crash track and augmoto sets because they have the big curves. I use the crash racer curves myself. Let me know if you have any questions on track layout and I would be glad to help!
Two Adventure Force Crash Racers sets from Far Out Toys would give you the three straights and two turns you seek. You get four 50cm straight pieces and two turns in each set. Three sets would give you a longer track but you could start with two.
Often overlooked is the fact you will need connectors as the Crash Racers sets are not really designed to be used as a slalom track. If you have orange track already you may have these. The flat style work better but you can use the blue circle style connectors upside down at a push.
Then you need a support structure. This can be cardboard boxes or storage boxes you have around the house, or you could buy some cheap new shelving or storage units. I used cheap IKEA stuff. Or you can fabricate your own structure from timber but you are looking for an off the shelf solution.
At the most basic, you can run races just with that. A ruler or bit of orange track held across the track as a release mechanism and judging the winner by eye (or camera if you have slo mo on your smartphone) and away you go. Your kids will be happy with this but you might aspire to something a bit slicker. To do that you need a start gate and a finish.
You might find a Hot Wheels start, new or used. I saw a 2 car silver one for sale in something called the Super Track Pack the other day. Or a bespoke aftermarket one like those offered by JLH Krafts or Slanman mentioned above might be better, particularly if you are wanting to run more than two cars at once.
There is no off the shelf finish line solution that I know of for the crash racers two lane wide open track. Best thing I can recommend is a funnel or merge at the end. If you don't want to make your own a Hot Wheels jump catch ramp will work, but you will need to tape it to the end of your final straight. You will find one in various Hot Wheels sets.
Lots of useful info on this site so have a good look and see what you think will work best for you. Good luck!
- Oh yeahhh... forgot about the IKEA Lack tables and shelves. — MrFishyFish
- 4 car starting gate at Target on one of the track builder boxes. — SpyDude
Target has the Crash racers sets for $21 bucks,on sale.Heck of a deal!!
Hey Y'all,
Hey I'm in the same boat. Needing Fat-Trak, Mag-Trak just for test purposes. Sizzler stuff is hard to come by and when found can be pretty pricey! Plus it's old and the joints may not align really well which will take some track tuning.
So I found "Crash Racers" sets at Target (USA) on sale for ~$21 a set. Now the track is kinda like Sizzler track but is not as wide. It doesn't have a start gate, but I'm sure one from 3D can be made to fit it. It comes with 16' of track. Straights and Curves. So you may need need a couple of sets to make your track layout. The cars included are motorized.
Hope this helps!
Po'Boy Racing
- Yes, Crash Racers track is like Sizzlers/Augmoto open track but 2 lanes wide rather than 3. I use mine with a 3dBotMaker start gate and it works great, but 3D no longer makes and sells his products. As always, Crash Racers are a great option, and there should be more sets released next month. — MrFishyFish
All you guys are awesome, the way y'all come together to help out guys like Joseph and I...I'm in the same boat as Joseph, wanting to build a track that the the Crew here at KPS Kustomz & Dioramaz can race on!
The layout we have in mind is going to be like nothing else we've seen before, once its completed. Our inspiration came from guys like 3D Botmaker, Chaos Canyon and Flat Rabbit Racing. However being Kountry Boyz we wanted to put our own flavor in to our track.
There will be spectators everywhere and you look and surprises around every corner! So thanks to all the guys that gave their feedback in this thread and good luck to Joseph and his son!
We're not made of money, so our races won't be on YouTube...that's what we wanted to due, but we lack the equipment to make it happen...so, I guess we'll have to take videos during the day time and post them on here when the time comes!
Hope to see more races soon...Thanks again!
The CEO of KPS Kustomz & Dioramaz
This thread has been great at introducing me to Crash Racers. What a great, cheap track to play with.
I've found that in addition to the fast-charger cars, the Hot Wheels RC cars are a blast to play with on this track. You don't really worry about steering, since the track rails guide you, but you can control the acceleration nicely.
What I'm trying to figure out now is how to get die casts running around this thing. Like many here, I was introduced to die-cast racing by watching 3dbotmaker's gravity races. The problem with gravity race tracks is all the scaffolding that you need to setup for it to work. So it becomes more of a permanent installation instead of something to quickly setup and tear down.
I've been experimenting with incorporating the hot wheels boosters with the Crash Racers fat tracks with limited success. I can get a small oval of one car going, but the boosters are just too big to put two side by side so that two cars can enter (one per booster) then try to lap each other on the fast track. Also I've come to the realization that any passing needs a gravity assist, otherwise, if there is any collision on a flat straight, the cars won't have enough energy to reach the booster again. They need that gravity energy to kick in to continue down the track after the collision.
So my current idea is to have the boosters act as elevators to boost up high enough, then let the cars pass on the remainder of the fat track. I'm pretty sure I can get one car to work, but has anyone tried this with a pair of boosters so that you could have two die-cast cars race each other with passing? That seems like it would be a nice setup that would require minimal saffolding/space and be easy to put up/tear down.
Thoughts?
- I built a stadium flat track and ran standard HW cars on it. It used four boosters and was a continuous loop, laid out to look like two separate lanes - where cars raced back to their start position. It worked really well and was pretty compact and could be moved around. Search our YT channel for the Stadium track to see it in action — Chaos_Canyon
- I believe I found your track, and it is definitely cool, but the cars are all running in a single lane wide track it appears (two parallel tracks as you described) I was thinking about going back and forth between single lane track (to boost) that would then push into a 2 wide fat track to allow passing/collisions, etc, before then routing back to the single lane boosters. — SpaceCowboy850
- You could totally do that but the merger down to the one lane will always be the place you have accidents. There was a track that setup like that, where it was a large oval track that fed down to one lane in the middle of the straights where they had the boosters. As long as there is separation between the cars it works fine, but when you have two into one everything just stops so close racing gets a little trickier but it should still be doable easily enough. — Chaos_Canyon
- I've been experimenting with something similar. A couple of things: 1) I'm going to try to custom build a two lane booster out of Lego Technic and power function motors. 2) you're likely going to need magnets in both the cars and at the front edge of the track section that joins open track to two lane track to funnel the cars from open track racing to side-by-side or single file action that would then take them back to the booster. I'm no engineer, but that is my vision to get this to possibly work. — pastimesteve
- The hot wheels RC cars have a 1 to 2 funnel that might work if you want to go from single to double and back. I might give that a try next. — SpaceCowboy850
- the RC Funnel didn't really work. If I were making a permanent setup maybe it would have. The hard part is exiting the booster/hot wheels track fast enough to give enough time to be on the Crash Racers two lane track to allow for passing before merging back to the booster. A single booster will barely get around the oval I made. If I custom cut track lengths it would be easier, but was trying to do this with just off the shelf track pieces — SpaceCowboy850
If one booster won't push far enough around the track, you could try what I did with the stadium track and have it go uphill for part or the track so you can use gravity to feed back to your booster maybe?
I would for sure start with the Crash Racers sets! Cheap to buy, easy to get, easy to work with (except trying to put together the straight parts end to end), very easy to work with. I with someone one would build a 2 lane start gate that would afix direct to it, but not a deal killer. As far as "funneling systems", you could make one from carboard very easy.
Just my 2 cents( or 5 cents in Canada since we don't have pennies(no joke)