Road Course
I have been wanting to build a road course track like "Northshore Hills" track. Has anyone built something this and how is it done?
Discussion
Yea, the biggest drawback to long road courses is the amount of space required...including vertically. Obviously, the higher the starting point the longer the track can potentially be. DCR appears to build his tracks in 'tiers' with the exception of the East Ridge course which encircles the perimeter of the room. I've used my living room coffee table as small tier in my own set-ups as well as wedge-shaped cardboard boxes in various angles for ramps & curve elevation. My latest living room track is a 32ft 'hybrid' road course....50% 2-lane track and 50% Sizzlers Fat Track with 2 curves and 4 elevation changes...'The Roundhouse Course'.
One of K&O's posts gave me the ideal of having an Australian V8 Supercars series next year some time.
Did anyone already in this thread every set up a track or be interested in setting one up and hosting an event?
I will dig out my race tracks sets over the Holidays and work out a layout, but it would be great if we could get a few other places to run a series of races.
Anyone new to the thread interested?
One of K&O's posts gave me the ideal of having an Australian V8 Supercars series next year some time.Did anyone already in this thread every set up a track or be interested in setting one up and hosting an event?
I will dig out my race tracks sets over the Holidays and work out a layout, but it would be great if we could get a few other places to run a series of races.
Anyone new to the thread interested?
Hey Milton if you end up actually having that race I'll sign up.
I almost tried my hand at building one...I have a pretty good stockpile of HO scale slot car track, saw this and thought it looked pretty cool. Ultimately what ended up stopping me is the amount of square footage of basement space you'd need to use up to make something as cool as theirs. The final nail in the coffin was that it wouldn't be easily transportable. Considering that a track like this, although fun, would decide winners pretty much randomly at best, I gave it a pass.
But if I were to try it, Id start by pulling the rails out of the slot car track, and dremeling the lock tabs till the joints pretty much line up smoothly. (However you do that would depend on the brand of track you have...they each connect differently. I think theirs is Tomy AFX. Older Tyco would likely be your best bet if you could find some.)
Then its just pretty much an issue of figuring out how to support it.
Here's their page: http://www.dcraction.com/tracks.html. If you go all the way through the slideshow in the photo gallery, you can basically see how the various track sections are supported.
I'm not ruling out a road course in my basement, but I think I'd be going the 2 lane all the way down deal, with some old school 2 lane curves. Although it might be fun to devise a laneless road course out of Sizzler Fat Track - if I could get my hands on enough of it.