Track tweaking, hill too fast
Oh, and thanks for the video, Jim! I often forget that we do all this talking without much reference (typical for us men, huh?) so it's great to see some video of a track action.
Yes, originally I tried to just move the verticle support board out to reduce the overall start height, but found that to be unstable. So I decided to cut off about a foot off the verticle support board as Jobe suggests.
AND don't get me wrong, Jason, I'm all for a 'fast' race too, but believe me a rapid pace on a 50 foot track is quite different than a similar speed on a track less than half that length. When I get around to building a longer track I'll definitely want it to generate a much quicker pace
I did some spot testing last night and found that scooting my hill out about 10 inches and doing a gradual slope after that seems to keep the cars happy. I didn't measure the angle yet but the main hill goes into a slope of only a few degrees based on a 2-inch 2x4 strip that then declines into a 3/4" strip and then to the floor.
I guess it kind of turns the entire track into a slope without any real flat straightaway, so I might try to change it up a bit to not go down the floor and just flatten out across the 3/4" boards like I do already anyway. I think that extra inch "kicker" like Jobe suggested will do the trick without altering behavior too much. And the length of the track overall was only reduced by 6 inches or so, nothing too drastic.
I'll try to get some photos or at least a sketch up later. Neat part is that my bungie cord hardware for keeping the transition in place still works well so I won't have to worry about that and just need to find the right combination of angles and slopes to keep cars on the track.
Ha, Jobe is right...this is racing...faster the better, but it has to be under control. We're all correct though...lowering the height is the same thing as decreasing the angle, one effects the other. Curse you, math!!
My situation is the board I'm using for downhill is 6-feet long and that isn't going to change. Moving my starting gate down the board is a little tricky given how its built (although I could build a new gate). So to avoid all that hassle, the easiest solution is just scooting out the drop to lower the angle, thus reducing track length.
But I don't suspect the reduction in length will be that serious. As long as it doesn't cut more than foot or so off the total length I'm fine with that. So it goes from 20' to 19' ...it's all about convenience, frankly. Try the easy solutions first, then work your way up the effort ladder.
...and I do have a few "complex" ideas to this solution in my head, so if push comes to shove it'll get fancy.