True hill climb track

Chaos_Canyon Sunday, 5/30/2021

We've hinted at the track for months, but it's finally ready to reveal. As far as I'm aware, it's the only genuine hill climb track out there. Cars race from the base of the mountain to the top and back down.

It's still a temporary track, and has to be setup and pulled down each time - which is a pain - but I don't have the space for another permanent track currently. It's also why the background of the diorama isn't as fullsome as the main canyon track, but I love how it turned out.

youtu.be/KJsqiMCsvpk


Discussion

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SpyDude 5/30/21

DUDE ...... that is a killer track! You guys are certainly leading the way with new and innovative designs.

So there is a booster in the shed .... is there another in the tunnel (The Cave)?


  • Thanks! Been a real mission but super stoked how it turned out. As for boosters, there’s three. One in the cow shed, one in possum hill, before the I bend, then the other in the cave. — Chaos_Canyon
  • Looks like 3 boosts — redlinederby
  • @Redlinederby yes, 3 of them. And they give the cars such a boost it's super hard to keep up with the car to keep it in frame in the climb section - gravity is a bit easier to anticipate :) - which you don't really get a sense of with the slowed down footage. — Chaos_Canyon
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Rusty 5/30/21

Once again,great track,great video.Must have took tons of planning and work..


  • Thanks and yea it’s been months in the making. My biggest issue is the temp nature of the track and that it’s set up in a tent on my lawn so every time I set it up it reacts differently. Would be mince to have a more permanent spot for it — Chaos_Canyon
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H3zzard 5/31/21

For a 'temporary' track, it's an amazing spectacle. Mad kudos to you! 
(and give Keith our best) 

I was going to slightly criticise where the cars vanish behind the mountain... but in hindsight it actually builds some anticipation as to when (if?) they'll reappear, and what speed they'll be doing. 


  • I've tried to replicate what you see in real rally's, with the rough track in places, winding turns where if you get the line wrong you lose speed, crash or just spin out. Having them disappear is a nature of the track layout as there was going to be some crossover somewhere and that is a simple short straight so figured it would be the best place for that to happen. It will still get a few minor tweaks overall, as where I set it up this time, it has a different fall to the part of the lawn where I did all the building and testing, so I'll make some adjustments to the height of the top track, but it still has to be relatively small due to where everything connects together. — Chaos_Canyon
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redlinederby 5/31/21
Site manager

This is quite the spectacle of a track! I didn't even notice/realize there were boosters at first...I thought it was just a camera trck or tilted table type thing but then realized a car wouldn't stop and stay on such a thing. So props for hiding those boosters...and some quick editing ;P

Should be a great challenge for everyone, stock cars or otherwise. I think you addressed this above but the only place that I'd want to see more is that last bend into the finish. It doesn't bother me that it goes out of sight, but when it does appear the poor car just sort of putters to the finish (maybe), especially after that last turn that seems to zap any momentum. I get that's a challenge in and of itself but just feels kind of anti-climactic after all the great speed going up the mountain.

...and that's being nit picky, man...the planning that went into this has to be obscene, even if it is in a tent in your backyard or whereever. I wouldn't have even crossed my mind to try such a thing so another big feather in the Chaos Canyon cap (which is already pretty full of feathers)!


  • Thanks man. I wanted to run this before I got to the rally so I could iron out any small issues before the rally starts, like refining playback speed, minor track tweaks etc. The elbow is tough for sure, but if a car takes the outside line they get an almost slingshot around and get a speed boost, so I'm going to add a little guide to push the cars to the outside of the corner, so they can't come into the outside wall straight on. I'm also going to change the video speed from the hairpin. Currently the whole video runs at 40% speed, cause the boosters fire the cars up the track so fast but the cars are actually still running the gravity section of the track quickly, but just not by comparison. So I'll probably bring that section up to 60-70% speed and see how that goes. It has been months of planning, building and testing and unfortunately, because it's temporary, every time I set it up it runs slightly differently but it works just about exactly how I wanted it to. And the video is currently blowing up - which is also what I was hoping for after all the hours I put into it :) — Chaos_Canyon
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