Clyde Valley Raceway

Friday, August 25, 2006

OK, here's the plan...



The picture shows a plan I made up on Slotcar Manager (SlotMan). It shows the full size of the garage, (just over 16'x8') and the shape of the table (5' and 3' deep approx) and how the track will fit on. The small grid squares represent 25mm, so if you're really desperate for exact dimensions then you can count them!

Lane centres are 100mm with the overall width of the track being 300mm at all times. I'll probably move the edges of the track in and out from the slots going round corners etc to make it look like the cars are taking the racing line, whilst also giving enough sliding room at the same time.

A lap of the track is intended to go something like this:

Starting from the triangle (start/finish line) you sprint along the first straight, under the bridge and into the Parabolica. It starts off at 1.6/1.7m radius and tightens up progressively into a 0.2/0.3m radius. It then opens out and you're flat out down the front straight to the hairpin. This is a o.1/0.2m radius and will be the slowest corner. From there you climb up The Sweeps, over the bridge and into another tightening left-hander (0.1/0.2m) where the track flattens out. This takes you out onto the level 4.3m (14' ish) back straight and into the twisty section. From the end of the straight and out of the last 0.1/0.2m radius, you start to drop down through The Esses and into Karussell. This will be a 0.2/0.3m switchback which pops you out straight into "The Corkscrew", the inspiration for which can be found on OldSlotRacer.com. I reckon a lot of cars will come off here, but the idea is that you'll just have to take the elevation changes into account too, as it's designed to be technical as well as smoothe and flowing, as far as I can make it...

The idea behind the design and choice of radii is to give both lanes the same running distance, but also roughly the same amount of tight corners or wide bends.

Well that's it until next time... Perhaps I'll have built a shed in the garden by then and I'll be able to unearth the table to take some pictures of it.