Your So Factory

iTrader: (1)

Discuss

Evoking1230

iTrader: (8)

why don't you start off and tell us why you think its wack

While it may not be for everyone it is very popular. I myself am a dirt guy but I would love to give it a go on carpet, unfortunately, none near me :-(

tc5 man

jag5508

iTrader: (15)

Johnn27

iTrader: (89)

No Dirt , No Dust , No tire prep, No hours of sweeping and watering the track , track conditions change very little , Whats not to like !!!! that is why it is so popular ! And more track time !

jpcopeland1

iTrader: (166)

hmm....... I don't think it is. To each their own I guess.

PorTX

iTrader: (4)

tvih

Not sure why I bother, as I'm sure you all know what they say about opinions being like...

What indeed, other than far too much traction and far less fun? Astro/carpet is something, but it's not off-road, that's for sure. If I'm driving on carpet then I'd prefer using my actual touring car or Tamiya Mini, they're actually more meant for that kind of stuff. They're fun in their own way, but much less so than proper off-road. The cars and myself may get dirty at the track (where it's currently very low traction due to lots of dust on the clay), but while I HATE cleaning cars if that's the price to pay for having fun while off-road driving... well, then it's not much of a cost at all.

Doing a decent indoor offroad track is relatively easy, it's certainly not like asphalt at least traction-wise. Been to both treated concrete as well as floor-tiling of sorts, and both have had at best medium traction. Of course, it's not bumpy or anything but that's the nature of the beast, neither is astro/carpet after all.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

The local club in my area has both a covered 1/8 dirt and 1/10 turf track at the same facility. It's pretty interesting to see the dynamic between both tracks as they alternate racing each week from track to track leaving the opposite track open for practice. The 1/10 turf track tends to draw in more new blood... the 1/10 cars are less expensive to get into the hobby and turf is a lot less messy and easier to tune, pretty much point and shoot which levels the playing field so you see considerably closer racing and fewer turn marshals are needed because the track is significantly smaller. Because it's so easy to move the ramps/jumps around you see a lot more layout changes on the turf track where you can do a re-build in just a few hours where it takes a full week to do a layout change on the 1/8 dirt track with lots of heavy equipment and far more volunteers needed than with the turf track.

For regular club racing, the turf track tends to be more popular... but for large regional/national events the 1/8 tracks definitely draws in far more participation. The club has also been running some series events which draws in folks from all over the state, it seems that more people are willing to travel with 1/8 equipment than with 1/10 equipment so turnout can be a pinch higher on the 1/8 track for the series races but sometimes we'll see 100+ entries for regular club racing on the turf track... the track owner is still trying to figure out the magic formula to draw in as many people as possible

I race on both tracks and fully appreciate the best of both worlds, I can't say which I prefer because they each have their own strengths and tend to balance each other out. Those who prefer to run nitro don't typically run electric and therefore won't run on turf.... and then there are some who can't stand marshaling the nitro cars so they only run on turf... I see the split about 1/3 into each group where the other 1/3 of local drivers will run on both tracks.

No matter how you slice it, there are gonna be pros and cons to every comparison, there is no right or wrong, just a preference and for our area it's fairly balanced between turf and dirt based on what I'm seeing in terms of turnout.

trottermtg

I race indoors on carpet because its that or not much else. There is only one outdoor, dirt, rutted , dusty track near me. Its so much more fun that the well kept "off-road".

I have noticed that a lot of the really fast indoor guys hate and aren't so good outside. I love the unpredictability of the outdoor, real dirt tracks.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

I am grateful to race at a world class facility who treats their dirt with various conditioners and use heavy compacting equipment so the track doesn't get blown out. They will periodically alternate between watering the track (easy on tire wear) and running it dry for blue groove with amazing traction at the expense of burning through a set of tires on 1 race day. It's nice showing up to race and not having to guess what tire to run. I know what tires to run when it's wet and a another set of tires to run when it's dry/blue groove.

I have raced at some tracks who did a horrible job with their watering where they put on too much water (or not enough), or their tracks quickly got blown out and didn't have enough volunteers to properly maintain the track between race days. One club would water once in the morning and would hope it would groove by the mains (this worked maybe 10% of the time), you'd have to change to a different set of tires for every qual and typically the fastest qual was the first round and if you didn't get a good run that first qual, then you weren't gonna improve your times as the track got progressively slower and it was often like driving on ice during the mains. Those types of clubs didn't stand the test of time and all have since closed permanently.

Treated dirt is key for any program to remain successful over the long haul.

It's kinda like comparing carpet to turf where I feel turf is superior... I've raced at some carpet tracks and I don't appreciate getting all the carpet fibers snagged up in my drive train, plus the carpet tends to wear fairly quick which causes inconsistent traction.... turf on the other hand offers virtually no maintenance with no fibers getting detached an minimal wear on the track over time, tires last considerably longer because harder compound tires offer better traction making turf the most cost effective for both the track owner and the driver

EricW

iTrader: (1)

Are we beating this dead horse again?

Groomi

I'm lost. Is 'Wack' a good thing or a bad thing?

Phillip F

iTrader: (43)

I race both surfaces and I deal with it because you don't hear real drivers in racing complaining about the track surface and layout....especially in real scale F1, NASCAR, WRC, etc.

If you complain... you might think of getting yourself another hobby like chess.

the rc guy

No mess no dirt no clean up. less tires no compound why not .i always look for a carpet or turf when i travel the world ..