xxx123

iTrader: (22)

I watch a few indoor EURO style carpet off road track. Anyone knows the reason why they dont use dirt? Is it due to enviromental issue? One of my local track is racing off road with jumps on asphalt too. I think this is absolutely fun-less... Less fun on carpet and on asphalt is an insult to these bad a&& short course or things along that line.

HobbytownGBW

iTrader: (1)

Most of them cater to a big on-road crowd. Europe is a little shy on indoor off-road tracks, and they have enough carpet racers they can't justify tearing up their carpet to put down dirt, i.e. like most people have here in Wisconsin.

So when it gets crappy outside, they build a few wooden jumps, and run the off-road cars on the carpet, then all they have to do is pull the jumps off and run on-road stuff.

RC10Nick

iTrader: (9)

Don't knock it until you've tried it. I've raced on carpet and as far as I'm concerned, racing is racing. Doesn't matter what surface. As long as there are turns, other drivers, and jumps, I'm happy

nv529

iTrader: (53)

Cold weather and the high cost of large building comes to mind. I honestly think its more of a cultural thing too, they seem to be more "grass roots" and true "clubs" with dues. Have you ever noticed a lot of the carpet/mixed surface tracks are usually at a temporary location like a school gymnasium?

asc6000

iTrader: (15)

they also use stick radios
Perhaps the question should be " Are there any indoor dirt tracks in Europe? "

Davidka

iTrader: (86)

In some cases these buildings are shared so the track must be somewhat portable. It is also easy to change layouts quickly.
Turf/carpet is used outdoors in places that get tons of rainfall.

pete68

iTrader: (1)

here is our local track its an astroturf and its big
chk it out we are located in ottawa canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ1LK...MQxRaw&index=1

WRR

Can inform that we Europeans look with envy at your indoor dirt tracks. We would love to have those over here also. Especially here in the Nordic where we have about 5 months of spring/summer and can run outdoors. Rest is snow. (No polar bears running around either)
Summertime can be hot as hell one year and rain away the next like this last summer did.

There is only one indoor dirt track I the whole of Sweden and it is 600km away.
Almost not a single building that is not occupied by a business of some sort. Hard to find a place where we can resident for a longer time and if we did it would cost a fortune. Especially during winter. Not that big ground with active racers to fond such a place. Only a total of 150 licensed drivers spread over several classes. Many driving different classes too.

So be happy if you have access to a dirt track. You guys really know how to make a good track too. Love them. Got to come over and try sometime.

I hate racing on carpet with buggys so I gave it up. Rather race them on dirt. So I race 12th scale instead during winter but offroad is my main class.

Alex

henry

Well, with the higher costs to have a building over there it's probably more difficult for a track to turn a profit. So, they have to rely on public buildings.

Plus, from what I have read on oople it's expensive to dispose of certain things across the pond, like astroturf. So when a sports venue wants to discard used turf it's cheaper for them to donate it to a track than it is to just throw it out. So there is a ready supply of the stuff

Also, the turf tracks (the ones with the higher pile artificial grass). You can use a deeper lug tire that lasts forever.

Racing carpet "off-road" is a challenge. From my experience it can actually be tougher on equipment because there is no give with a concrete floor. You can't just arbitrarily sky the jumps and expect your stuff to survive.

CruiseM

In Germany we have very few permanent Indoor race tracks.

The reason for not using Dirt is simple: the cost.
You canīt simply get enough Drivers to run a permanent Venue with profit.
Remember our cities are likely smaller than yours.

The simplest way for us is :Get a date in the Local gymnasium , lay down the carpet you have sneaked from an exhebition,make some jumps and run a weekend event.You can end in the money with that.

Cruise

xxx123

iTrader: (22)

great info. thanks.. would the buggy handle differenly on capet vs dirt? thanks

WRR

Our dirt tracks are often loose dirt. Not hard clay like yours. So for me it's two different worlds. High grip carpet and ball diffs don't always go hand in hand. Can't answer your question since I never have tested hard packed clay.

tc5 man

Oh dude carpet offroad indoor racing is fun you got try it ! You get more constant traction the whole day and you can run harder compound tires to reduce wear. You can also drive a 2wd truck harder because of the traction.

ts still offroad if it has jumps just saying.

My local indoor track uses carpet.

xxx123

iTrader: (22)

nice...

asc6000

iTrader: (15)

Thats what I expected, simple economics. We used to do the same for 12th scale. Trailer of carpet and a lot of people. Occasionally we would run off road cars but not much. Rolling out the carpet, it's a ton of work so I have a great deal of respect for the efforts you guys make. You also seem to like running outdoors in horrible weather too which I admire.