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Hobby shop tracks; Whats wrong with this picture?

Hobby shop tracks; Whats wrong with this picture?

Old 10-18-2004, 06:31 PM
  #31  
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Talking Practice is the key for most!

Originally posted by Evoracer
BTW, we use the Road Rails system and in 4 months of use by Xray's, Evo's, brushed and brushless.....not 1 driver has broken a major part. Not a perfect track, especially for Nitro or Mod, but in my estimation darn close.


Jonah - These guys here are right. Get a handle of your car and set-up and don't try to be the fastest get more expirience. When you start making laps around the track not hitting much then step up and ask for help from the veteran racers. You will have a similiar view point on this after a few years and you'll be helping the next guy and trying to keep him from frustration. Practice more, hit less, that is all it takes for most people. Remember, even the best break in aggressive racing!

There are certain things involved with running a track that you may not be familiar with as a racer. The border is the most crucial part for reduction of liability and protection for those driving and watching. If the outer walls of the track are forgiving, there is a chance they could let something out of the track area and hit someone watching potentially causing some other troubles for the club and/or site owner, then there would be no racing.

I agree fully Evo;
I also use the Road rail system at my track and it has its pro's and cons. We use 7" 2x6's for the border........I do not have a onsite hobby shop so I try to build my track to be as forgiving as possible and show the racers I care, without hanging my neck out on liabilities. I race too so I want it to be forgiving as well. I don't have much time to fix a broken car at the track so I am with ya Jonah. I have less complaints using the road rail system than any other track materials I have used and prior to the road rails, I've used just about everything.

Last edited by Silver Cup; 10-18-2004 at 06:52 PM.
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Old 10-18-2004, 06:35 PM
  #32  
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Talking "Lowe's Motor Speedway"

Here is a picture of one of our "Lowe's Motor Speedway" tracks at the Mill Creek Lowes - Mill Creek, Washington. The track dimensions are 80'x140' and is around 575' to get around. The fast cars are turning low 14 sec. lap times.



(These are two pictures put together)

Our 3rd Annual Weekend Tournament Track




(Picture by Alex Boyer - HPI Racing)
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Old 10-18-2004, 07:43 PM
  #33  
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Originally posted by Nrctc3
I say quit complaining, atleast they give you somewhere to race at. If you hit the wall & break something, then you'll learn to stay off the walls which will make you a better driver in the end.
I'm sorry if I sound a bit cold here but I agree 100% with Nick. You are lucky if they give you a place to race at and its not their fault you crashed your car. These cars arn't made to be crashed anyway. The only responsbiltites your track takes on when they let you race is your personal safety. Your honestly a lucky person if they give a crap whether your car breaks or not because they gave you a place to have fun and not worry about your personal well being
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Old 10-18-2004, 08:34 PM
  #34  
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My personal track is padded.
Attached Thumbnails Hobby shop tracks; Whats wrong with this picture?-track-rcp-large-layout-1-0red.jpg  
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Old 10-18-2004, 08:36 PM
  #35  
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And so was the larger scale track at the iHobby Expo. It was also made by the same company.
Attached Thumbnails Hobby shop tracks; Whats wrong with this picture?-rcp-ihobby6.jpg  
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Old 10-18-2004, 08:40 PM
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Thumbs up Track looks great!

Nice Tracks! They look like tracks for the Mini Z or HPI Micro's. They look a bit small for 1/10th scale. What are the borders made of?? Nice looking track either way.
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Old 10-18-2004, 08:44 PM
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Thumbs up Personal Protection

Originally posted by The Black Kat
I'm sorry if I sound a bit cold here but I agree 100% with Nick. You are lucky if they give you a place to race at and its not their fault you crashed your car. These cars arn't made to be crashed anyway. The only responsbiltites your track takes on when they let you race is your personal safety. Your honestly a lucky person if they give a crap whether your car breaks or not because they gave you a place to have fun and not worry about your personal well being
Personal safety for everyone involved is the most imprtant for sure!! I have to agree to......I do give a crap so the guys that race here are lucky I guess. I race too so that is a benefit for me as well. I don't like trying to run the series and wrok on cars as well. I had no major broken parts at anytime in the regular season, pre-season races were a small bit of a different story. Blowin' the winter rust off a little, not much just two front end repairs!!
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Old 10-18-2004, 08:52 PM
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The tracks are both made by RCP Tracks.
http://www.rcp-tracks.com/html/home.html

I've ran Mini-Zs and 1/18th scales on RCP Tracks. There are also smaller track versions as well as larger versions. They were running 1/8 and 1/10 scales on the larger track at the iHobby Expo from my understanding. Basically, all anyone has to do is add more and more blank tiles to widen the lanes for larger scale cars. Currently, I believe Kyosho, Radio Shack, HobbyTownUSA and MiniZRacer distribute the tracks. It is also my understanding that HPI and a couple of others may also pick up the tracks.
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Old 10-19-2004, 06:46 AM
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Road rails SUCK! The first job of a track barrier is to keep the car in the lane! They do not do this. They are nothing but ramps. Just what you need when you're barrelling down the straight, is to have another car appear out of nowhere right in front of you! Now you have 2 broken cars and one of them was an innocent.
Boards work OK but open ends should have protectors installed. Grazing a barrier should Not result in a broken car. All one needs to do is pay attention to details. PVC with external joiners is one of the worst ways to go... What ever is used, it should do a good job of containing the cars!
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Old 10-19-2004, 06:52 AM
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Infact its ROAR rules that you cant have a barrier that will hurt the cars if they graze it. (I just read the ROAR rule book hehe)
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Old 10-19-2004, 02:18 PM
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Thumbs down It' not the track or the track systems fault

Originally posted by duneland
Road rails SUCK! The first job of a track barrier is to keep the car in the lane! They do not do this. They are nothing but ramps. Just what you need when you're barrelling down the straight, is to have another car appear out of nowhere right in front of you! Now you have 2 broken cars and one of them was an innocent.
The Road Rails do not suck. It is your job to keep your car in the lane because you should'nt be bouncing off the walls of the track. Don't blame track systems or pieces for your lack of keeping it between the wicketts. I try to build a track that is forgiving on cars because accidents happen, it's racing for crying out loud there is going to be wrecks. As far as head ons ar concerned, we began putting 2" PVC pipe with bell connectors on top of the Rails to keep head ons from happening in the critical spots on the track. It kept people from getting over and causing head ons. It is inevidible that people are going to crash, but don't blame the track for your misfortunes. What would you do if there was no track for you to race at?? You would be breaking parts on your cars either way. I used to break way more parts playing around before I started a race series and had organized racing for everyone.
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Old 10-19-2004, 03:40 PM
  #42  
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One of the local 1/8th scale dirt/onroad track owners recently asking me about setting up an on-road race using my track, but I didn't really want to do it and told him that I didn't think there would be that much local support. This particular track owner I spoke to also doesn't sell parts either so it is not like he is out to make money off of people wrecking their RCs and charging $5.00 to race--he just has his own RCs, is into racing, and purchased the track from a LHS.

And after reading some of the complaints on this thread, it seems like a loose-loose situation for the track owner even if the owner didn't charge people to race, provided transponders for the racers, and provided pit areas. In addition, after reading various posts on this forum as well as others, it seems tracks are either too large or too small, have too much grip or not enough grip, are too hard on the RCs or don't add enough protection, etc.

In addition to one's driving ability, I thought setting up an RC for a particular track was one important factor in racing--adapting the RC to the track whether it meant a suspension change, a tire change, gearing change, or whatever. After all, I've seen full-size racers change tires to adapt to a particular track condition. Heck, the 1/4 scale track I've ran on has concrete barriers and the cars use lexan bodies. Do they get beat up? Yes. I've also heard people complain about be hacked by someone slamming them into a barrier, yet I've replayed the video and they were never touched by anyone! I've also ran lexan bodies on my track and they slide off the rails easier than the hard autoscale bodies Kyosho produces for their smaller Kyosho Mini-Zs.

Perhaps, it's not about RC racing but rather something just to complain about until the track owners get tired of it and sell the tracks or close them down. Then those same "racers" can complain about how they have to drive hours to another track.
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Old 10-19-2004, 04:02 PM
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Originally posted by TNB
Perhaps, it's not about RC racing but rather something just to complain about until the track owners get tired of it and sell the tracks or close them down. Then those same "racers" can complain about how they have to drive hours to another track.


Man, if you only knew how right you are!!!


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Old 10-19-2004, 05:51 PM
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I've raced with multiple barriers and have not found any that do not damage a car:

Firehose empty - catches wheels.

Firehose filled - catches wheels.

2x4s tied to each other but not attached to ground - flexes at pivot point, can put barrier into car on OTHER side of barrier, hard - can break arms, etc.

2x4's tied to ground - no flex, damages your car only.

wood rails bevelled (see www.socalrc.com) - don't damage your car, but you can fly into others (or have OTHERS fly into YOU) - fun to watch, bad to race.

PVC - nasty at joints because of abrupt edges, flexible and smooth in middles - only really destructive there.

All have their benefits/detriments.

Something that the original post said is a bit misleading. Tracks are rarely designed IN ORDER TO break parts. That's a very cynical viewpoint. No doubt track and shop owners realize when a layout is causing them to sell more parts - but there's an economic reality here: if people can't race without breaking (even Barry breaks. . .) then they won't break. A shopowner knows that he MUST have people enjoy racing at their facility or they won't survive.

There is a massive element, however, that nobody's really talked about:

Tracks are expensive. Look at it - it just SITS there. . .it's not really used that much, comparatively, and doesn't really make money. Tracks are a VERY inefficient use of space, as far as a business model goes. That's just the space - think of how much STUFF could be displayed/sold from there, how many cars they could get parked there to bring in more customers, etc. . .

Tracks are also expensive to MAKE - that's a LOT of PVC, Root Beer (for traction), etc. For something that really doesn't bring in much, if any, real money, purchasing all that wood/pvc/whatever is really expensive. Tracks are going to go with the least expensive barrier they can, at least at the beginning - that's usually PVC.

That's just a fact of life.

Now - what we can do with it is another matter.

PVC is probably the best material for most temporary tracks - but it doesn't make good corners. Some kind of "dot" needs to be placed on the inside of corners. . . every racer tries to tighten lines and "dots" make a LITTLE bit of a warning before a car gets broken. . . Where to find them? Tamiya makes some, you can get them from farmers, etc. I don't see them used very much, but that would solve 80% of problems since it's at CORNERS that most breakages occur (or BECAUSE of corners. . .)

Why do I say that PVC is the best? Because it's the most flexible substance out there, and it doesn't grab like hose.

Anyway, I'll quit now

but don't be so cynical about drivers (we ALL hit things and we ALL GET hit. . .saying "suck it up" doesn't really help) and don't be so cynical about owners (they usually don't have much of a budget with which to build a track. . .)
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Old 10-19-2004, 07:22 PM
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boomer is right about the dots on the track. We have some at our track and they do help. You hit them and go flying so that tells you take another route next time. We also use firehose filled with sand. its fairly forgiving however sometimes when you hit the bags they fall on the otherside of the track and stick out. this is very annoying/unlucky. Our track is on a big concrete slab and the track when setup is very tight however we are currently searching for space to put a permanant one in. We run in a showground and it only really gets used once a year for a annual show so this space i think is perfect.
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