The Slotcar Outhouse

Hi guy's,

Just been thinking about my routed track design and was just wanting some comments from people in what i should be looking out for I was thinking of possbily reducing the track size a little to make it easy to fit in the garage and also for fixing deslotted cars.
I wold love to know what is the tighest radius advisable for both magnetic and non magnetic cars.
Any comments would be greatly appreacated as it is my first routed track build.
The track will be a digital track so I am really only showing the expected width of 2 tracks at the moment and would be putting a best line in as well as some possible 1 lane, 3 lane or lane, sections.
My thought was to add a couple of 1 lane sections in to slow down the cars and make it more techinical type of drive for some races e.g the straight that goes through in the top right corner to miss the dog leg which could be manually set so all car have to go through that part of track for certain races, this would help gve the track some mixed up ability.

Hey rspec, welcome to the forums.

Seems like a pretty ambitious first routed track.

Marshalling looks like it could be the only issue, but if you do the framework of the table for the track shaped around it, instead of just a giant rectangle, you'll be able to avert it.

I'd keep the little deviation in the top right, in fact it'd be better with that as a permanent part of the track instead of an optional area, as it'll become a nice little technical area.

In regards to minimum turn radius, it depends on if you want the cars to be able to just drive around it nicely, or if you want the drivers to have to flick the car around it. I think I read somewhere that like an 9cm radius is pretty tight, I think the old Scalextric R1 turns are that small as well.

The cars will still probably want to drag the inside tyre through the corner, but theres also the whole thing with getting the guide through the slot. I think even the longer board track guides made by slot.it etc could still bind up.

What you may want to do as a random idea, is get a bit of MDF, and route some different 180 degree corners, and just vary the radius, until you find the minimum you can go.

Anyway, welcome to the Slotcar Outhouse!

thanks for the comments, I was ging to cut out the corner like you said, I though the racer could stand at the top of the picture and soemone marshalling could stand in the cut out. I have been also looking at the mako go kart track as well, I might do a bit of a mish mash between the two, I really want to have a couple of log straights to get some speed up as well as some slow bits. any idea on how long the slot it guides are and width? if I had the spec I could route out a piece and try it.

i built my first routed track this year .
i have a hairpin where the the inner most lane is an oval shape , the distance on either side of the egg shape is 100mm from the apex and it is 185mm and it is still too tight for some drivers/cars it requires eithe a slow entry and fast exit or the opposite.
When i make my new track in the new year ( feb-march) i will make it bigger, a min. of about 200mm wide.
There is a flick needed to get around this corner if you have a carrera guide on a long car like a Ferrari 575.
You can see may hair pin here at the link below.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24
cheers
Jordan

Hi rspec

Welcome to the Outhouse,

A very ambitious plan indeed if this is your first track, usually first tracks are a learning curve and should be a bit more liberal. If it ISN'T your first track then go for it. If, as the name signifies, Scaley V8's will run on it then try to avoid severe corners and bends as the Scaley guide is notorious for popping out on tight corners.

The dimensions of the standard Slot,it guide are on the Alfa 33 review on the sidebar. Guide depth is total depth without braids. I think I'm right in saying Slot.it do a couple of guide variations for different track types.

Hi guy's,

Here is a copy of my latest track design I am working on pretty happy with the outcome so far, let me know if I should change anything which sticks out as a potential nightmare for any reason.

it uses 3 x 2.4m x 1.2m mdf sheets. track design is designed so I can run analog or digital cars in both directions. pits will most likely not be used for analog cars.

the section shown in red is for a future extension of the track when I have more room when we move house

Hi Justin

Assuming the blue line is a third lane (top right hand corner), if you have the cross over angle too shallow you can experience some problems, especially on cars with strong self centring guides. If they corner with their tail out, they are likely to pick up the wrong lane when passing over the changeover area.


What would you call it? Anatal or Digilogue!!

Analogue or digital, I'm looking forward to this one too when it's finished.

some progress pics for you all to druel over :)

both lanes are routed, lane change sections almost completed (fix one and add a couple more possibly).
braid routing next then flippers routed out and made ready for wiring
then a quick paint and set up of track levels
then pits area to be built on top of platform in picture and braid and copper tape for pits to be laid
tunnels to be constructed. and general landscape profiles created.
anyway you get the progress which is happening. would love to know what people are stickinfg there magna braid down with?