Project: Practice Track

[BobWoodhouse]

To help address the biggest weakness in my racing setup (me), I have started this outdoor practice track. The first picture shows where the base dirt is -- just beyond the little trees, but before the farmfield. The second drawing is how I have just laid out the drain pipe for lanes.




It is old farm dirt without any rocks in it, so next will be to make jumps.

[Tex]

looks awesome Bob, that's a great way to keep your skills in check...

[Racin' Ranger1]

you have a great place for a track. and like tex said great way to bump your skills up.

[Evil3]

You may want some other dirt mixed in to help keep the jumps together (like clay).

[Gforce]

Can you make that picture any bigger so we can actually see what you're talking about?

[daven75]

so is it going to be open for us to pactice on too?!?!?

[Casketman]

See,living in the country isnt that bad!! LOL.. I would even guess and say if you lived next to a farmer and were able to get a small part of his land. That would work too. Many farmers have problems with draining and whatever else.

Plus many wont mind a part the size of a baseball dimond being taken away when they have 5000+acres still to farm.

[BobWoodhouse]

I meant to upload a better picture, but I have static IP address issue with my ISP at the moment.

Anyway, I ran on it today for 1 battery pack just for kicks. The sideways cornering was fun. Obviously, I need to get the right tire, as the pink taper pins from the clay track were a tad loose. I also ran the Losi Red slicks that were on the car from my last race, and they were very very loose.

The dirt is pretty firm -- does not rut (but it does have many divits from the initial construction, don't knowif clay will be required), it is dry on top with moisture below, a light amount of dust here and there, which is kicked up under acceleration/sliding. I am guessing something in a Losi red or Proline (M3 or R3?) or maybe a panther (soft, do they call it?), that is like a square fuzzie or very small pins. There are zero rocks in it, too.

Something else of note is that I have a pretty stiff set-up on the car from the big smooth clay track at Leisure Hours Raceway, and even in the divits, the car felt fairly predictable. This was my first time with the xxx4 on a bumpy track, and I wasn't dissapointed too much how it behaved so far.

I might not be completely averse to some folks practicing there on days of my say-so, but it is at my home, so there would be no nitro, loud radios, littering, cursing, smoking, hoodluming, etc. But it is not as good a track as a real racetrack, so it would probably not be worth driving to unless someone was real closeby or something like that.

[Whiskers]

Looks good, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it. Once you find the right tire combo, you'll be all set up.

[BobWoodhouse]

updated pictures

[BobWoodhouse]

No jumps yet. Plenty of bumps though.

[Tex]

that looks cool man!

[Whiskers]

I've been thinking, bumps are good. If you learn how to make your car handle on a (being PC here) less than desirable track, when you go to a good one, it's so easy.

Make off camber turns, jumps in turns, angled jumps, and anything else that you think will throw your car "off". There is no set rule that you have to run the same tire front and rear on a 4wd, I'm currently running some old Losi 4 rows on the rear and some worn down x patterns on the front of my (get this) Lazer ZX-R. My track is a very large gravel drive way.

I wish I had some dirt, but I don't. So I make do. Having your own track will let you experiment with things. I know that for sure.

[moliver]

Not to rain on anyones parade, but the way to get faster is with competition. You can only push yourself and car so far without someone chasing you on the track.

So when are we having the first help Bob get faster beer and dirt party?

[Czech-it-Out Graphics]

M3 holeshots or bowties would be best

[Meatwad]

Looks good

[BobWoodhouse]

Thanks, all. The track was moist yesterday. When it is moist, it will pull up fluff. So, my red taper pins were loading with fluff and skating around quite a bit. I got some M3 holeshots on the rear (still taper pins on the front), and that straightened things out to where the car was balanced, but still lots of "drifting" (it's just not the same dirt as indoor clay). Then I put M3 holeshots on the front, too. The car really hooked, so I had to change all my turning points, and the car felt less predictable, even though the tires are obviously better grippers on that dirt. So, I will work on getting a little better sidebite in the rear now.

It is cool that there are bumps all over -- there is one nasty kickup in the bend of my backstraight. It had caused me to do a complete front-flip once, so I am leaving that one there.

I was out of action for a bit because (surprise) my right hub carrier on the xxx4 broke, and I only had 4 left ones and zero right ones. So I finally did the bj4 front hub carrier swap. So far, so good.

[cheesecake]

i need to get myself a practice track made.

but it looks good now get some nice jumps and enjoy

[Whiskers]

So Bob, what's the latest update?

[BobWoodhouse]

Well, you got the June 3 status just a couple postings up. It sure has been raining a lot.
I am trying to figure out where I am going to pull my dirt from to make the jumps. Also, I am planning the jumps. The brown dotted lines in the upper right of the attached picture show where I had originally planned a "wagon wheel" jump where you have to jump a small double, turn and jump another small double, ideally turning again and jumping a third small double. I don't know if I have enough room set aside to do that right. BTW, anyone could mark up that drawing with elevation changes.

[Whiskers]

"Bump"

So how goes it up there at your track Bob? Anything new?

[BobWoodhouse]

Hi.

I added one small jump/bump to see how the soil would hold up. It stays a little loose right after I pack it, but after a week or so of sitting, it binds together pretty well.

I have had one guy PM me to come over and practice because he is new and he wants to warm up before he goes to the LHR track. Doesn't that sound good?

Best,
Bob