Homemade track

General topics of interest to racers and race coordinators alike.
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Gramps
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Location: St. Charles, Missouri

Homemade track

Post by Gramps »

My brother and I built a track so we could test cars that we build and to ensure my grandson's cars are competitive, we built it so it has two lengths, the short track is 34' at the timing gate, the long track is 42' at the gate.
The short version is set up in my basement, my question is
does 2.699 sec seem fast at 34'..?..that is the current track record.
My grandson's car runs 2.745 on this track and he took first place in his pack race.
Speedster
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Re: Homemade track

Post by Speedster »

Lots and lots of variables.
If you have a District race and they score with Elapsed time, you will then know what the fastest car ran. You'll also know what your car ran. If it turns out you have the fastest car, you're on the right track. If you give us the details of the car you are racing we might be able to offer some suggestions.
Might we see a picture of the car?
Gramps
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Re: Homemade track

Post by Gramps »

I would post a pic of the car and track, but I don't see any way to attach a file here..
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Vitamin K
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Re: Homemade track

Post by Vitamin K »

Gramps wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 2:19 pm I would post a pic of the car and track, but I don't see any way to attach a file here..
I like to use Imgur as an image host and paste the bbcode link for the image to the post.

That said, it is very hard to say what a "good time" is for any given track. Tracks vary so much, it is very hard to make assumptions. You can have two tracks of the same length and the same manufacturer and have them vary by a few hundredths of time.

Factors include:

- Track Length
- Curve geometry
- Starting height
- Speed of opening gate
- Track material

The best thing to do would be to have a car that has a known performance and then try to build a car that does better than that one on your track.
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