Curved (wraparound) track

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FatSebastian
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Curved (wraparound) track

Post by FatSebastian »

Has anyone ever seen plans for a curved tracked? I mean in the wraparound sense, say, where the starting gate and finish line end up beside each other.

I can foresee at least three motives for such a design:
1) Some folks / units may not have 40' of space to set up a conventional track.
2) You don't have to walk between the start and finish lines.
3) Let's shake things up a bit!

How would / should one build the curved section? How tight can the radius be? Should the curved section be tilted relative to level?
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Re: Curved (wraparound) track

Post by gpraceman »

FatSebastian wrote:Has anyone ever seen plans for a curved tracked? I mean in the wraparound sense, say, where the starting gate and finish line end up beside each other.
This is the only "wraparound" track that I have seen.


https://youtu.be/qsOk0SMc9Pg
FatSebastian wrote:I can foresee at least three motives for such a design:
1) Some folks / units may not have 40' of space to set up a conventional track.
2) You don't have to walk between the start and finish lines.
3) Let's shake things up a bit!

How would / should one build the curved section? How tight can the radius be? Should the curved section be tilted relative to level?
I really only see that being "fair" if the cars have already crossed the finish line before the track curves. Cars on the different lanes will experience differing deceleration due to the differing curvature.

Item 2 would be cool (if cars finish before the curve). Not having to run cars back from the finish line would be nice. However, that would add a lot of extra cost to the track and it would need to be considerably taller to get enough of a slope to return the cars.
Randy Lisano
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FatSebastian
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Re: Curved (wraparound) track

Post by FatSebastian »

gpraceman wrote:This is the only "wraparound" track that I have seen.
Neat!
gpraceman wrote:I really only see that being "fair" if the cars have already crossed the finish line before the track curves. Cars on the different lanes will experience differing deceleration due to the differing curvature.
I was personally envisioning a single-lane track, where the "race" is against the clock, but I suppose one could also have a symmetric two-lane track, where one car goes left and another goes right on a large "heart-shaped" track? Either way, the cars aren't conventionally racing nose-to-nose, but I guess that's okay if one is looking to shake things up a bit (item #3).
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