Backyard Racetrack (FINALLY!)

[godale03]

Looking good Josh!

 

[Lessen]

So yesterday was the boy's birthday so he received his very own Losi Micro Rally. He ran it a bit in the house this morning. I knew it wasn't particularly quick, but I can fix that down the road with a battery upgrade (7.2v lipo vs. the stock 4.8v Nimh). One thing I noticed is that even at full dual rate it doesn't have a very tight turning radius. Probably because of the front toe-out geometry. However, we'll be running them on the dirt so that will be much different.

 

[NCNitro]

Very cool! He has the best birthday

 

[Lessen]

I decided not to fuss around too much with the stone at the left end of the track. After all, it is intended for rally cars. I got rid of quite a bit, but far from all of it. I did spend a lot of time gathering up the larger clumps of dirt that were just filled with grass/weed root. Leveled it out as much as is reasonable and time to tamp.

 

[Lessen]

Getting it pressed of kind of a pain. There needs to be moisture below so everything binds, but dry on top so the tamp does not pull up dirt. It seems like I need to wet it slightly, rake it lightly, allow the top to dry then tamp it down.

 

[Rolex]

That's a lot of work that's gone into that project. Your wife wants a slate patio now.

 

[Lessen]

Yes, it has been quite a bit of work... and it still looks like a forest if you look closely. Most of this thin stuff I figure will just go away over time. A few of the heftier sprouts will need to be clipped.

 

[Lessen]

So I took the car out on the track yesterday to test. Well, simply put. It was horrible. The turning radius of this thing is atrocious. There's no way I can put down cool layouts with a car that can only turn a 40" circle. Well, I had a hunch and made some new steering links. I extended them 0.02" each to give it what looks to be 0* toe. That brought the circle down to 35". Now I need to do some Dremel work to the steering blocks where they make contact with the caster block. From what I've read that makes a pretty significant difference. Clearly I'm not the only person disappointed in the steering radius out of the box. I would be thrilled if I could half it.

 

[Lessen]

Due to the still lack of steering with these little cars I've decided a more traditional layout will be needed. 24" lanes everywhere. Although not as artsy as I would personally enjoy, it'll still be plenty fun and challenging for both of us.

 

[SMaxxin]

Not sure how I missed this....Great idea Josh! Looking at this has me thinking about how to convince my wife that we need one lol

 

[Lessen]

Well, I made another set of steering links for the car to see what a little toe-in would do. It ended up going the other way. Even toe seems to be the best bet for the tightest circles.

I finally decided I wasn't happy with the track surfact so I decided to tear it all up again. I only did half today and I'm beat. Once I tear up the other half I will blend it all and level it out again. That should help keep it a bit more consistent. As it is, the one side stays quite wet for a while after it rains. Amazing the different soil compositions in such a small area.

 

[Rolex]

C'mon, Josh. Give Chase a break. It looks like you're forcing him to sing Christmas carols if he wants you to finish it.

 

[HPI-Killer]

Lmao Ralph that made me crack up! Poor little dude sweating and singing xmas carols.

 

[Lessen]

Hehe... that's funny. I hope to tear up the rest tomorrow. Its a shame I didn't think to do this earlier in the summer.

 

[Bkyd Basher]

That's Why I decided to build mine in the garage attic.The track ended up being 20' wide by 25'long. I just made a high banked oval with long jumps on each side for now just to get a hang of the truck(losi 1/24 sct) that is.But the truck is really fun and with the banked turns turning radius is not a problem. How ever spinning out on exit of the corner is. But it makes it interesting. I built the track out of sheet rock which works good for the banking with all of the flexability but it is still pretty solid and was free! I will try and get some pics up when its completed. Now I'm just waiting on 2 more trucks to arrive!!