My new backyard track
 

It has been awhile since I have been on RC universe, as I recently had a baby girl. I used to run my 1/10 MT2 on a track my buddies and I made at our local beach dunes, but I have had no time now, my truck has gathered much dust and the track has gone to the elements and disuse. I had an idea to make a 1/18 scale track in my backyard while my wife was pregnant, as I knew I would have no time to go down to the beach after our baby arrived and our backyard was nothing but dirt and dead burmuda grass. Work on the track has just finished and all went as planned. The cost was around $500, which was split between my 3 friends and myself. We used sand (which is plentiful around my house, which sits on essentially a huge sand dune) as the base for the banks and jumps. We then covered them with a 3-4 inch layer of dirt that I have watered and groomed daily for nearly 2 weeks now. The track has 9 banked turns (2 of which are hairpin) and an S turn, 3 un-banked turns, a crossover jump, a triple, a 3 jump rhythm section, 2 chicanes, 3 long staights and 3 short. We all purchased Trinity Now 1/16 scale trucks, so the races would come down to driver skill and track set-up. The Now has worked out well so far, all we have modified was swapping the crap low-torque steering servo for a better version. The truck handles the track very well and has all the power you would want in a racer- having LiPO, a Mamba SC and brushless right out of the box was the deal maker. We get about 40 mins run time on the track per batt, going as fast and hard as the track allows. We are all very happy with the truck, though the QC of the build was poor, as is common for a RTR, any experienced hobbyist knows to tear down and rebuild ANY RTR before running it. We plan on having real-deal races, with qualifying laps and a set race season with points awarded. We will have at least 2 series, a short 3-5 lap series and a longer full battery length enduro, maybe others. Each of us will be putting up $50 or so a series, points winner in each series takes all at the season's end. Should be tons of fun. I am very glad we finally decided to build the track, now we can race all day, have BBQs and still keep an eye on my kid. If anyone lives or is in my area some time and has a micro or mini rig, give me a PM, I'd be glad to have a new butt to stomp:D

Heres some quick vids of the track. I should have some soon with our tucks in it, but I had no one at the time I took these to shoot vid while I drove. Enjoy! Comments are appreciated!
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maxWNfiSUP4[/link]
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HqBES5EFcA[/link]
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y08Fzuri8xE[/link]
[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYnqx9nBFYU[/link]

RE: My new backyard track
 

Jeez dude.... nice track! i wish mine was that good. i dont have near as much space. still new to this track building stuff. yours is so cool.... nice job. where is the vids of the cars running on it?? I run my vendetta st on mine, but i wish i could make something like yours.

RE: My new backyard track
 

all i can say is WOW, very nicely done.... love it, good job [8D]

RE: My new backyard track
 

Wow love the track, nice work.

I am going to be building a track, if it turns out half as good as that i will be pleased. Problem is with mine is, its on a slope.

RE: My new backyard track
 

Good first attempt. Is it going to be a permanent track or will the layouts be changed from time to time. I think you will find that the lanes should be a little bit wider (4-6 feet), and that banked turns are cool but over rated. Use that dirt to make elevation changes, slightly bigger jumps, and smoother landing ramps. You spent $500 on what? If I spent that kind of money on my track, it would be fully piped.

RE: My new backyard track
 

Fully piped? It looks sweet from here. Heck for 500 bucks you's did well. It cost our club nearly 10,000 for a clay track to be built by some heads from cali. I almost crapped when the lhs owner told me that. We are going to build another track here next spring. I won't let him hire those guy's again. I have plenty of equipment and know how to make a nice track for half the cost or better. Also have access to clay galore.

I say leave your track the way it is for now and enjoy it. Those narrower lanes will teach you controll like no other. Passing will be fun and harder but the best driver will win. That is if there aren't 10 drivers on the starting line........... All in all I say you have a sweet backyard paradise.

Kevin

RE: My new backyard track
 

Thanks for the comments, all. The track is narrow, I agree, but we were confined by my yard size, so it was either narrow lanes or a shorter track, we chose to go with narrow lanes. The banked turns are also a product of the size of my yard. With the narrow lanes we had to add banks to navigate the turns without losing too much speed. This track could have been done for around $200 if we didn't have to rent a truck and buy dirt, all I have around my house is sand. If you have all the dirt and tools already all you need is the piping and a few buddies to help you. The track is fully bordered, some is pipe, some is shorter garden border. Each has it's good and bad points. The pipe is harder to drive over, but will catch a tire edge when hit and flip you 180'. The border edging is easier to roll over but you tend to bounce off it when hitting it, easier to recover from. We ended up using the pipe in the less technical, faster parts of the track and the edging on the slower, tight parts of the track and it worked out well. We plan on getting another load of dirt at some point to fill in the unused portions of the yard for landscaping and add more to the jumps and banks. Our first load was 2 tons, all of which went on the jumps and turns. There are only 4 of us at this point, so the narrow lanes should not pose a huge problem, right now having someone to marshal for us is a much bigger deal.

Alex, making a track on a slope sounds like a fun challenge. With some thought I bet a very cool track could be done. Let me know what you end up doing.

RE: My new backyard track
 

very nice track!
who cares if the turns arebanked and the lanes are narrow..
that track is dope!
wish i could make a track..

and yeah alex if you dont want to make it on a slope the et sonme dirt and make a triangle type thing to make it evel..
but caatbut is right would be a fun challenge

RE: My new backyard track
 

Great job on the track! Really looks like a lot of fun. One thing I did with mine that you may like on your track is using marker paint on some of the edges, for instance on the banked turns.

RE: My new backyard track
 

I have to keep it as a slope due to where it is (no easy access) and because it would take way to much dirt.

I got an m18t pro because i wanted 4wd, as the mini-t just ended up facing up the hill, due to the rear wheels spinning out. But glad i got m18t pro as it will handle well.
Also i am thinking about laying carpet over the track.

RE: My new backyard track
 

Track looks awesome, and congrats on the new baby!

RE: My new backyard track
 

Good idea with the paint, nlsolja26, we had planned on doing just that, after the track has cured more and I'm not wetting it down twice a day. Hadn't thought of using marking paint, though, we were just going to use normal spray paint, duh. I'm going to put red & white >>>>>'s on all the banks, solid red on the inside of corners. We planned on making a stencil for spraying out a checkered line across the start/finish line as well. I'll post more pics of the track as we landscape and detail it out more. It may change some as well as we race more on it and learn it's strong/weal points.

Alex, laying down some astroturf on your slope track might work out well. Or go with the slope and make a drift style course where you utilize the grade and gravity to assist in high speed turns, say just a slight banked oval. Actually, that sounds kinda cool, especially if you had a mini slider.

RE: My new backyard track
 

A oval would work well but i think i would get bored of that. I guess i can always bank the lower corners so they are level.

RE: My new backyard track
 

ok now lets see a video of you tearing the track up with your 18th scale.... ;)

RE: My new backyard track
 

yeah^

RE: My new backyard track
 

Pics and vid of racing should be here after this weekend and our first race, hopefully. Heres a few crappy pics of the track before we put the dirt down or finished piping I took with my cell. You can see the 2x4s we used to lay out the track are still there on the right half of the track.

RE: My new backyard track
 

THAT IS ONE NICE CLEAN AND SICK LOOKING TRACK!!!! AMAZING JOB!







< Super hod bad eh?