ORIGINAL: jkdv8
good point with the lights. although i figured common sense would tell you not place them where they would shine in your face.[8D] if anything the flood lights would do that more than anything no matter where they are placed plus, they are concentrated to one small area especially since the track is right next to his house you would need 2 maybe 3 sets of those for it to be effective. i would be more tempted to go with the solar powered led's but, to each there own i suppose. they hardly put off enough light to "partially " blind you but, would give a faint glow to the track. if you get the set that is self contained they would be easy to move.
I have tried with Malibu lights. They have covers on the top, so I figured they wouldn't be shining directly into my face. They looked very nice putting little glowing circles onto the racing surface. I put them along the sides of my pipe, in places where I wouldn't hit them, and I mounted them on PVC pipe just to be safe. I also put slightly stronger light bulbs for the ones further back. I tried it for two layouts and then moved them to my front yard and tried something else. The lighting wasn't bright enough; it was uneven and made it difficult to see anything while the car was in motion. The lights did bother my eyes. Having a bright flood light shining 5-7feet next to the racing surface is much better than looking at a bunch of small lights that are near your car. I would post pictures of these lights, but unfortunately I didn't take any.
I have also tried the flood light. It only took one to light up my entire track. I loved it, but my only complaint is that it made a few shadows on the other side of the pipe/jumps. I'm also pretty sure "it" drove up the electricity bill. lol (picture below) it eventually stopped working because of the weather.
We tried the light bulbs next. Right now it is with three extention cords, but we are seriously thinking about running electrical underground and possibly putting a small pit area up.
I seriously need to update my track thread to. It has changed a lot over the last year or so.