The Sweeper and Sand

Late last night I came across a flat and rather flexible piece of wood that just so happened to fit perfectly under the Sweeper, so I rebuilt it.
I took out the cable clips that were holding the curve at an angle, took out the two large, flat, un-flexible pieces of wood and replaced them with this thin pressed plywood from an old 50's cabinet that my wife took out of commission. It's only temporary, but if I can control the pitch and angle of this wood then it'll be much easier to deal with when I add the thinner, custom-cut versions in the future.

I ran more outside lane laps this morning. Some of the cars are really handling it well. The older cars all go through it nicely, and the #5 does as well pretty much, but I think both the #5 and the Porsche need some work on the tires. I changed back to the inside lane for some control/testing, worked on both cars' tires a bit, and have gotten each car to respond a bit better in the curves.

For the inside lane, Turn 4 has produced a very satisfying drift corner, which comes early in the curve, setting the rest of the curve up for acceleration. The tail of each car whips out just enough to say hi, then it's all about gunning it up the wiggly part of the hill.

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SECTION NAMES

It's time to officially name the sections of my track. Some names will be more obvious than others, as they will be named after the parts of the Le Mans raceway. So let's get started.

Turns 1 & 2 - Dunlop Curve
   I have an idea for how I want this turn to eventually look once scenery has been added. It should basically look like the old section of Dunlop Curve that starts at the bottom of the hill.

Turns 3 & 4 - Pike's
   My tribute to another course, Pike's is the tricky right-hander that sets up the big lefthand switchback. It's all a hillclimb, hence the name.

Turn 5 - The Peak
   The natural end to the section is at the highest point of the track. This likely will be raised by another 2" before it's all said and done.

Back Straight - Mulsanne Straight
   I wanted to include a feature like this ever since I can remember. Now that it's possible, it's practically the centerpiece of my layout.

Turn 6 - Mulsanne Kink
   The purpose of this kink, as opposed to letting the straight go longer, was to make it so the cars wouldn't be so far away if they came off the track. It's worked so far. The Kink itself is just enough to change direction without letting the car fly off the track. So it effectively continues the straight, just not exactly Gerade aus.

Turn 7 - Sweeper
   The amount of available track I had and its possible setups determined how this turn would come together. Five 2/30 curves, followed by one 3/30 curve gives you a nice drift corner that brings you back to normal at the end.

Turn 8 - Davies' Kink
   My wife and I have been listening to a lot of Kinks lately, so the name Davies' Kink just kind of works. A left 1/30, a right 3/30 and a right 1/30 will make the car lose the back if it's taken too fast.

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Garage Notes

I took the two new cars back to the garage to having the tires worked on a bit. I figure that since the track is now permanent, I might as well start working on cars individually to get them going faster, as opposed to tuning them all at once and seeing what happens. There's always a possibility I'll miss something if I don't pay particular attention to each car.
I haven't done anything to the #5 except lube and oil. When you have a smooth running car, you tend to not want to mess with it too much. I probably should start messing with it, though, as I think it's now beginning to show that it needs it. Running smoothly is one thing. Running smoothly in last place isn't impressive.

The Ford GT40 1966 should be at least as fast as the other two Fords.

There hasn't been much racing yet to get very stable lap times from any of the cars, but I'm looking to get started on improving this car. Here are the lap times from the first two races:

Race 1 - 5:10 lap speed. This wasn't a bad start, and it would be impressive if it could keep it up. It ran right in the pack and felt like there was more in it.
Race 2 - 5:22 lap speed on a day when three cars broke 5 seconds [it was also very cold]. I suppose this could be fault of the relatively new tires, but this car is racing against cars that, although similar, have been somewhat modified. But it got beaten by a car that crashed and still did faster time. There's really no excuse for this car to be over .2 of a second per lap behind. I won't even mention the 6:16 lap time on the outside lane....

I started on tires, and will do a little tuning to the pod. None of the problem is speed, all of it is handling. So I need to get it to a better level in order to compete.

The Porsche has a lot of potential. I've gotten the car where I like it, but the tires are still a bit of an issue.

While neither the Porsche or the #5 Ford are up to pace yet, I feel like the Porsche is closer to it than the Ford, and a bit of care to the tires ought to push it to the next level. I've been running quite a few laps lately on all the cars, and the rubber tires are definitely the way to go, so I'm not worried that it's on the wrong type of tires. While it's a different type of race car, it should run close to or faster than the others.

Race 1 - 5:03 lap speed [fastest]. It's good to know this car can get close to 5 second lap times. It should be able to do this, but the question is whether it can do it consistently or not. I've noticed that the rubber tires take awhile to break-in, and I expected both cars to need work.
Race 2 - 5:16 lap speed with a crash. The Porsche didn't drive very well this race, so there's the answer to the consistency question. The tires aren't up to snuff yet, and they need more time with the sandpaper. Add to that the fact that it ran a dreadfully slow 6:52 on the outside lane [almost 1/2 second behind the leader]. I'll adjust the pod as well. I think a looser pod will help plant it in the corners a little.

There's a reason I'm doing all this. If I'm going to continue my plans of adding support, then starting scenery, I have to have the track and cars in a comfortable position before I do any of that. Once I've done enough track modifications and measured, cut and built my supports, I need to know that the track design and function is going to work for me. So if I tune the Porsche to its maximum and it's still fishtailing, I need to look at the particular curve and make whatever adjustments need to be made there. And when one adjustment in a part of the track ends up affecting the adjoining parts, then the issue can easily spread. So there has to be compromise.
Currently I have a technical section [Pike's], a fast section [Mulsanne through the Sweeper], and a tricky section [Davies' Kink]. I want each of those to feature, so I don't want to do too much tampering from where I am now. For example, the Dunlop Curve is the slowest point on the track, and the most problematic. Since it's the start of Pike's Hillclimb, it goes banked-left, banked-right and uphill. That's a lot of twisting, and doing one thing has an effect on the others. I'll have a better chance to fine tune it when the track support is installed, but I have to get it close enough to get good measurements first. It'll always be the slowest section of the track, so I'll have to compromise and stop at some point.

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Meanwhile, the Sweeper curve is responding very well to the larger, thinner piece of wood being used as the under support. I can see where having this all over the layout is really going to help get the track just where I like it. I think working on the outside lane ended up helping the inside lane as well. Looking forward to adding the support around the track.