Controversial Border/Wall Discussion

I was going through my usual checkups on local toy stores to see if they had anything on sale the other day. Turns out I found three 1/60 borders wrapped in a rubber band for 12 bucks. They came with two end caps as well. Must have been part of a set, likely the one that was on the xmas display.

So I thought about the most hazardous part of the track so far after weighing out two options; support the inside lane or the outside lane. Since I've been racing already on the inside lane, I know I can get away with borders in two places and get full coverage. On the outside it would be helpful in the big switchback in Pike's, but that's about it. There are a lot of other places on the outside lane that need borders. 

So the inside lane it is. 

I'm covering the right-hand of the Dunlop Curve and the big curve at Pike's. Those two places traditionally have had the most offs for the inside lane. I'll still need to do a little magic later so they aren't so disconnected, especially at the ends. I'll be able to scenic stuff to fix that.

My first reaction is that the borders could be about half as deep and just as effective. Perhaps 1:24 cars need the full girth, but so far most of my cars have required no more than about an inch of it. So whether or not I end up using Carrera brand borders everywhere will depend on if I think I'll need that runoff space in the future.

I'm not a drift-king or anything, but I know that if my car is getting that out of shape going through Pike's, I'm a goner in the next corner.

I'm not sure where I'm going to need these just yet. This seems the most logical place. Until I have borders for the Sweeper, it's pretty much a moot point to begin work on the outside lane, especially considering I have so few borders to help it right now. 

The plan is to leave these on for awhile and see how I like the results. I'm going to have to reset the banking, but I think the borders will actually help get better banking than I had before due to more adjustable surface area. I'll play around with it and see what happens. 

A straight border piece would clear that hip right out, although it would be kind of fun to bring the wall in a bit there, put some floor down, and put a TV tower behind it. 

I suppose I'm going to have to let the rubber on the track do the talking regarding how much of the borders are being used. So far it's dictating what the racing line is looking like. I wish I could get better pictures of it. It's just not at that stage yet. But I'll be curious to see just how much of the borders a car uses. The depth of the borders could certainly be the edge location for walls, although I think I would end up doing some kind of scenic treatment to most of the outer parts of the borders. 

If these borders make sense here temporarily, then I will make them permanent. Until then, I'll race with them here until further notice.

Car Notes

I took a few minutes and added a little weight to the Matra. I placed a small square of ballast right up behind the front axle. It's a negligible amount of overall weight for the car, and so far has helped keep the nose down in testing. No other adverse effects.

The #10 feeling right at home on this track after only a weekend.

I haven't run legit races yet, but I think this thing is going to be very hard to beat.