Arnhem Aerautodrome

[Quintin03]

A circuit in the area of Arnhem seemed to me like a great idea for a long time, there are many people living relatively nearby but with still a lot of space left. Therefore I've come up with this design at a former military airport. The name is inspired on the aerautodromo which existed in Modena where now a park dedicated to Enzo Ferrari is.

It's a track that has the special challenges an airfield track has without having to keep racing low. Only the southern and western lanes will be used for air trafic (The picture is on its side so you've got to flip it a quarter clockwise to get it right).

There are two main possibilities: the full Grandprix layout and the national layout which uses a hairpin shortening the backstraight.

The Grandprix track is quite long at roughly 5.7 km. The national track is a decent 4 km. The main straight is 850 metres in Grandprix and a whole kilometre in National. The backstraight is a whole mile for Grandprix and half that and little more for the National track.

I cloudn't come up with some decent corner names so I'd love som sugestions. Turns 2 through 5 are the only ones with a name and it's quite obvious anyway: Omega.

An explanation for the colour:
Black: Grandprix layout
Gray: other layouts, pitlane and paddock
Lightblue: Permanent bariers
Darkblue: temporary bariers
Green: grandstands
Red: repaved airport lanes

[Roninho]

I like what you did with the airfield (especially the new part makes it a 'real' track instead of just using existing tarmac), however airport deelen is a 'rijksmonument' which imo means you would not be allowed to alter the location that much as you did.

I've made an attempt by using the current tarmac as much as possible:



http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6...itdeelenv2.jpg

The yellow line is the racetrack, i've added only a bit tarmac between turns 5&6 and 7&8, the rest is using the current tarmac. I thought of leaving this part out, using only the current tarmac (so 1 long straight from corner 4 till 9), but that would be a bit dull.

The pink line is the pitlane, the green part is where the cars can refuel. Since i do not know the width of this part of the track i do not know if this is possible. Basically the part between turn 11 and turn 3 is quite similar to the last & first part of the cleveland airfield track used in indycars. (the exeption being that compared to this track there is a 'kink' in cleveland's track between turn 1 & 2 and turn 2 & 3 in this track are opposite to cleveland's turn's).

Since permant buildings/stands would probably not be allowed, i would erect temporary stands at the s/f straight behind the pit-straight, another on the outside of the exit of turn 1 and a final one on the the inside of turn 2. All would offer great unblocked view of large parts of the track as well as a direct view of the best overtaking spots, and in the case of the s-f stand a great view of the pitstops as well.

With the lenght of this track (4 or 5 km i guess) this doesn't seem like a really interesting track for slower cars, but i'd love to see a serie like Gp2 or Le Mans series race on this track. The combination of long high speed straights with some fast corners (7,8,11), great passign opportunities (1 & 2) and a wide track would be great for these series i'd guess.

[Quintin03]

An interesting edit if I may call it that. The airfield is defunct at the moment so there's realy no reason not to build permanent buildings though I did keep the western (bottom) lane usable for major planes and the southern (right) lane for smaller planes. Only off weekend and in winter ofcourse.

[Yannick]

I like the way in which you introduce "real" corner shapes into an airfield circuit, especially the section from Turn 8 to Turn 12. However, Turn 6 most likely has got a runoff problem. I'd suggest fixing it by switching round the whole section of Turn 6 and 7 towards the end of the other runway. I hope you like this suggestion.

[Quintin03]

Turn 6 has got run-off problems but I didn't realise it yet so thanks Yannick. I've done some changes to the rest of the track too. A tunnel would be made from the paddock to the infield gradstands.

[Roninho]

I have to agree with yannick, i also like the 'real' corners you've added between 8-12. I don't like turn 6 in both your alternatives though, imo you have made a great fast track with smooth mid to high speed corners that get you in a rhythm. And then there is this 1 slow corner (6) that totally breaks that rhythm. I would like it better if you simply used the turn 6 out of your national track. From my karting days i can remember racing at the dutch veldhoven track which had the same, a lot of mid/high speed corners and then 1 very slow corner which totally killed the flow.

Have you got any idea how wide the landing strips are?
And could you possibly upload the picture of this airfield without your track?

[Quintin03]

Thanks for the compliments Roninho. I wasn't pleased with what Yannick sugested. However I wanted to have one corner that would interupt the flow for an extra challenge, having only fast turns realy is boring as is having slow corners with fast turns as acceleration areas from the slow turns.

The main runway is 60 m/200' wide.

I haven't ever been to Veldhoven but from areal pictures I can't see what you mean. Most corners are looking slow but that's just me.

And because you're asking it so kindly, here's the location as it is today or was not all that long ago.

[Roninho]

Thanks Quintin!