Cliff Raceway

[cosmicpanda]

So named because of the 25 metre high cliff in the middle of it.



The elevations are given relative to the main straight. So, the hairpin is one metre above it, the chicane is dead level with it, and the longest straight dips down to five metres below it.

The cliff is between the Cliff-face Curve and the Ridgeline straight, 25 metres above. The Cliff-face Curve is a fast, but slightly off camber bend; before the Chicane was added, some terrible accidents occured when drivers were caught out by the camber and ploughed straight into the cliff. The chicane has the bonus of making sure cars are able to follow closely onto the long straight. Skilful drivers can take advantage of this by slipstreaming and overtaking before the next few corners.

The Catastrophe is so named because of an infamous accident that occured to Albert B. Shaw, an early famous (fictional) driver. He was leading the championship into the final round at this track, when he left the track at this corner and allowed his rival to take the glory. Although this corner is downhill, it is also favourably cambered, so it is fast. However, it is taken blind, due to the change in elevation before it.

Albert Shaw lends his name to the chicane at the top of the hill; originally, there had been a very large, beautiful tree there that the track swerved to avoid. Shaw was in favour of destroying it to allow the track to curve more smoothly, but he was over-ruled. However, the tree was one day so severely vandalised that it later died due to the damage; by then, however, the chicane had become an accepted part of the track, and the space left by the dead tree was turned into runoff.

There is an omission in the diagram; between Shaw's and the Ridgline Straight, the track climbs uphill and then back down again. I'll include this in any later versions I do. I imagine the track to be about four and a half kilometres long. The gradients should be less than 1 in 20, as per the FIA's regluations.

Any comments?

[shambles]

I love it CP.

Would be so quick, maybe needs a chicane or two in there for safety.

[nickyf1]

WOW!! WAY better than my mount eccosse track!

[Alwaysfirst]

I love it!

[Tathrim]

Nice!!! I would, however, include a chicane to create safe speeds.

[Purist]

Tantrim, a chicane where? Shaw's I doubt will be flat-out. Ridgeline and the corner before it will definitely see the cars having to decelerate to negotiate them. The longest flat-out run is less than a mile (2.8-mile circuit), and the FIA limit on the length of "straights" is 2,000metres (approx 1.25 miles).

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I don't see a need for a chicane, but perhaps the turn at the 7m marker, could be tightened a little to create an overtaking place on the end of the long straight.
I suppose "Shaw's" could be opened out into a larger chicane but It doesn't really look like it's needed.

[cosmicpanda]

Thanks for all your very positive replies

When I created this track, I wanted to stay away from the stop-start, Bahrain or Malaysia type track - that's why the corners at the end of the long straights are so fast. However, I did sort of include the traditional overtaking spot by having a hairpin, a straight, and a chicane on the pit straight.

Remember at Catalunya, how they have a huge straight followed by a tight corner, and how nobody ever overtakes there? It's because of the corners before the straight - they are taken at speeds that rob cars trying to follow closely of downforce. As such, nobody gets close enough to overtake at the chicane. Yet at Montreal on the long straight after the hairpin, some cars overtook each other by slipstreaming, simply because they were able to follow closely through the hairpin.

That's the type of situation I was hoping to create. Don't you think it'd be exciting to see cars race wheel to wheel through ultra fast corners, like the ones at the end of my straight?

Come to think of it, an F1 car would take it at a speed of about 300 k/h at least - probably 320.

Anyway, here's the latest version. Track layout's unchanged, but I've added the missing height marker and extended runoff at Shaw's and the corner after the Ridgeline straight.



oh yeah, nicky - I did a search for your Mount Eccosse track, and I think it's pretty good, probably just as good as mine. It's just a different type of track.

[V8_TURBO]

Lot's of nice corners. Nice layout and highly colourful, great.

[Purist]

The one major thing I will note is I doubt your start/finish straight will be long enough to allow much chance for overtaking. I'd bet it's as short, if not somewhat shorter, as the start/finish straight at Adelaide.

Also, I've seen a number of overtaking maneuvres into Elf at Catalunya. That straight is plenty long to slipstream a guy. And the esse at Elf isn't exactly slow either (around 100mph in F1). Not to mention, it's rare that anyone is close enough to make a move heading into those last two corners. Besides, it's nice actually having some fast corners at an F1 track (corners like New Holland and the turn before it).

[cosmicpanda]

If the track is 4.5 km, then I'd judge the start/finish straight to be around 400 m long. Perhaps that isn't long enough, but any slipstream would help to follow closely into the chicane, and thus onto the longer straight. Admittedly, they'd be relying on slipstream to overtake there, too.

I was thinking about this year's F1 race at Catalunya - ok, come to think of it, there may have been one or two moves up the inside into the first chicane. But when you compare that to Montreal, where after the hairpin people were overtaking because of the slipstream on the straight - I think that's preferable to Catalunya's style of things.

And what about silverstone? No overtaking into vale, because of the turbulence at Stowe. No overtaking at Abbey, because of the turbulence at Club. I fell asleep in that race, the only time I've fallen asleep all year.

[Purist]

Generally, what happens at Elf (Catalunya) and Stowe (Silverstone), is the following cars, as often as not, slipstreams, pulls to the outside, and goes by into the turn. Honestly, I've never seen much, if any, passing into Vale. The run from Stewe isn't that long, and even though Stowe is fast, there are enough different lines that disturbed air shouldn't be such a big issue. And once you're through Vale, Club is flat-out, so the dirty air shouldn't be a huge deal there either (even if you run a bit wide in Club, there's extra pavement out there).

At Barcelona, it's true there weren't that many passes into Elf (the esse after start/finish), but then again, it's rare that a car is that close in behind another going through La Caixa or Banc Sabadell. That being the case, I don't think the penultimate corner or New Holland make that much difference on passing potential into Elf.

Yeah, I know: thinking way too hard and much on this.