Opening my archive

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Tathrim

Nice track. The final chicane reminds me of the old Variante Alta at Imola, but, you could create a wide runoff on the second part of the chicane to avoid the chance of a masive pileup (example of reason is France at the imola chicane at the weekend in F1) click here to find out about what I mean, along with a possible variation.

BTW thanks for the comments.

Thanks for the edits, Tathrim. The removal of the final chicane of the Circuit De L'ÃŽle is essentially the motorcycle track variation that I've described but not painted. Your redesign of the section between the 2 hairpins is something I thinked about in the past, but somehow it doesn't make this section of the track less Tilkefied than the initial one. Your opening up of the 2nd hairpin is a nice idea to think about for a future redesign of mine. Thanks.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to post a track on Friday because I was a bit busy, but it is to follow in a few seconds.

[Yannick]

Abiszettstadt is a non-permanent street circuit in the capital of a ficticious European microstate that's located somewhere on the former border that used to cut Germany in two states during the days of the cold war. Some critics consider this race to be merely an excuse so Germany can hold two Grand Prix, but in fact, Abiszettstadt is the home of the OtherWorld(ly)Series Grand Prix of Atozeeland. Length of the track is 3.6 kilometers.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/aa99d836.jpg

Lap description:
The paddock area with the provisional pitlane building and the short start-finish straight is located in the heart of the city of Abiszettstadt, on the fairgrounds of that town's old exhibition center. Still, space is of the essence here, and there is not enough space for all 26 grid spots to fit onto the straight, but the last row of starters is located even before the entry to the final corner. Even worse, the pitlane is so short, that there are garages at the beginning of the pitlane, which open up to the sidewalk before the pitlane entrance. Teams residing in these for the weekend must share their service spot in front of the garage with another team, in front of that team's garage. Needless to say that the major teams inhabit the garages at the end of the pitlane here!
Abiszettstadt is a mickey-mouse-ish European-style street circuit that goes anticlockwise.
The start-finish straight goes uphill in a moderate angle, which makes it necessary that at the start, drivers avoid rolling backwards before the lights are out. Having made it maybe somewhat into 5th gear by the end of the straight, cars brake into the uphill right-hander Turn 1 (4th gear) that has them shortly entering Bank Street. There's critical lack of run-off there (sort of like at Monaco's Ste. Devote), but SAFER barriers are installed, and an escape road to the left that leads down Bank Street. Accelerating through the 1st of two kinks to the right, Turn 2 opens up Bank Street into the big Atozee Boulevard. All of the track that lies east and north of the pitlane building consists of this most famous street of Abiszettstadt, the Atozee Boulevard. It's basically a lengthy and relatively narrow park stretch, framed by a two-lane one way street leading all the way around the green that it surrounds. The boulevard is home to luxury goods shops, theatres, the opera house and huge department stores, and also some high-priced appartement buildings are located here. But let's get back on track now.
Having also accelerated through the 2nd (Turn 3) of the two kinks that feel like a bowed straight, it's soon braking for Duke's, which is named after the nearby jewellery store. That is a tight and slow section of corners at mid-boulevard that feels like a chicane, which consists of Turn 4, 5, 6 (all 2nd gear) and Turn 7 (3rd gear). At the apex of Turn 7, the track begins to modestly run downhill all along the southern side of the boulevard.
There is an escape road on the inside of Turn 7, where troubled race cars can find a parking lot. The subsequent straight follows the boulevard downhill, through the kink to the right that is Turn 8 (7th gear), which has a gravel trap on the inside, and right after which drivers need to brake heavily for the tight left-hander Cook's, Turn 9 (2nd gear), that is the lowest point of the circuit. Cook's is of course named after a restaurant of the same name that's located there, and it has not one, but two escape roads. It's only a shame when you can't decide which one to take!
Going moderately uphill from there, the way around the boulevard leads along a very short straight piece of track and then through a tight left-hander, Betty's, Turn 10 (3rd gear) that has an escape road and barriers on the outside. It's important to take the bottom end of the boulevard (Turns 9 and 10) smoothly, because right after it, there comes the longest straight of the circuit that runs moderately uphill, also known as Boulevard Straight. Cars reach their top speed for this track at the end of that straight, and find the track's main overtaking opportunity in braking for left-right combination Garage's at the top end of the Boulevard. Garage's consists of Turn 11 and Turn 12 (both 3rd gear), and is named after a car dealership there, the rather huge parking lot in front of which is used as run-off.
After Garage's, the track still continues to rise along another straight, albeit at an even milder angle as before. At one third into that straight, there is Turn 13 (flat out unless you're beside somebody), which is technically a chicane of 90 degree left and a 90 degree right-hander, but in fact is no more than a straight narrow pass between two houses through which only one car can fit. Masking this in a chicane-like structure is only necessary as a workaround for the technical reglement, which requires tracks to have a certain width at all times. The straight continues to rise just slightly until a plateau is reached, which is the part of the circuit with the highest altitude. The next 4 corners that surround the castle are all located on said plateau: Turn 14 (3rd gear) is a left-hander that's almost too tight to try an overtaking manoeuvre; The Gate, which is the hairpin Turn 15 (1st gear) in front of the castle gate; the 90 degree right-hander Turn 16 (2nd gear), which has absolutely no space for run-off and leads onto Wall Street, named after the city wall that frames the circuit on the right-hand side; and Wall Street Corner, Turn 16 (3rd gear) that has an escape road.
On from there, the track unnoticeably descends through a tight left-hand kink with SAFER barriers on the outside, Turn 17 (4th gear), onto a short straight. Entering the next corner, Turn 18 (4th gear), there is a sudden steep downfall in altitude, which returns to a moderate level of descent after the corner, that's comparable to the rise on the start-finish straight. There is an escape road in Turn 18, but that one runs uphill into Bank Street, whereas the track runs downhill into Amethyst Avenue. At the end of that relatively short straight, there is a more than 90 degree right-hander, the camber of which turns the track from going downhill back into flat, Turn 19 (4th gear). Turn 19 is in fact wider than you would expect. Entering it, you can't see the exit, in which there are only the SAFERs lined up for unexpected visitors, though there is an escape road at the entrance, continuing in the direction of Amethyst Avenue, but that one suddenly goes steeply downhill right after troubled cars enter it. It's an almost unescapable escape road, because when a car has spun back into the right direction, it needs to go uphill in an almost 45 degree angle.
But anyway, we've already passed that probably most difficult corner of the track, heading along another short straight, that's in fact longer than the start-finish straight, towards Green's. Turn 20 and Turn 21 (both 2nd gear), also known as Green's, named after a florist there, is a right-left combination, that's probably too tight to overtake, but not too tight to press through. Since it's located in a park area, like the subsequent few corners as well, there's enough run-off space. After this, cars take another short straight under their wheels, at the end of which there is a double apex left-hander, Turn 22 (4th gear and accelerating). Before 1994, Turn 22 used to have no run-off at all, but to improve safety here, organisers changed the layout of the corner, pulling it further inside and creating run-off on its outside in the process. Turn 22 is somewhat an unlikely overtaking point, but surprise overtaking manoeuvres have indeed taken place here time and time again over the past years. Coming out of Turn 22, you enter the long-winding S-curve called Tomato Road, that has Turn 23 (5th gear until apex, breaking on from there) as its 2nd part.
Right at the apex of Turn 23, the breaking zone for the subsequent Police Station chicane, Turns 24 and 25 (2nd gear) starts. After that, my choice of words starts getting repetitive, when yet another short straight follows. The next, penultimate corner, Turn 26 (4th gear) is a more than 90 degree left-hander, at 1/3 into which the track modestly begins to rise again, continuing in this fashion all the way through the final Exhibition Grounds right-hander, Turn 27 (5th gear accelerating), across the start-finish line. The penultimate corner, Turn 26 has merely SAFER barriers on the outside, and that's the main reason the race organisers put the Police Station chicane in place in 1994. Both the run-off and the escape road of the final Exhibition Grounds corner, Turn 27 goes uphill in a much steeper way than the track. And if you haven't entered any escape road by accident during a commercial break, you have now successfully sat through a lap of the streets of Abiszettstadt.

Anyway, the city also hosts a touring car race on a shortened circuit. For this, the lower half of the boulevard is chopped off, bypassing it after Duke's, going upward the boulevard from there, and cutting off the park section as well, using the escape road of Turn 19 that suddenly goes steeply downhill to meet up with the penultimate corner, making it a difficult but possible overtaking opportunity on the short circuit.

There's no paragraph on track history this time, since I have already included, how the track has been modified in recent years. I first drew this track in my initial session in 1991, but the shape is taken from the track (one on a much smaller scale) I used to preferably ride my scooter on as a child. If anyone has read up to this point and still cares, in reality, the boulevard is a gateway that's as wide as a single car, the run-off at Garage's is the neighbour's garage, and the park section is a stretch of grass.

[Tathrim]

I have tried to put sme flow in to a mickey-mouse area.

and if this circuit had a future and a bigger grid, it should move to have a bigger pit area inside the red circle.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Tathrim

I have tried to put sme flow in to a mickey-mouse area.

and if this circuit had a future and a bigger grid, it should move to have a bigger pit area inside the red circle.

Thanks for the comment. Your modification of removing both the chicanes at Green's and the Police Station chicane is OK with me. But turning Garage's into 2 wide sweepers removes an overtaking opportunity from the track without building another one, so I'm against that.
I agree that the state of the pitlane is somewhat a mess and not quite realistic.
In the red circle you lined out, the only space for a new provisional pitlane that I can see is in the infield of the Boulevard, with the pitlane entrance to be somewhere between Cook's and Betty's.

But as a kid's scooter track, it was enjoyable anyway

[Tathrim]

Ok. thanks for your comments.

[Yannick]

Meat City is a non-permanent street circuit on the grounds of a cattle and porc farm somewhere in the US-American midwest. Its length is about 2.4 kilometers, but maybe I overestimated it and it's in fact somewhat shorter even.

This fantasy track is yet again one of my wild, more conceptual ideas. I experimented here with the theme of the City circuit, which is known as being tight, rather short and non-permanent. Then I decreased the scale and got the concept of the Village circuit from that. A village circuit is supposed to be even tighter, slower and shorter than a city circuit. Meat City, which is located on a property used for farming, is an example of the concept of a Village Circuit, albeit probably an over-the-top one.

If you don't mind a Mickey-Mouse-course, click here: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/7fa4d922.jpg

Track history:
Ever since the 1980s, if any track has been the home of the OtherWorld(ly)Series' rural US-American fanbase, it's been this one: Meat City, named after the John Lennon song of the same title. It's a place where they don't produce meat, but keep cows and pigs indoors instead, so it should actually be named Cattle and Porc Village instead. In this place, it's necessary that there is agricultural traffic on parts of the circuit itself even on race day. This means, there is always a certain amount of fresh mud and other more smelly particles being brought onto the circuit on every day of the race weekend. It is no rarity by any means that the reason for a car ending a race here in the barriers has been that it slipped away on some of that ****.
In the mid-90s when I developed this circuit, loosely based on the track design which I used to train my bicycle balance skills on back then, I had to think hard about how to make such a tight, slow track plausible for cars, so I came up with the concept of the Village Circuit.
Support races here are a stock car race and some events on the drag strip, which is not included in the drawing, but located in south-north-direction on the easter side of the chicaned straight.
Naturally, organizers of this race serve milk on the winner's podium ;-)

Being located on a porc and cattle farm, and keeping to the concept of the village circuit, that there should not be too much space, the pitlane building is relatively small and has garages on both of its sides. Leaving the track at the entry of Turn 1, the pitlane goes down one side of the pitlane building, then makes a 180 degree turn to the left, where there are no garages placed, but a building of agricultural purpose on the outside, and then it goes up again on the other side of the pitlane building, to rejoin the track on the exit of Turn 1. The paddock area is located on a field outside of the farm.

Lap description:
The track runs anticlockwise. The start-finish line is not located on a straight, but instead, the grid lines up for the start besides the farmer's (who is also the race organizer) old house that is located on the inside of Turn 1. Cars doing warm-up laps before the race can bypass the grid via the escape road of Turn 21, which rejoins the track at the entry of Turn 1, some metres before the pitlane entrance. The bit where the starting grid is located is actually so short that there are no more than 20 cars allowed to start here, with the last one basically starting out of the escape road that rejoins the track in the penultimate corner, Turn 22. For lack of space, the formation lap leads through this escape road. Sometimes, there even arise problems for starters in the middle of the pack should they be a little late in taking their place on the grid before the formation lap, because the cars on the last two rows and on the first row are already blocking all entrances to the grid area. These cars that are then absent from the grid, must start out of the pitlane, which is a mean fate on this track. Backmarkers usually like this track because of this situation that is maybe their only chance for points during the whole season.

Crossing the start-finish line, cars are already braking for the tight left hander Turn 1 (2nd gear) that turns them around 180 degrees and would be considered tight enough to be called a hairpin on any other track, but not on this one. Right after that, and being at the historical center of the farm, they accelerate through Turn 2 (3rd gear) and Turn 3 (4th gear) that are usually taken as one double-apex corner, and head on for the short straight that's to follow. Not only is this the only proper straight on this circuit, but at the end of it, in the braking zone to the tight left-hander Turn 4 (2nd gear), which comes up when they have merely gotten into 7th gear, there is about the only place you can squeeze yourself past another competitor. Turn 4 has a sufficient amount of run-off on the outside, which should psychologically support overtaking attempts. Next is an even shorter straight, at the end of which follows Turn 5, a tight 90 degree left-hander that leads into a section that's known as the 'chicaned straight'. Having in a way being inspired by the Mulsanne Straight chicanes of the Le Mans 24 hours track, this 'chicaned straight' scales down its idol to the length of a short drag strip. Turns 6 to 9 (all 2nd gear) make up the 1st chicane to the right, lined by a farm building on its left side, and Turns 10 to 13 (also all 2nd gear) make up the 2nd chicane, keeping cars slow. As the 'chicaned straight' continues along further farm buildings standing on the inside of the track, the 'barn corner', Turn 14 and 15 (1st gear) comes into sight. With SAFER barriers lined up straight ahead. Drivers turn right and then into a tight left, that's still not the tightest corner of the track. It is named the barn corner, because that wall at the end of the 'chicaned straight' originally belonged to a barn located there, through which the track would lead for a few meters right after Turn 15 in the first few years of this race. Equaling a tunnel that was downscaled, the barn corner section was not greeted with enthusiasm by drivers and teams alike, so the organisers decided to sort of push back the barn building to the outside of Turn 15, but retained the original track design with the wall of SAFER barriers, where the barn used to be.
Coming out of Turn 15, cars go through a little dip at the apex of the right hander Turn 16 (3rd gear), already braking for the subsequent hairpin, Turn 17 (1st gear), which has the track's highest altitude on its apex. Going down from there, the track immediately turns left into Turn 17 (3rd gear) which has a short and steep downfall on its exit, and after that right into the slightly cambered Turn 18 (2nd gear), which is treated by most drivers as a double-apex corner with the 1st half of the subsequent S-curve, Turn 19, through which they accelerate, and Turn 20, at the apex of which the breaking zone starts for the hairpin.
Turns 21 and 22 (both 1st gear), known as the double-hairpin, is the tightest part of the track. It wouldn't look out of place on a kart track. If there's is going to be a chance of overtaking into Turn 1, which usually there isn't, you must go cleanly through the double-hairpin, otherwise that one is lost. Driving across the grid slots through Turn 23 (4th gear still accelerating), you've come full circle on a lap of Meat city, when you are in the breaking zone for Turn 1, crossing the line there.

[V8_TURBO]

It's okay, I guess. I don't know what I would change about this track, but I would change something.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I'm not a fan of street circuits at the best of times, but this one just doesn't do anything for me at all. The entire Left hand side as drawn, looks much to convoluted

[Tathrim]

I would have the bypass sectionas the main route, scrapping the micey mouse section of 22-24. this would create more grid space and incease flow at the same time. otherwise, good track.

[Alwaysfirst]

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Tis Tilke's dream track!!! Not a fan of that one but I like the rest, though I would change parts.

[the_royksopp]

Originally Posted by alwaysfirst

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Tis Tilke's dream track!!! Not a fan of that one but I like the rest, though I would change parts.

To be honest, i don't really see much resemblance between Tilkes tracks and this. Tilke's are much more flowing; he very seldonly uses chicanes. You shouldn't just use Tilke as a common denominator for a bad track. I and many others actually quite like the likes of Sepang, Sakhir and Kurtkoy. His tracks themselves are not bad - there just shouldn't be too many of them, that would make F1 even more boring than it is.

Having said that, i gotta agree with you that this track is no beauty. Yannick, you should consider chicanes as being a tool of safety, rather than being part of an actual design. Usually, chicanes have been implemented into a track for safety reasons - to slow down the cars. That being said, i don't consider chicanes a definite nuisance, some of them are good, but the two chicanes on the back straight on your last track are quite useless.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Alwaysfirst

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Tis Tilke's dream track!!! Not a fan of that one but I like the rest, though I would change parts.

That's interesting. Please feel free to show your edits of Bluff Mountain, Boeiragloshe and the Circuit De L'ÃŽle. Thank you in advance.

[Yannick]

Having expected to take quite an amount of criticism for the Meat City track, the concept of which is basically to have a track that's so slow that it's almost undriveable (read: farm circuit ), your reactions haven't surprised me.
Thanks for commenting again on this thread.

#10 in the series will go online in a few seconds. There is a section around the final corner on that particular track that I think needs to be redeveloped, so I'd like to invite you to post your ideas about that. Thanks.

[Yannick]

The Circuito Hague dela TrahuertÃ*, built on the grounds of a local car dealership and tuning specialist, has been the home of the OtherWorld(ly) Series Portuguese Grand Prix ever since its redevelopment in the early 1990s. Its length is around 3.9 kilometers.


Track history:
Originally, on the location of the Circuito, there used to be a relatively boring, relatively rectangular test track, used by the local tuning specialist, which also occasionally hosted motorbike and car races in minor categories. When said tuning specialist entered the OtherWorld(ly) Series with the support of a major car manufacturer, the track was redeveloped and reshaped as a Grand Prix track, with construction beginning in around 1993, when I first drew this track.
The chicane that comes before the final corner underwent several reshaping procedures over the years, but the track's final corner is still suffering from what I call the "Magny-Cours problem": the closeness of the pit wall on the exit of the final corner requires cars being slowed down, but I haven't found a chicane shape that I like so far.

If you want to see the track now, click here: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/222f13af.jpg

Lap description:
The Circuito Hague dela TrahuertÃ* runs clockwise. Going down the flat start-finish straight, you need to prepare yourself well, if you are going to try an overtaking move in Turn 1 (1st gear), because Turn 1 is the tightest corner of the whole track. It's a 180 degree hairpin that's been kinked even more to the right, close to its tip, to make the corner even tighter. The ideal line would be to enter the corner far on the outside at its entry and then reach the apex at 2/3 into it, exiting on the kerb behind the kink on the outside. In taking that line, the kink is in fact not felt at all. But actually taking that line means leaving the door open very wide for a competitor from behind to enter, only to suddenly close the door at the last second, whilst the competitor has already gone through and finds himself struggling to get past the kink on the exit without going off into the gravel. After that corner, the track leads along a short straight, where it begins to moderately go downhill. That decline in altitude continues while cars accelerate through the slightly cambered left-hander Turn 2 (4th gear, 5th gear for some), which has increasing radius throughout. After that, the lowpoint of this particular section is reached, when Turn 2 fades out into that long uphill left-hand bow, that's cambered in the same way as Turn 2. Cars still accelerate, going along the bow, with altitude getting steeper the closer they get to the next corner, even getting into 7th gear for a moment, before the braking zone for the right-hander Turn 3 begins, just when the kink at the end of the bow at its steepest point. Braking into Turn 3 is possibly the most difficult overtaking opportunity on the track. Turn 3 (2nd gear) is a right-hander that goes around 120 degrees. At its entry, the track hangs steeply upward, reaching the highpoint of the circuit at its apex, and going moderately downhill on from its exit. Right next comes Turn 4 (2nd gear too), a right-hander that's tighter on its exit than at its entry and which goes downill relatively steeply from its entry towards its apex, where it's tightest. Next is the left-hander Turn 5 (3rd gear accelerating), during the course of which the altitude decrease fades into only moderately going downhill, in the way the track decreases on the subsequent short straight bit between Turns 3 and 4. At the end of the straight, there is Turn 6, the 1st part of an S-curve that later becomes the long-winded parabolica. (It's already as early as entering into Turn 6, when a driver must pick one of multiple possible lines to go through the subsequent section, that will enable him to overtake out of the slipstream at the end of the straight that follows the parabolica.) Turn 6 (3rd gear at its tightest, but 4th gear for some) begins rather wide on its entry, then has its tightest radius around the point where the new track crosses the old, and then widens again, before turning right into Turn 7. On the entry of Turn 6, the track altitude still decreases in the same way as it does on the straight that preceded the corner, reaching the relative lowpoint at about where the new track crosses the old. On from there, it climbs steeply, but not as steep as on the entry of Turn 3, so you are actually on a higher altitude on the exit of Turn 6 than you were when entering the corner. The 2nd part of the S-curve, Turn 7, continues to climb uphill, being its steepest where the right-hander Turn 7 is still tightening, and getting more moderate after the first apex, where it widens again. Turn 7 (3rd gear at its tightest), the parabolica, reaches its highest altitude at its northernmost point, just before it tightens again, going moderately downhill from there. Cars accelerate all the way through that part of the parabolica, which fades into the back straight, thereby going through several changes in radius.
The lowest overall point of the circuit is reached at the end of the back straight, where cars also reach their highest speed, just before the major overtaking opportunity of the track, the 1st part of the Z-curve, the tight right-hander Turn 8 (2nd gear). Beginning at the apex of Turn 8, the track goes only slightly uphill through the 2nd part of the Z-curve, the left-hander Turn 9 (2nd gear too), and steepens to moderately going uphill after that corner, continuing to rise like that until the apex of the final corner. Next is a wide kink to the left, Turn 10, through which cars accelerate, which is followed by the place where the so-called Magny-Cours chicane used to be, replaced by a tight right-left chicane (2nd gear) that's still being heavily debated. It consists of Turn 11 and 12 (both down to 2nd gear again), and it merely exists to avoid cars being too fast on the exit of the final corner that's next, Turn 13 (3rd gear accelerating), so they won't hit the pit wall in oversteer.
On from the apex of Turn 13, the track is flat again on the start-finish straight. Of course, a clean run through the Magny-Cours section is important for taking as much speed as possible onto the straight. That was a lap of the Circuito Hague dela TrahuertÃ*, a track you normally wouldn't expect to find in the backyard of your local car dealership.

[V8_TURBO]

The chicane in the bottom left corner looks out of place, but I love the rest of the track.

[jab]

I'm going to have a good hard look at this last corner. It's a great challenge

[jab]

Attempt 1


Attempt 2


Attempt 3


The template I used if anyone wants it to have a go themselves

[V8_TURBO]

I think that the original was better, even though I don't like it.

[Tathrim]

I am working on my changes, I am going to post them tommorrow, as I am still thinking about that pesky little chicane. Aaarrrggghhh!!!

[the_royksopp]

This would be my solution:

[shambles]

I like JAB's first attempt, and I think Royks is very niuce as well. I will have a go at some point, haven't drawn anything remotely track like for ages. I wanna get stuck in again!

[Lustigson]

I like TR's changes.

[jab]

Yeah, it reminds me of the new Russell at Snetterton - hairpin and then a quick banked corner leading onto the straight, or in this case, to the last corner

[the_royksopp]

Originally Posted by Lustigson

I like TR's changes.

Yeah, i figured. It's a Lustig-type corner

[Purist]

Sorry to take this on a bit of a tangent Yannick, but you got me wondering when you mentioned those three tracks (Bluff Montain and co.) that AF should take a look at. I'm curious, but I've already checked four circuit databases, and I haven't spotted any of those three tracks. Am I missing something? Are those circuits perhaps better known under different names than the ones you gave? I'd really like to take a look at those courses.