Himlar's race tracks

[Himlar]

Hi everybody,

I'm a new guy here, so I better present myself. My name is Fredrik, and I'm a soon to be product developer and all-round race geek. Recently I started to learn Google SketchUp to have a wider CAD/3D knowledge, and stumbled upon you guys designing your own tracks. What a perfect opportunity to combine work and play, and learn SketchUp by designing race cars and race tracks!

This is my first "real" attempt, trying to design a full-on race arena with some sort of stands and pit lane (although very schematic at the moment). The main track is about 5km long, and I've tried to make something that would be at least a bit challenging for the drivers. Driven clockwise, and no elevation at the moment as I haven't figured out how to create elevated turns. If I can make it work, I think that a slight drop from turn 3 (second right turn) down to T5 (right hander hairpin) would make for interesting brake duels ...

As I have no experience in doing this, 'nor knowledge in track design, I want every critisism and comment that you have. Please don't hesitate, I'm here to learn!

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Firstly welcome Fredrik, it's good to have someone new posting here.

Most of the people that are posting or have posted designs on fall into the category of no knowledge of track design. Though from your first offering you clearly have a vision of what you'd like your designs to look like.

On your first design, I'd probably look first of all at the gravel traps, use google earth or similar to view real circuits, you'll see that they tend to start in a line with the approaching track continue around the corner and a little down the beyond where the racing line might run out to the edge of the circuit.
For Eample T1 the gravel trap wouldn't open out to the drviers left at the turn in point, in real life the barrier along the straight would continue beyond the track.
See the first attached image.

When placing grandstands think of yourself sitting on one of the seats, turning you head from cars approaching to cars going away from you. You want to have your grandstands with as large a view as possible.
Personally the two grandstands furthers from the pits, the small on is inside an enlarged busstop sectiion, a spectator due to the curve of the Stands would see very little other than what's immediately in front, by placing the Grandstand on the inside of the circuit (see I know that you have placed a lake there on this design) , then a spectator would see cars enter the section along the short straight and exit the section.
Likewise the large grandstans has a view of a straight and whatever is beyond that outside the circuit, place the grandstand on the outside of the circuit, and not only does the spectator see that same straight but also the corner approaching and possibly the exit of the next chicane as well depending on the the type and size of the grandstand.
Sketch up has a function that allows you to place yourself anywhere on the design and look around, the little figure with a red X at their feet, place the figure on the slope of the grandstand and then rotate around to see the view from that location.

For info on measuring the circuit accurately try looking though our own tutorials here, written by the members as we shared ideas and "how to". You can also check the length of straights using the measuring tool as well.

Hopefully I've not scared you off with these comments

[Himlar]

Thanks ScotsBrutesFan, you have definitely not scared me off and I totally understand your criticism when I see it. Looking through some older threads here, I got inspired to do a "twin circuit" and tried to incorporate what you said when designing stands and gravel traps (I didn't know about the "position camera" tool, great stuff!).

This time it's a counter-clockwise track, main track is just under 6,5km (I seem to make my circuits a tad long), with twin pit areas located next to each other. The idea is to be able to use the left and right tracks simultaneously for club activities etc. The left part is sharper, slower and a bit more street circuit like, while the right part is supposed to be fast with flowing turns and long, radius-changing bends.

When used as one track, the 850 meter S/F straight connects the two parts via a fast left-right-hander meant to make different lines through the sections possible. The back straight connecting the left and right parts are a short straight, preceded by a 180 degree turn and a left-right kink.

On the measuring note, I use the area method to get the length of my lap, but how do I do if I would want to measure one of my club tracks? And without having to individually select every section of either inner or outer boundry (since having three or four radii in one corner creates a whole lot of minimal sections).

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The trick for measuring variations of combinations of circuits is to leave in your construction lines. It looks like you draw a single line and then use the offset tool to create the track width.
Make sure all the offsets join up and you should then be able to highlight sections of track. simply highlight the sections you want holding down the shift key so that more than one highlights, then use the area tool.
Do it at an early stage then remove all the extra lines for the final presentation.

See Below

[Himlar]

Thanks for the tip, haven't thought about doing that. I will try that on my latest track, as well as doing something a bit more simple design-wise.

[Himlar]

New track, tried to make it a bit more versatile while still having a simple design for each layout.

Driven clock-wise, six main layouts:

GP circuit (yellow): 2925 m
Outer lap (red): 2177 m
West club track (blue): 1397 m
East club track (green): 1044 m
Stadium circuit (purple): 2176 m
Sprint circuit (grey): 2244 m


Looking at it now, it may be a bit short and "squished", but I think it still is descent enough to get some criticism on.

[Himlar]

Last two pictures.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The concept reminds me of some of my earlier stuff, before I started using Sketchup

[Himlar]

Looking at it now I see some Monza, some Silverstone and maybe some Donington in it, but done in much smaller scale. If you can find more similarities, I'm happy to hear. It's always good to get tips and tricks about layouts and everything around the track.

[Yannick]

All I can say is "What a debut!"

[tausif]

@ Himlar,
Your work is very impressive.

Would you consider doing kart tracks at some stage?

[Himlar]

Wow, thanks! I'm flattered by your comments, and I'm even more inspired to do more work.

@tausif: Honestly, I haven't thought about it, and I would need time to learn about both gocart racing and the facilities, but it would be really fun to get something done in real life.

Now on to the first project of this year, just something basic to get things going. A 3622 meter track, driven anti-clockwise. I wanted it to be fast and challenging, with left-right-esses between fast sections.

[Tathrim]

Originally Posted by Himlar

Wow, thanks! I'm flattered by your comments, and I'm even more inspired to do more work.

@tausif: Honestly, I haven't thought about it, and I would need time to learn about both gocart racing and the facilities, but it would be really fun to get something done in real life.

Now on to the first project of this year, just something basic to get things going. A 3622 meter track, driven anti-clockwise. I wanted it to be fast and challenging, with left-right-esses between fast sections.

Do yourself a favour, change the direction. You'll get a better overtaking opportunity on the back straight.

[Yannick]

You could easily turn your 3rd track into a huge superspeedway by just adding Turns 1 and 2, the short shute between them, beginning from the corner where the pitlane entry of the road course is located. Additionally, for Turn 3, you will just need to extend the backstretch around the edge of the gravel trap.

For your 4th track, I recommend not changing the racing direction but the corner at the end of the backstretch to promote overtaking. It needs to lead to the inside of the track.

Your 1st track feels like a mixture of Melbourne, Sepang and Sakhir. But please let go of the Sakhir influence by letting go of the Mickey-Mousey section in the infield. Bypassing that finger on the inside of which that white building is located, could actually do the trick.

I hope you don't feel I mess with your original concepts too much.

[Himlar]

I thought about reversing the track, but it would have required redesign of big parts of the track to get what I wanted. Instead, I went with Yannicks tip and altered the first turn after the back "straight" into a left-left-right section. I also redesign the part leading into the back straight, hoping that it would make it a bit more challenging to get a good exit from the turn into the straight.

To finish it off, I added some more stands and a bit of detail. Now on the the next track, if I have figured it out I might be able to add some elevation to that one.

[ECW Dan Selby]

There's sometimes new guys on here where I just instantly like their style.

I remember when Speeding Tortoise came on to the scene (has he been about?) and I just loved every single design he did.

I guess it goes back to the argument of 'why do we have only one track creator in F1?'.

Incase you hadn't realised, I really like your work. I'm craving to make some tracks. Havn't designed any in about 3 months now (motherboard's gone).

Selby

[Himlar]

Wow Dan, thanks! I'm really ... amazed, I guess, by the positive reactions I'm getting here. I'm just having fun and going purely on gut feeling for my designs.

Speaking of designs; there hasn't been any of them for some time. I have been working on a project that won't be posted here, at least for a while, and school has gotten the best of me. I had some time over tonight, needing a break from studying, so I sketched up a 3650 meter track for further work later on. No stands, no building, not even gravel traps, just something to get back into the game. Designed to be raced clock-wise, my hope is that the bus stop-sort of will shake cars out of balance when going into the very fast right-hander onto the next straight, making it a challenge to keep the throttle down and really keeping the speed through the turns.

[werner]

That sounds a bit like enna-pergusa. Wich is quite spectacular. The first chicane looks spectacular as wel, but I don't know if it is suitable as first corner. if that might be the case, you could choose to start at the last straight.
The pit-entry should be changed to before the last corner.

[Purist]

This strikes me as a track that should be going anti-clockwise.

I'd kind of like to see something more in the upper right, and I'm not keen on the big chicane on the lower section.

However, the overall shapes seems quite good, and I really would mainly be looking at more tweaks than a remake or anything like that.