Design a good, challenging race track in any city!

[zedextreme8177]

PS to all moderators: I know there is a similar thread, but this is a different competition.. But please move it to another board, it doesn't belong here. Probably the motorsports forum.

Basically, I want you to determine a good, practical racetrack, complete with pits, in your HOMETOWN (See below as the competition has been expanded). It can either be a street course, or a track set in a plot of empty land.

I want you to provide a map (preferrably from Google Earth, but anything is okay:tup, list all the corners on the map, and give a description of the track, and it's corners, like I've provided in my example at the bottom of this page. Also tell me about the most challenging sections! It could also be a GT5 or future GT6 wishlist

This is just a small competition-like thingy, just to see the creativity of you guys

Update: The competition has been expanded a bit now to include more designs per user. You can now design a race track in any place you have visited in real life. You guys can submit any number of designs you like, but not more than two per city (or island, if referring to countries like mine):

 

[dennisw]

Why would we do this, this is the Gran Turismo 4 board, this belongs in offtopic/fail chat.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

I've always thought where I live (Columbia Maryland) would make a great set of race tracks, because if there's a street going in a straight line, it doesn't last long.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=colum...code_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CA4Q8gEwAA

But this thread sounds like way too much work. I got too much other stuff going on.

How about you start us off with an example, zedextreme8177?

 

[zedextreme8177]

Why would we do this, this is the Gran Turismo 4 board, this belongs in offtopic/fail chat.

Oh yeah, my bad. Newbie at work here. I hope the Moderators move this to a better place, Probably the Automotive forum.

 

[zedextreme8177]

But this thread sounds like way too much work. I got too much other stuff going on.

How about you start us off with an example, zedextreme8177?

It's not really that much work, if you have Google Earth, I'll post an example soon.

 

[Cougar23]

Please don't double post zedextreme8177. It's not looked upon kindly round this neck of the woods at GTP. In the lower right hand corner of all posts is a Quote and Multi-Quote button. Use these instead to answer multiple people at once.

Cheers, Cougar23

 

[Parnelli Bone]

It's not really that much work, if you have Google Earth, I'll post an example soon.

That would be good. 👍 I wanna see your example cuz I have no idea how it would be done, being (still) somewhat clueless with computers after all these years. But yea, you started this thread with the idea, so let's see it.

 

[Lucas]

Like this, Parnelli.

I will do my own later. 👍 Though I agree that this doesn't have anything to do with GT4.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Yea, I know what it's supposed to look like, Codename, but I'm a dummy when it comes to computers. It's probably pretty easy, too.

 

[Daniel]

Oh yeah, my bad. Newbie at work here. I hope the Moderators move this to a better place, Probably the Automotive forum.

I'd say the motor racing forum... I've taken out (and photocopied) a bunch of Auckland Road Maps to do this, and i've already made one attached. Made it all by myself:

Pukekohe Raceway

 

[Peter3759]

Langbourne Speedway. It isn't real of course.
Grey line is the long variation, White line's the Pits (Don't ask why it's there)

The lap starts with Ormond Chicane which, may not look like much but at high speeds you'll have to be careful. Brake hard for Ormond point then even harder at the first of the Kings Park Points followed by a curve leaning the opposite way then another right hander.

(Long)
Watch out for cars parked on the side of the road at Kershaw bend, Kershaw roundabout is a one lane roundabout. After exiting you are face with the Colwyn Chicane then a left hander leading into the Hampshire 90.

(Normal)
At the end of Kershaw Straight you turn around my house (circled) into Langbourne Drive. Split 90 has a traffic island splitting in two lanes (Hence the name). Langbourne Straight has a small chicane which can't be taken flat out.

The Langbourne Turns are three 90 Degree turns that are at the end of the street leading into P-12 Curve which is taken flat out.

Normal is 3.24 Kilometres (2.01 Miles)
Long is 3.39 Kilometres (2.11 Miles)

People have actually crashed into cars on the side of the road coming out of the roundabout going at normal speeds, it's a blind corner.

 

[zedextreme8177]

Please don't double post zedextreme8177. It's not looked upon kindly round this neck of the woods at GTP. In the lower right hand corner of all posts is a Quote and Multi-Quote button. Use these instead to answer multiple people at once.

Cheers, Cougar23

Thanks for the polite information! I'm a bit new to forum work so I'm prone to making mistakes

That would be good. 👍 I wanna see your example cuz I have no idea how it would be done, being (still) somewhat clueless with computers after all these years. But yea, you started this thread with the idea, so let's see it.

Thanks for all the replies!

Here is my design on the island of Hulhumalé. I created the track using Google Earth 5.0, then got a screenshot using ScreenHunter 5.1 (Freeware)

Darkened out with Google Earth's time feature. I added the pitlane, the corner names and the arrow using MS Paint. The red lines show the long course that maybe used for endurance events (ie. Hulhumalé 1000km).

The track is rather whopping, and is home to the world's longest straight at 1.68 km (1.1 miles), so it can satisfy Bernie and the drivers! The track surface is completely asphalt with wide roads (and a few narrow ones), and moderately bumpy, unlike my next design which I will put up soon.

And here, I have a description of all the corners (basically one lap):
1. The point: Sharp Hairpin requiring heavy braking from top speed from the Main Straight.
2. Flat-Out: Hardest Corner on the course, from top speed on the Waterfront Straight: If you get the line wrong, then you're going into the trees on the opposite side (unless the barrier is there of-course)
3. Lengtho-Chicane: As the name suggests, leading onto the Back Straight.
3b. Jetty Turns (Sorry, named as Ferry Turns in the snapshot): Bypassing the Back Straight with successive 90 degree corners, that can be treated as double-apexes and long chicanes, long course only.
4. Opposite Point: 90 degree corner requiring heavy braking.
5. Backway: A deceptive corner that might be able to be taken flat-out, if you have the lines right.
6. Roundabout 270: Second most challenging corner, an extremely long sweeping corner that will test the patience of the driver. The exit is also difficult, Doing badly here can cost you a lot of your lap time
7: Mosque Turns: Short Course=Two corners to be treated as one, right around the mosque. Long Course= A right-left hander.
Long course:
8. School Chicane: As the name suggests
9: School Turns: Left-Right-Right 90 degree Combination, the track narrows a bit here.
10. Beach Drive: A 90 degree right hander leading to a straight right near the shore.
8 or 10: Finale: Either a 90 right-hander in the short course, or a right-left hander in the long course.

Track length:
Short Course: 6.35km (3.94 miles)
Long Course: 7.60km (4.72 miles)

PS: An adequate description of the tracks would be great, also show the pitlane, track length, start/finish and the corner names:tup:.

I also have 3 more designs which I will show as I get more and more designs and replies!

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Cool. So where do you live on that map? Or is it pictured?

 

[zedextreme8177]

Cool. So where do you live on that map? Or is it pictured?

I don't have a permanent residence in that island, although I regularly visit some of my family who live there:tup:. I live in the nearby city of Malé, which has very narrow roads, probably about the same width as Citta di Aria in GT4.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

I don't have a permanent residence in that island, although I regularly visit some of my family who live there:tup:. I live in the nearby city of Malé, which has very narrow roads, probably about the same width as Citta di Aria in GT4.

Cool. Hope to visit someday. If ever.

 

[LancerEvo7]

Pits in green, it was hard to make something out of the gridded areas.

 

[Lucas]

My take on this game.

The track is situated around 30 blocks from my house. In fact, the start/finish line marked in green touches the field where me and my friends used to see girls playing field hockey, while we were in our gym class at the small patch of grass located at the bottom left of it. Definitely my best memory from last year.

Probably the most challenging corners are the last two before the finish line, one of them being a hairpin, and the other one a tight right handed turn. The two corners at the Miguel de Azcuénaga road run parallel with a railroad.

 

[Peter3759]

If you have Vista you can use the Snipping tool in Accessories to take screenshots.

 

[zedextreme8177]

I've always thought where I live (Columbia Maryland) would make a great set of race tracks, because if there's a street going in a straight line, it doesn't last long.

Nearly every city would make a good racetrack:, it just depends on your imagination and knowledge of racing, to make the best ones that public roads can provide.

I lived in the city of Stirling, Scotland for 3 years, when my mum was studying in the university. During that time, we had an own residence, so I can call it 'home'. I came up with a very high-speed, challenging course, so I thought I'd share it as well.

In much more detail...

The track is fully compatible with FIA standards. No straight longer than 2km, and total track length is no longer than 7km, although the track length is actually 6.99km (4.34 miles):d: (Take that FIA!)

This is a description of 1 lap
1. Starting from the Raploch Straight, the cars brake moderately to take the A811 Hi-speed left-hander onto the Dumbarton Straight.
2. Following a top-speed run, cars enter the Corn Rouge (pun on Eau Rouge), a very difficult flat out high-speed uphill left-hander followed by a sharp right-hander slightly downhill, requiring heavy braking.
3. Cars should go flat out throught the Exit Speeder for a good run up to the 90 degree corner, followed by the Outer kink, which follows a roundabout.
4. There is a right-hander up to the Monkey-Wrench Hairpin, the track also becomes narrow here, as it is basically a two lane road. The hairpin is the slowest and tightest turn on the track.
5. After a run from the small straight, the cars reach the Roundabout 320 which is a very long sweeping turn, leading onto the longest straight on the track, the Burghmuir Run.
6. Following a run at maximum speed, cars brake heavily for the Clocktower double-apex corner, then run onto the Cowane entry, a slight right-hander followed immediately by a sharper one, then onto the high-speed right hander, Lower-Bridge Exit requiring no braking or feathering of the throttle.
7. The cars go through another sweeping turn, Customs, then get slowed down by the Back O Hill chicane, leading onto the difficult and bumpy Back O Hill Kinky Straight.
8. Cars approach the Raplochimont (Blanchimont), a very fearsome left-hander that should be taken flat out and on the proper line (or you're going to go straight into the barrier on the other side), and finally the sharp and sudden Terminal Corner, leading back onto the Start/Finish Straight.

In my opinion, the most difficult sections would be the Corn Rouge, Back O Hill Kinky Straight and the Raplochimont.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Yes, that's all very pretty zedextreme, but you still haven't put a marker on your map that says "My House"! I wanna see where you live/lived, since the topic of this thread is "my hometown as a racetrack."

It would be next to impossible to include my house by the racetrack, for instance, because I live on a cul-de-sac style street. But they could fly around some other streets nearby.

 

[Lucas]

Yes, that's all very pretty zedextreme, but you still haven't put a marker on your map that says "My House"!

Some people want to protect their personal details, Parnelli.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Some people want to protect their personal details, Parnelli.

*sigh*

 

[DK]

I think you could've left out "Monkey Wrench Hairpin", it adds too much length and time to the track. Plus, it's probably very thin, eliminating passing opportunities.

 

[zedextreme8177]

Yes, that's all very pretty zedextreme, but you still haven't put a marker on your map that says "My House"! I wanna see where you live/lived, since the topic of this thread is "my hometown as a racetrack."

As I said I lived in a house nearby, but it's not on the map. It's actually only like a few centimeters south in the photo, but I decided not to include it as the track is more important.
In our country, hometown literally means anywhere you've stayed for a long time, or anywhere you've visited regularly and stayed for over a day.

Also, cities in our country consist of many separate islands, for example: I also added that it may be set on any empty land (even airports!), but our city airport itself is on a separate island!

I will show my house in the first of the two next track designs though, don't worry:

I will be expanding the competition a bit now to include more designs per user. You can now design a race track in any place you have visited in real life, ie: I have visited Dubai, Paris, London, Bangkok, Colombo and Trivandrum. You guys can submit any number of designs you like, but not more than two per city (or island, if referring to countries like mine).

I think you could've left out "Monkey Wrench Hairpin", it adds too much length and time to the track. Plus, it's probably very thin, eliminating passing opportunities.

That's a pretty good idea! I have this habit of designing long race tracks, with some places built out of two-way roads. I also thought that it was a bit useless

About the width. It's about 3/4 the width of the Nurburgring, so cars would still have an acceptable passing opportunity.

 

[RaidoGT]

Looks like a job for Bob's Track Builder, this kind of thing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJMo-hF7zX0

 

[Jujubean]

This is a great thread, though I do agree its sort of in the wrong place. I used to work as a Valet driver in my home town, and we had a bunch of tourist maps to hand out to our customers. I would take a pen and make up tracks of my own. I think I threw away all my wonderful track ideas, but I am going to get on google earth and re-make some of them. I will post again soon...

 

[Diego440]

I used to live in a mountainous island with all sorts of twisty roads... I think I'll upload a few point-to-point 'stages' I used to drive about in.

 

[zedextreme8177]

This is a great thread, though I do agree its sort of in the wrong place. I used to work as a Valet driver in my home town, and we had a bunch of tourist maps to hand out to our customers. I would take a pen and make up tracks of my own. I think I threw away all my wonderful track ideas, but I am going to get on google earth and re-make some of them. I will post again soon...

I saw your design, it's pretty unique, and I fully agree with driftking on the originality!👍

Looks like a job for Bob's Track Builder, this kind of thing...

Good idea, but many people don't have BTB, so it's much easier to use Google Earth and MS Paint

Here's my take on the competition.

That's an nice design! Sort of resembles Seattle in GT but I'm sure it's much better. I see it has many 90 degree corners, but I also like the fact that it is short
Now for my two designs in the City of Colombo, Sri Lanka

The two courses are the Colombo North: Seaside and the Colombo South: Central, here is a shot of the area (The blue line is the Colombo South: Central, the purple line is a stretch shared by both tracks)

First the Colombo North: Seaside Course

And in much more detail:tup:

The track features my trademark length of 6.99km (4.34 miles):sly, and is a pretty high-speed course, with a few technical sections!

Here's a description of one lap
1. Starting from the Chaithiya Straight, cars reach a tight hairpin, Chaithiya Turnaround, then accelerate directly through the WTC corner with no braking or feathering.
2. Cars reach York, a light-left hander followed immediately by a tight right-hander, then reach the Lotus Hairpin, and accelerate through the kink down to a tight left-hander, Galle Entry.
3. Following a top-speed run from the Galle Straight, Cars reach the very tight Galle Exit left-hander, then run through the Sir M Macan Makar Stretch, a tight left-hander followed by a light right-turn up to the light-kink in the Rifle Street.
4. The cars reach the Rifler Hairpin, which, being the tightest corner on the course (along with the Leyden Bastian), is pretty easy to screw up. Cars then go through the Kumaran Ratnam Kink, followed by SCAGM Roundabout, onto the SCAGM Run, with the difficult Crosser kink in the middle.
5. Cars reach the York Hairpin following a light left-kink, then go up to the Upper Chatnam, then brake for the double-part York Righter, with the second section to be taken flat-out. Cars then reach the Leyden Bastian hairpin (Similar to the Rifler Hairpin).
6. Cars go through the SJBM corners, left-right-right-left, before braking lightly to take the Chaithiya High-speed leading back onto the start/finish straight.

In my opinion, the most difficult corners would be the Rifler and Leyden Bastian Hairpins, The Crosser kink and the Second part of York Righter.

Now for the COlombo South: Central Course

And in much more detail (Dammit I only discovered text w/o borders yesterday).

The track yet-again features my trademark length of 6.99km (4.34 miles), and is primarily a high-mid speed course

with many straights, but has an extremely technical section as well.

Here's a lap description
1. Starting from the Kannangara Straight, cars reach the Interchange chicane, then go on the extremely long and aptly-named
G-Force Curver at near maximum, or maximum speed, then brake heavily again to go around the Interchange II
2. Braking lightly to take Mawatha, cars then run through a short straight before braking heavily for the 90 degree
Perahera, then go through the Lakeside Straight, brake lightly to go through the Lakeside Turn, and run at full speed
through the Shri Uttandara Straight.
3. Braking heavily to take Justice Akbar, cars accelerate straight through the Rifle Sweep, which is a two part deal, onto
the Mawatha Straight. This is the longest full throttle section on the track.
4. Braking moderately, accelerating and then braking heavily to take the two-part Suburban S (Mistakenly named Rural S and
Straight in the snapshot), cars go through the Suburban Straight, this is a very narrow section going through poor-condition
roads
5. Braking heavily for the Dharmapala Left, cars run the Dharmapala Straight, before braking moderatelyto take the Union
turn, then Comes the Foster hairpin followed immediately by the Thero hairpin. This is a crucial section for overtaking
since the two turns are extremely tight (tightest on the course) and the curving straight separating them is very narrow.
Thero provides a better overtaking opportunity since the road widens back up there. Cars then go through the final
Kannangara Kink before going back onto the Kannangara Straight.

The most difficult corners would probably be the G-Force Curver, Mawatha, Lakeside Turn, Rifle Sweep, Suburban S, Foster and
Thero.

Considering the possiblities of the multiple track uses, the North Track could be used for a future Colombo GP while the South
Track could be used for a South Asian GP.

It would also be possible to combine the two tracks to create a whopping 12.98km course!, that could be used for endurance
races (24 hours of Colombo anyone?).

I will be posting more designs as the stages progress.

 

[Diego440]

I'm not sure if this'll work out, since I just realised the image is huge.

I used to live in the Canary Islands (specifically Gran Canaria) and there's a lot of mountain roads and little in the way of highways, to the point that many small towns have to rely on these very dangerous roads to get their supplies from. It's especially scary when you're on those roads and in the next blind curve there's a 10-wheel truck coming the other way or a bus...

But also, during the weekends it wasn't odd to find the rally driver wannabe, speeding through the curves at speeds that would make it unsafe to anyone else to be on the road. I used to drive around these roads at normal speeds and fantasize about how cool they'd be if I was sure there was no one else or even better, if these roads were in some installment of GT.

Hence, here is Stage 1 (of 4) of the Vuelta de Gran Canaria
(direction is from down to up)

This road has a lowest point of sea level and a highest point of 1,800 metres above sea level. Most of the road had to be done between 2nd and 3rd gears. I never used 4th and, incidentally, used 1st gear a couple of times, regardless of cars coming the other way or not. The road also has no diving lane, since it's not wide enough to accomodate two lanes. Finding a car coming the other way is quite tense and a truck involved backing up a few metres until you found places where the road widened a bit.

 

[DK]

Here's my take on the competition.

Turn 1 is a swift left hander, where you have to brake suddenly for Foster's Hairpin, not named for an Aussie's favourite drink, but for the nearby Foster's Lane.
The College Esses (turns 3-6) will probably test the drivers through vicious G-forces. Trinity Corner (named after Trinity College, where it goes past) is a long right-hander. Pearse Corner follows, an acute angled corner. Then, the right-angled Fleet St. Corner follows. Townsend Corner follows a short straight. Then, the thin Bracken's Lane straight brings you to Bracken's Corner, another acute-angled corner. Gloucester St. Corner follows and then the boringly-named turns 13 and 14 follow. Turn 14 brings you onto a bridge which ends in a hairpin, and following Bridge Hairpin you go through the right-angled turns 16-18. A straight along Dublin's Customs House brings you to Customs House Corner, followed by a long left hander, Long Lefter. A short right-hander I didn't bother naming (so it assumes the name Turn 21) and a short straight later brings you to Abbey Corner, followed immediately by the N11 Kink. The (almost) right-angled Eden Quay Corner brings you along the Eden Quay Straight, which ends in the final corner, N4, which is followed by the home straight. Total length: 3.6km

EDIT: Oh crap I forgot a direction arrow! Well, to clarify things, the normal version runs in the direction I just described there. It's basically go south down the main straight for the normal version and go north for the reverse.

EDIT #2: I've just seen Tom Servo's entry. 👍 for originality!