Sunday, August 17, 2008

White Lake Formula One Ring - The Design


So I'm full of ideas after that fateful venture to Legends. I have to build one of these! It's all I could imagine as a designer: creation, ambition and racing all rolled into a sweet little package (well maybe not so little). RC car who? Thus begins the travels down this large adolescents path towards something kick-ass, at least in my own mind.

As I said I am a designer, an exhibit designer to be exact and that has exposed me to some rather unique tools. Those of which I have studied endlessly to perfect and have enabled me to create this monstrosity I have dubbed the White Lake Formula One Ring. Lightwave 3D and Adobe Illustrator - my weapons of choice. I set out on the layout and in short time came up with a decent circuit that comprised many of the challenges one might encounter on a modern F1 circuit in slot car form of course. With some insight from DBR and his cohorts JA and BT I decided on the AC2car system for my layout. A bit of insight for the ignorant; AC2 allows 2 cars to run on the same slot. By integrating lane changers you provide users of one slot to change lanes and pass the competitor. As a result each driver has 2 paths around a track. If your track length is each 100 feet, thats 200 feet of unique slot lines a driver can take. Basically double the fun! WLF1 Ring is 142 feet of track so that's 284 feet of unique lines for each driver! I have roughly a 20 foot x 20 foot space, and AC2 enables you to maximize track length in the smallest amount of space. With my digital files in hand it was off to the CNC router with 13 sheets of 1/2 inch MDF. And wait, and wait and wait... Files submitted in December... finally finished panels in February! Well now the fun really begins, or so I thought.

1 comment:

william said...

It is my dream to witness formula one race live and experience the racing track, till then I guess I need to rely more on internet for the same. Thank you for sharing the information with us