More archive (tracks under development)

[Yannick]

On one of the past weekends, I went through some storage boxes and found some more old fantasy track drawings.

1)
Amongst them, there was this study of chicane shapes:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...eshapes_25.jpg
At the time of drawing, I liked the blot shape of this track so much that I felt it deserved to be preserved in the archive, but not enough to give it a name or do anything else with it. Now I wonder what you would do to this proposal.
Please post your ideas. Thanks.

2)
The following is another unnamed proposal that was in the same box. It dates back to the late 1990s. Now I wonder if it's worth the time to decorate this blot with some corner shapes and elevation changes that actually flow well.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...sal_old_25.jpg
What do you think?

3) La Vonoye
La Vonoye is yet another permanent racetrack located in the North of France.
When I first drew it, I wanted to deliberately create a Mickey-Mouse-track. Over the years, drawings and redrawings had been lost, but the blot shape and track name stayed in my memory, and I had recently redrawn it to include it as an outtake in the 'Opening My Archive'-thread. But then I found an old, very detailed drawing of it in the box that started this thread you're reading now, and found that I quite liked the older version. So the track is now officially under development, to mash both versions. And I'd like to ask you to please post your opinions on the two versions, to help me decide on the corner shapes of my forthcoming 'official' version. Thanks in advance.

This is the recent redrawing:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/89a6a1d3.jpg

And that is the more detailed version from the late 1990s:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/d77b1c03.jpg

plus)
There are more tracks either 'under development' or 'to be deconstructed', that I will post in this thread, once I've found the time to graphically edit those old drawings, which was not necessary with the above three.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[kivipallur92]

I think , 3rd is the best.
2nd is way too twisty.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The 2nd one with just a few minor changes, if measured at 5 miles (8Km) or slightly larger and set in a mixture of purpose built track and Road (rather than street) configuation like LeMans or or Spa would work very well.

[Yannick]

Thanks for the replies so far. Keep them coming

I agree with you, kivipallur92, that the 3rd, La Vonoye, is the one of the three with the most potential. In fact, I had considered putting it into my series, but it lost the French Grand Prix to the Circuit De L'Île in the end, mainly because I would have had to redraw it.
Then I did redraw it (the red and green version), but when I found that older version of it, I liked that much better, so I'm going to redraw it again, trying to merge the two versions.
But I have some concerns that the circuit might be too stop-start:

it's stop right at the 1st corner, which is similar to Turn 1 of the current Nürburgring. Turn 2 is similar to the corner after the hairpin at Aida, Turn 3 is somewhat reminiscent of the first half of Barcelona's infield Esse, and Turn 4 is a little tighter than Turn 3.
After that, the 2nd-longest straight of La Vonoye follows, which ends at the 2nd "stop", and that is the hairpin. After the hairpin, there's two 90 degree corners in short succession, making this a slow section, which is probably some remains of that I had originally planned to do a Mickey-Mouse type of permanent road circuit with this one.
After these there follows the track's most characteristic curve: the long, egg-shaped bow that closes in as it progresses. And it ends at a more than 90 degree right-hander, which might be considered a "stop", too, but I'm not sure about that. Then, there is a short straight bit leading up to a very fast right-hander, taken from the red and green version, that leads onto the 3rd straight. And then I don't know really, if I should make the corner at the end of the straight as tight as it is in the older, blue and green version, because that would mean yet another "stop", even though it would mean another possible overtaking spot, too. On from here, the rest of the track feels somewhat like the uphill stretch from the current Nürburgring to me.

What do you think? Would that be too stop-start?

ScotsBrutesFan, thanks for your encouragement on the 2nd track. If you want to try out something with this blot shape along the lines of what you said, feel free to go ahead with it

[V8_TURBO]

Like the last one there. Nice work again.

[Yannick]

Well, I've done another redesign of the La Vonoye circuit, which I'm going to post on the 'Opening My Archive' thread, when the track description is ready. Therein, I've mixed both the red-green and blue-green versions, but staying closer to the blue-green version, which has the more interesting backstretch.

Meanwhile, let's look at a track that I did back in 1999, which I consider a bit of a throwaway today. It's called Bath Motorspeedway, is located in England, and is basically a somewhat angular FIA Grade 2 circuit. I don't like it anymore, but if you have an idea for an edit, please feel free to post it.
Oh, and it runs clockwise and is between 3.5 and 4 kilometers in length.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...h_clean_25.jpg

[Tathrim]

A bit angular, if the sorners were moer loose, this would be a great track

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Tathrim

A bit angular, if the sorners were moer loose, this would be a great track

Yes, changing some corner shapes would be necessary. But which ones? Maybe all apart from Turn 1? What do you think?

[Yannick]

I remember just doodling around on a piece of paper that already had something written onto it (which luckily allows me to date the sketch back to 1999), when I came up with the following track. I considered it to be worth preserving in the archive when I shut down my track production in the first place, even though I never had thought about refining this particular track. That is until now. I think I'll call it Nômenlos, making it a permanent racetrack on the Greek mainland. Looking at it now, it feels like an odd mix of Melbourne's Albert Park and Jerez. Please post your suggestions on how I could improve this track. Thanks.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/f02ca58d.jpg

[Rockmunky]

Wow... the fact you still have your tracks for way back when... mine get thrown away!

Cool track, but too twisty for my personal liking.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I really like this one but with a few minor changes...

Replaced First Hairpin with fast Esses
Tightened entry slightly into Hairpin
Removed Chicane
And reprofiled T12-15 into a Single very long very fast curve
Tightened up 3rd last corner because of above
Smoothed Final esses onto S/F straight.

It reads as being a lot of changes, but the overall flow and shape doesn't change that much.

Then I got carried away with the design ....

[Tathrim]

@ Yannick on poss smoothing: it probably would work, but I am thinking that having 1 as a hairpin could be deemed as an improvement as well.
@ Yannnick and SBF: Possible meerge of these two circuits, (SBF's top combined with original bottom) may be interesting.

[Yannick]

Thanks for the comments and ideas on the Nomenlos track, especially to SBF for his cool edit, which looks really great. By now, I've edited this track myself, based on ScotsBrutesFan's version and my own original, and here it is.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...anc_raw_25.jpg
It's not in colour yet, but I'm going to colour it in later.

Here are the changes that I made:

-widened Turn 3
-widened Turn 4, the parabolical hairpin
-tightened Turn 5
-tightened Turn 6 at the end of the backstraight, but not as much as SBF did
-replaced the chicane with some Esses, because I didn't want the direction change to go
-replaced the section after the former chicane with the Big Turn from SBF's version, for which he receives co-design credit
-tightened the 3rd-last turn, just like SBF did
-widened the pre-last corner and tightened the final corner

What I'm a bit uncertain about is the Esses. Wouldn't the high corner speeds in the Big Turn cause a safety problem, which could be solved by having the chicane instead of the Esses?

[Tathrim]

hey. it's fantasy. your design.

[Yannick]

So there is no way changing the design of the Nomenlos circuit anymore (at least no easy way), because I coloured it in with the usual red and green. l hope you like it, especially you, ScotsBrutesFan, because your input has influenced this circuit considerably.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/a4b72bd0.jpg
As for elevation changes, I'd think this track would work well, if the pit complex was the highest area of the circuit, which begins to descend as the circuit goes through the twisty section of Turns 3, 4 and 5 and along the backstraight and the next straight. Then it's back upwards for a short while through the two right-handers and towards the Esses, right after which the track moderately descends again, entering the Grand Bow. The overall lowpoint would then be reached at the bottom end of the map in the middle of the Grand Bow. On from the dip there, through the rest of the bow, the track would go uphill with increasing angle, until at the apex of the right-hander after the bow, the level of the pit complex is reached again.


Just so there is something new in this thread, I've started an edit of an old sketch from the archive. The track's name is 'Green Valley Eco Circuit', and it is located somewhere in the south of England. This is not a home for your ordinary racing car. Track owners allow only such vehicles on their track, which are powered by advanced, ecological engineering, like solar cells, hydrogen cells, 100% rape oil engines, etc.
The paddock is located down in the valley, whereas the long corner on the top right hand side of the diagram is atop the hill and from there, the track begins to wind downhill again.

I'm a bit worried when it comes to the overtaking opportunities on this track, and that's why I'd like to ask you if it would be necessary to edit the track to promote overtaking. Track length is around 6.5 kilometers.
Thanks for your replies and/or edits.


http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/1ac3c9bd.jpg

[Yannick]

Doodling around on paper earlier today, I came up with something that's worth calling it a "track in development". Realizing that I hadn't done a circuit that was supposed to be in Italy, I came up with an Italian name for this one:
Autodromo di Pacmano. It runs clockwise and its length is somewhere between 4.5 and 5 kilometers - I'm not sure about that yet.
In the drawing, there is just the outline of the track, which I'm going to colour in with details later. The short lines on the outside of the long curve on the top left hand side are meant to symbolize some heavy banking.
Feel free to comment on / edit this track, as it's still under development. Thanks.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/c3e63dc4.jpg

[Matt]

Don't really like the 'esses' portion of it, seems to slow and tedious, also, the same for that chicane before th banking, let the drivers be real men!

[Lustigson]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

I really like this one but with a few minor changes...

Replaced First Hairpin with fast Esses
Tightened entry slightly into Hairpin
Removed Chicane
And reprofiled T12-15 into a Single very long very fast curve
Tightened up 3rd last corner because of above
Smoothed Final esses onto S/F straight.

It reads as being a lot of changes, but the overall flow and shape doesn't change that much.

Then I got carried away with the design ....

Nice. A bit 'Interlagos meets Shanghai', though.

[chemhead1]

Autodromo di Pacmano Nice one!

Now I'm just scaling the track based on the pitlane (which relative to the track, is small, so it's probably a huge track), but those esses could really work if the drivers would go flat out through them on the brink of breaking traction. Not too keen on the chicane before the banking (reminds me way to much of modern-day Monthlery when the BPR last raced there), and since it'd just be plain insane to go full speed into the banking (which I would assume would be pretty steep), a quicker S through there would be more natural for the flow of the track.

All in all, the turns and the flow really remind me of the original 60's/70's Fuji, a personal favorite of mine. I like it!

(Note: I'll get my double post removed, I apparently missed the 10 minute time limit for editing. Curse my long thought process. Sorry for any inconveinence!)

[Yannick]

Thanks for the replies. I've taken them into account and smoothed the Esses of Pacmano quite a bit. The length of Pacmano should be around 5.0 kilometers now. The main reason why I placed that slow section of corners before the banking, is to create an additional overtaking opportunity, which wouldn't be there if the cars went right into the banking. And yes, the design of the banking has been inspired by the old Fuji banking, albeit with this one, the cars rise up into the banking, because Fuji has proven that dipping down into the banking is just too dangerous. The Esses section now resembles the one from Suzuka, which it didn't do as much before my recent edit. And the shell-type corner after the Esses was kind of inspired by the corner before the backstraight of Shanghai. Still, the control tower that's located on the inside of the banking, justifies the name Autodromo Di Pacmano.
Here it is in colour:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g/5c66acc3.jpg

[Yannick]

Yesterday, I saw a few loops of cable on the floor, and thought they look like a nice variation on the formula of the Estoril and Barcelona (having literally everything on one side of the front straight, including at least two 90 degree corners).

This one is a bit different, as it includes three crossovers and a banked corner.
It's meant to be somewhere between 3.75 and 4.0 kilometers in length, so it qualifies as both a club and a grand prix circuit.
I don't have a name for it yet, because I don't know where a beast like this would fit well.
Anyway, it runs clockwise.

There's something about the track that I don't like yet, for the change of which I'd like to ask for your input. It's the section between the first underpass leading through the two 90 degree corners (one opening up and one tightening on exit) towards that fast right hander in the top middle part of the design. Thanks for your suggestions.

Oh, and yes, the pitlane building is a part of the 2nd crossover, and the steep downfall of the track right after said 2nd crossover is intended. (The runoff of the turn between the 2nd crossover and the underpass that's right next to it, is meant to continue underneath the pit straight and banking.)
The chicane in front of the banking is optional for those who don't like that Indianapolis feeling (Michelin anyone? ;-)



I'm going to colour it in later when I've decided what to change.

[Tathrim]

Loosen the esses for poblem 1, increasing flow for the fisrt overtaking opportunity of the track. also, move track around garage, and hve a tight hairpin for 2nd overtaking spot, for problem 2