Top Gear Test Track - Part Five: Detailing (Final)

The track is now finished.  Using the satellite imagery of the test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, I've now painted on the airfield markings and suggestions of the painted lines that indicate the test track route.  These three images show the steps from satellite, to plan, to final product.

The following three photos provide close-ups of the details:

And lastly, a video of the track in use, either embedded below or click here for YouTube.

Top Gear Test Track - Part Four: Shaping & Painting

I re-routed the track between Chicago and the Hammerhead, and filled over the mistake.

I then shaped the 4x2 board, rounding off the corners and adding a carry-handle, before painting the grassed areas.

The cars run much more smoothly around the extended curves.  Just some detailing and labelling to do now.

Top Gear Test Track - Part Three: Electrics

I've now laid all the copper tape.  It goes down very easily and I used a small wallpaper roller to flatten the creases where the tape goes around corners.

I soldered in connectors to continue the power beyond the cross-over points, running the wire under the board in recessed channels.  You can see the soldered wires in this close-up of the main cross-over:

I took apart a Scalextric Sport power supply and wired some female bullet connectors to it, with the male connectors wired to the copper tape.

You can see the first test footage on YouTube or below if you're reading this in a browser.

It runs pretty well but it's not good enough.  The two corners in the middle and far end of the main runway are a little bit too tight to get the slot cars driving through smoothly.  So I think I may get the router out again and rework the part of the track indicated by the red dots below.

A Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Top Gear Test Track - Part Two: Routing

Phil, a colleague of Louise's, has kindly lent me his router over the Christmas holidays.  After some experiments on an old piece of chipboard this morning, I decided that the best way to route would be to create templates that the router could follow.

I cut the shapes from another piece of MDF and gently nailed them to the main board.  The first tight corner:

Over halfway...

Finished:

I had to fill the little holes left by the nails and then I painted the runways and side roads.

And with the masking tape removed, it looks like this:

 I hope to make a start with laying the copper tape either side of the slot tomorrow.  I remain worried that some of the corners may still be too tight for the slot cars, but then this is a test track in all senses of the phrase.

Top Gear Test Track - Part One: Design

Welcome to the Christmas Project!

When I'm testing and checking cars in the "games room", I've often thought it would be handy to have a small test track rather than running up and down the loft ladder when I want to run the car.  Using some spare Scalextric track to make a very simple loop would be too easy - I wanted to make my own track this time...

So I started researching the slot car forums and scribbling different designs for a test track.  And then I remembered that Lotus had already designed the perfect test track for Top Gear.  A quick google and I had the satellite imagery with the track marked up:

I then printed a graphic version to fit the MDF board I wanted to use - 2 feet by 4 feet so it can be slid under the games room sofa when not in use.

I drew a grid over the paper and copied the track onto the grid I'd drawn on the MDF.

You can see in the image where I had originally drawn this lower down in the hope of making the board two-thirds the width but this wouldn't have provided enough space for the cars to get their back ends out, so I had to re-draw it into the centre of the board.

This is an accurate representation of the Top Gear Test Track but on the small scale I was using (not just 1:32, it's much smaller than that) the corners would be far too tight for the slot car guides.  So I had to use some artistic licence to keep the same basic shapes but adapted to ensure slot cars could get round it.