Calling all track designers, show off your work!

  • Thread starter glassjaw
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I've drawn up a long route around the south of Birmingham that includes a pit lane. It goes anti-clockwise and goes on for about 5 miles. I call it the Birminghamring as a bit of a nod to the Nurburgring.
Birminghamring-03.jpg


The terrain here is like a condensed version of the Nordschleife and there are parts that go both over and under a railway and up a steep hill.
 
Here's my idea of what the 2015 version of Seattle Circuit would look like:
Seattle Circuit 2015.jpg


Here is what we were driving around in GT2, 3 and 4:
Seattle Circuit.jpg

You can see that the previous layout would be impossible because the car park that houses the double-chicane no longer exists and the road that is used as the pit straight has been changed. The new loop after turn 12 has been added to bridge the new train line. I don't really like it myself, but it would probably be good from a racing standpoint, rather than a pure driving one.
 
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Right then...

In my campaign to dominate this thread, I present to you another street circuit.
Birminghamring 04E.jpg


The second layout of the Birminghamring series has been slapped down right next to the route taken in the SuperPrix. This one has 23 or 24 corners, depending on how you count them. The 2.4-mile route is a somewhat technical mix of chicanes, sweeping turns, right-angles and awkward braking points.

All-in-all the terrain is rather flat, aside from a couple of rises and downhill sections. Given that Birmingham is an old city with an organically developed road system and tightly packed-together buildings, there are a good few bumps and narrow roadways that can be quite terrifying.

If this were real, I wouldn't recommend taking more than 4 to 6 cars around here because it will get dicey.
 
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I have taken a liking to the central Birminghamring's flow and I wanted to develop the layout further to allow it to at least bear some relation to formula racing.
Birmingamring-04L.jpg


The circuit's proximity to the SuperPrix route inspired me to incorporate half of it into the existing layout. Further changes include the re-profiling of the north-east sweeping right into a hairpin-chicane complex using the bean-shaped block off to the side and the removal of the awkward roundabout-hairpin to the west. The pit lane has been moved over to Bristol Street motors, where it was for the Birmingham SuperPrix.

Stand by for development and numbers.
 
In an effort to revive this thread, here is a street circuit made in the proximities of my hometown, Naples. It runs through the "Mostra d'Oltremare", one of the biggest exhibition places in Italy - and also the venue of the Napoli Comicon, and loops around the San Paolo Stadium, the home turf of the local soccer/association football team. It is very fast, with two huge straightaways, and kind of resembles a mirrored Dubai Autodrome.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6700793
 
image.jpg


I was playing around with Gran Turismo's Course Maker app and decided to make what I would like to see if Phillip Island was made into a F1 spec circuit. My aim was to keep all parts of the existing circuit available. Chicanes at first and last corners put in place to slow the cars down, as F1 cars around those corners would be frighteningly fast. The straight on the back of the track is to add a second DRS zone to the track, as that seems to be almost standard at tracks now.
 
I liked a lot of the elements of the Mexican GP: Being in a City, using existing infrastructure, etc
So I saw a picture of what happened to the 2004 Olympic Park in Athens and I remembered that they were talking about creating a Mediterranean GP in Greece last year. The Olympic Park was build on an Old Airport and is mostly deserted. It is within the city limits of Athens and there should be some political interest to reuse this space after they sunk millions/billions on it for the Olympic Games.
There are really endless opportunities here, hopefully somebody can come up with a better design than these.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6750205
Athens Olympic PArk GP V1.PNG

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6750691
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6750692
 
So, I was thinking about how sometimes fictional street circuits set on real roads in video games fail because they focus more on taking in landmarks than being interesting to drive. Then I saw this post on Facebook:

Croydon.jpg


And decided to create my own anti-take on the video game street circuit. Taking in such Croydon landmarks as IKEA, the Purley Way, and the sense of relief at the end when you finally get to leave, I present a high speed street circuit which is not for the faint hearted:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6780152
 
So, I was thinking about how sometimes fictional street circuits set on real roads in video games fail because they focus more on taking in landmarks than being interesting to drive. Then I saw this post on Facebook:

View attachment 500881

And decided to create my own anti-take on the video game street circuit. Taking in such Croydon landmarks as IKEA, the Purley Way, and the sense of relief at the end when you finally get to leave, I present a high speed street circuit which is not for the faint hearted:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6780152
https://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=Croydon Grand Prix
 
Probably the first time I've drawn a track, so it's a bit messy. I also have the worst handwriting, so I apologize :P Hoping to do some better ones soon.

photo_1452788551310.jpg


(Also, doesn't really matter, but 1,000th post! :D)
 
Here's my attempt at a Canada West GP track. This is in the city of Kelowna, close to where I live. It would never fly today, but I think this would make for a pretty awesome classic style F1 track. Glenmore Rd is the main straight, with the pits located on the inside of the track. Track runs clockwise.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/m/?r=6801567&rf=1

The straight gradually fluctuats in elevation and has a couple very high speed kinks. Hard braking for the first 90' right. After turn 2, the track begins to undulate quite severely for the next few corners, before the long, multi-apex right hander that climbs in elevation to reach the plateau beneath Dilworth Mountain. After the intersection between Mail Rd and Longhill/Rifle Rd, the track descends slightly before going around a blind, decending high speed S (between Silver Pl and Cassiar Rd). After the S, the road climbs slightly around the next left, and then drops off very suddenly before the sharp right hander onto Summit Dr. The apex of the right hander is completely off camber, and immediately following the apex, the road starts to climb very quickly. The ascent up Dillworth Mtn on Summit drive consist of 3 sweeping corners. The road crests near Skeena Dr, and then starts decending. The decent is one long right, and one very long left. The grade is quite steep. The road flattens out before the final 90' right hander back onto Glenmore. Finally, there is a high speed chicane to switch to the other side of the maridian, with the entrance to the pit lane continuing straight.


@prisonermonkeys, I don't really know exactly what to look for, but could you come up with a WRC event in this area? There's a number of very narrow, barely paved roads which run through the farm and orchard land, from one end of the okanagan valley to the other.

I don't think a real rally could be held, as there's just too many people...but what if we pretend there's just roads and no people (too many damn Albertans moving here....GO HOME FLATLANDERS!)
 
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I don't really know exactly what to look for, but could you come up with a WRC event in this area?
You mean something like this?

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/m/?r=6801583&rf=1

I'm mostly going off the maps rather than satellite images. Normally I'd take a closer look at the roads, but this was something that I did on the fly.

What you're looking for is interesting roads. When you're planning a circuit, you have to keep the whole thing in mind, but here you can focus on the individual parts. It's just a case of connecting the best bits together in the most interesting way. The only real limitations, as they were, is that competitors have to be able to access the stage start and leave without driving through the stage (a field of fifty cars can take up to three hours to run), the stage cannot be more than fifty kilometres without a special dispensation from the FIA, and the average speed cannot be more than 130km/h. In terms of overall rally length, events are rarely more than 300 competitive kilometres and almost never more than 350km, but there is no limitation on liason stages (driving from one special stage to the next). These days, one day of a rally will typically have five to eight stages - depending on the overall length - with most stages run twice; once in the morning and again in the afternoon. Very long stages will usually be run once.
 
You mean something like this?

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/m/?r=6801583&rf=1

I'm mostly going off the maps rather than satellite images. Normally I'd take a closer look at the roads, but this was something that I did on the fly.

What you're looking for is interesting roads. When you're planning a circuit, you have to keep the whole thing in mind, but here you can focus on the individual parts. It's just a case of connecting the best bits together in the most interesting way. The only real limitations, as they were, is that competitors have to be able to access the stage start and leave without driving through the stage (a field of fifty cars can take up to three hours to run), the stage cannot be more than fifty kilometres without a special dispensation from the FIA, and the average speed cannot be more than 130km/h. In terms of overall rally length, events are rarely more than 300 competitive kilometres and almost never more than 350km, but there is no limitation on liason stages (driving from one special stage to the next). These days, one day of a rally will typically have five to eight stages - depending on the overall length - with most stages run twice; once in the morning and again in the afternoon. Very long stages will usually be run once.
That's bloody impressive....Bear Creek is one of the two main local dirt bike and off road areas. If there was any area with 500 square km that could actually have a rally, the Bear Creek Rec Area is where you could do it. Of all the roads in the area you could have picked, how you picked Bear Creak Main is beyond me :bowdown: :lol:

Don't get overly excited though, the majority of the "roads" in the area that will show up are more like trails, and wouldn't really be passable for a rally car :P


As far as the rally goes, basically the route can't go out the way it goes in? That kind of sucks, because I was thinking of using the road up to the ski hill as one of the stages; uphill for one stage, and back down for another stage. Is that even an option?


Also...is there a way to have more than one Start/Finish on pedmap? That's a lot of different maps to save/upload if I can't do it all on one :(
 
Of all the roads in the area you could have picked, how you picked Bear Creak Main is beyond me
It was because I looked at the roads first.

I was thinking of using the road up to the ski hill as one of the stages; uphill for one stage, and back down for another stage. Is that even an option?
It could work if you ran it uphill one day and downhill the next. Or if the top of the mountain was big enough to hold a service park so that it could be run uphill as the final stage of the morning and downhill as the first stage of the afternoon. But there aren't many rallies that do it.

The other alternative would be to include it as part of a stage. The final kilometre (or so) of the Rally Sweden power stage was a ski slope.

Also...is there a way to have more than one Start/Finish on pedmap?
No. It was originally designed as a pedometer so that people could plan out exercise routes ... before the motorsport community found it.
 
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