# My First Track (in the 21st century)



## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

Hey Guys, 

Received the Super International race set on October 28th 
and started my first track as an adult. Right now, it's about 60% 
complete. Have lots more landscaping to do as well as running 
electrical (lights, billboards, etc.)..I've been taking breaks the 
last couple days and racing my cars on it. My 440-X2s and my 
Xtractions LOVE this track. It's so much fun. The setup is on a 
4' x 8' layout. Took some pics tonight to post up. I'm going to do
some video after it's completed with just the streetlights and 
billboards lighting the track. Hope you guys dig the pics. I'll 
keep adding to the thread as more progress is made. I've been 
waiting to start this track for years now. So stoked!! :thumbsup:


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*Nice job Spidey....*

Always great to see a fellow landscape fan hard at work. :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

tjd241 said:


> Always great to see a fellow landscape fan hard at work. :thumbsup::thumbsup:


Thanks, TJD. After this one is done, I'm going to build a basic 4 lane track
or bullring as well. This one is my son's xmas present..so there are lots of
crazy/funky turns and stuff.


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## Black Oxxpurple (Jul 3, 2011)

Looks like a fun layout. Landscaping looks really nice.


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## Super Coupe (Feb 16, 2010)

Track and landscaping are looking great so far. Keep us posted on the progress.
>Tom<


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## Black Oxxpurple (Jul 3, 2011)

double post


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Wow, looks great already! :thumbsup:


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*Looks GREAT !*

Hey Jay, your Track looks awesome, and the landscaping is cool too. But I can't believe that you are doing this all for your 4 year old? As running a track that complex at his age, will take an awful lot of marshaling when your boy gets ham fisted and hops a guardrail into the scenery


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## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

Black Oxxpurple said:


> Looks like a fun layout. Landscaping looks really nice.





Super Coupe said:


> Track and landscaping are looking great so far. Keep us posted on the progress.
> >Tom<





NTxSlotCars said:


> Wow, looks great already! :thumbsup:


Thanks, guys! I've seriously been wanting to start a track for years. Since 
this is my first attempt at landscaping and all that, I've learned a lot of
tricks just within the last couplle weeks of work. 



Ralphthe3rd said:


> Hey Jay, your Track looks awesome, and the landscaping is cool too. But I can't believe that you are doing this all for your 4 year old? As running a track that complex at his age, will take an awful lot of marshaling when your boy gets ham fisted and hops a guardrail into the scenery


Hah! Yeah, he's very, very advanced so I wanted to start this as sort of a 
"community track". I'm getting the basics done and then he and I will add to 
it as time goes by. It's good for him because it incorporates model building, painting, mechanics and fun all in one. And since the set came with the Tri Power Pack, I can set it to beginner for his first laps.  

Of course, I will be racing on it too.  After getting it set up and taking some pics, some of my friends started drooling over slots again and they're ordering a few cars. So I managed to get a few more people back into the hobby.


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

SpiderRPM,

Dude that is one Trick landscaped layout you got going on! 

Great Job!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Bob...I see lots of fun...zilla


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## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

bobhch said:


> SpiderRPM,
> 
> Dude that is one Trick landscaped layout you got going on!
> 
> ...


Thanks, man! I'm waiting for those damn street lights to come in 
the mail so I can do some wiring. Kid just fell asleep so I'm going 
to go uncover it and do some more work. There are so many great 
tracks I see on this site. Lots of inspiration. I'm working on a small, 
lighted tunnel right now with a foot bridge or something going over 
it.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Super layout Spidey!! Street lights?? Sweeeeeet!! One word of caution though. Put the street lights on the inside side of the track they're lighting. I had lights on my last table, and had more than a few get broken when the kids were marshalling cars. My error for putting them on the outside of the track section. 

What will be primarily run on this? I like the twisty turny stuff myself!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

slotcarman12078 said:


> Super layout Spidey!! Street lights?? Sweeeeeet!! One word of caution though. Put the street lights on the inside side of the track they're lighting. I had lights on my last table, and had more than a few get broken when the kids were marshalling cars. My error for putting them on the outside of the track section.
> 
> What will be primarily run on this? I like the twisty turny stuff myself!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


Thanks, man! And thanks for the heads up. I didn't even really thinking about
that. I suppose I could still run them on the outside..just on that big, rear 
straight away. Then I'll use strategy for the rest of them. 

My son is getting the four Mega-G F1s that came with the set for his 
first cars. That way, I KNOW he'll be on the track most of the time. :thumbsup:
...especially with the power at "beginner" My new Xtractions love this track
when the power is at "intermediate"..lots of slipping and sliding.

The funny thing is, out of all my cars..including the new ones I've bought
in the last few weeks, My Tyco 440-X2s and my HP-7s from 25 years ago 
work best on this track. My main HP-7 is an absolute blast..and I have a 
plethora of 440-X2s that run really well. I need to snag some Buddy Clips 
so I can throw some new bodies on them.

The one thing I've re-learned is that guard rails can really hinder your 
corner slides. Cars are always getting jammed in the rails on the turns
when sliding through. So I'm going to have to sacrifice some aesthetics
for racing fun...but oh well.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*Kudos*

That's Awesome Jay :thumbsup:


SpiderRPM said:


> Hah! Yeah, he's very, very advanced so I wanted to start this as sort of a
> "community track". I'm getting the basics done and then he and I will add to
> it as time goes by. *It's good for him because it incorporates model building, painting, mechanics and fun all in one*. And since the set came with the Tri Power Pack, I can set it to beginner for his first laps.
> 
> Of course, I will be racing on it too.  After getting it set up and taking some pics, some of my friends started drooling over slots again and they're ordering a few cars. *So I managed to get a few more people back into the hobby*.


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## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

Ralphthe3rd said:


> That's Awesome Jay :thumbsup:


Yeah, it was cool. Some people don't know what I'm talking about...then 
when they see what it is, they'll say, "Oh yeah!! I remember those! I loved
them!" ..my closer friends were all into it at one time or another even though
we didn't grow up together or anything...so they're shopping for cars and 
controllers to start racing after xmas. It was funny. Almost every one of 
them said, "I need to get a car." almost immediately. I said, "Buy a car and 
a controller and head on over after xmas". And since most of my friends are
meticulous and obsessive like I am, I know that one car means five or ten. 
Hah! :thumbsup:


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Guest cars are a must! :thumbsup:

Keep a few on hand for the inevitable.


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## basement racer (Jan 22, 2010)

*second picture*

Hey Spider are those overpass risers you are using for flower pots ?
If so that's great imagination on using what's at hand.I love to see things that where intended for one use being used for something totally diff.
Everything is looking great :thumbsup:
BR


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## SpiderRPM (Nov 2, 2011)

Bill Hall said:


> Guest cars are a must! :thumbsup:
> 
> Keep a few on hand for the inevitable.



Absolutely. Gonna have a few beaters on hand for the curious. 




basement racer said:


> Hey Spider are those overpass risers you are using for flower pots ?
> If so that's great imagination on using what's at hand.I love to see things that where intended for one use being used for something totally diff.
> Everything is looking great :thumbsup:
> BR


Yes, the actual bridge / tunnel area is a foam block that flower pots sit on. 
You nailed it. I turned them the other way and then used a band saw to 
cut a majority of the "tunnel" out...then smoothed it. Then threw plaster
on them.

What's awesome is that 99.9% of everything on the track is styrofoam.
It's all anchored down with construction adhesive too...so it's not going
anywhere...and the 4' x 8' board itself is really 1" thick industrial 
Styrofoam sheet. So when I decided to move to a different area to 
work on it, I carefully took the track off and carried the whole thing 
with one hand into the other room. Extremely light.


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