westracing01's Race Track for Modular Buildings

[westracing01]

New Potato Photo's for your viewing... If you can see past the shaky hand... LOL.

New Police Station nestled in next to the Diner. This was done so you could actually see the billboard. It's also nice that it's on the same street as the Soap & Suds.

 

Shot down the back straight. Green Grocer moved inside, new barrier installed along with catch fence on the inside. Porsche is using all of the track and some curb on exit of T3...

 

New placement of the Pet Shop/Brown Stone next to Town Hall. I wanted the Police Station to go here but the Town Hall is so big it just wouldn't work and still see the billboard for the laundry. 

 

Care Center moved outside of T6. This freed up room on the inside of the track, got the Care Center away from morbid gawkers and will give a little more room for personnel and the safety truck to park since I can park the ambulance in it's space in front of the ER doors.

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by westracing01

[CopperTablet]

Nice design, it evokes some of the fun of classic Town with more sophisticated structures.  Will you consider any banked curves?

[westracing01]

Thank you!

If I had room for that, absolutely. I'd rebuild the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhery. Sadly, I'm at the limit of the space I have to work with. I have a "long track" version drawn out that is based on that particular circuit, but alas, the space needed to build it to my standard, not to mention the cost, prohibit such an expansive project. 

[westracing01]

Holy cow! I haven't updated this since January? No good... 

I will get pictures tomorrow. I have only one handy and it's not what anyone would want to see. However, in the meantime, I will give a brief list of what has been updated...

1) New angled catch fencing

2) Opened up all the corners a little

3) Added runoff at T2 (I really like this)

4) Built a new gravel trap and filled with real Lego gravel (you'll see what approx 4000 parts look like...)

5) Expanded the pit lane and the garage, changed the garage doors

6) Added a medical car (I really like this and all I did was add some lights to the 8-wide Supra, yet somehow it looks just about right)

7) Rebuilt the Porsche 911 into an 8 wide (this is cool, but you have to use your imagination a bit) along with two Ferraris, the Corvette C8 and the Ford GT (still working on this one)... All 5 of them are practicing right now as I type

There's probably more I'm forgetting but as I said, I will get pictures tomorrow and I will try to get some detail shots of what I did with the catch fence. I have to string a little more cable tonight to put the finishing touches on it.

[westracing01]

OK, so here we go... Potato photo's FTW... In no particular order...

Shot down the front straight of the extension of the table needed, the main grandstand, some pit road and the overhang of the new catch fencing.

 

I had to extend the track 16 studs to make room for the wider pit road and extended garage. Workers are here busy preparing the site for new construction of... Surprise me Lego.

 

Shot of the new T1/T2 complex complete with Lego gravel trap finally built the right way. There's something like 4000 1x1 round, tan plates in there.Changed the pit exit to easier to navigate with the larger cars.

 

Slight modification to the Corvette C8. I DO NOT like the studs showing on the bottom and I think it's a little silly Lego chose that solution. There are other ways to do it. My quick fix was to use a 1x8 with the rail on it to simulate ground effects side skirts. I actually really like this solution because the shape of the C8 lends itself to this kind of design had they built it this way in real life. 

 

The Ferrari F8 converted into GT race car spec. There are two of these. This is the privateer car. The factory car (not pictured) has slightly different aero and rear diffuser.

 

The Toyota Supra Medical Car complete with doctor and nurse aboard. 

 

This is the stock 911 converted to 8 stud. Looks a little... Smooshed maybe and it's built as a single seater. I imagined the Porsche engineers saw a loophole in the rules and decided to basically build a short wheelbase prototype, much to the chagrin of the other competitors. 

 

New T6 gravel trap/runoff. 

 

This is an example of what the additional T2 runoff and opened corner apex's provided. Before, the outer wall was right at that white line basically making it almost impossible to go two wide through the corner. Here, the Ferrari is exiting the pits, staying inside the red line, while the Vette has ample room to navigate around it.

 

The new extended, angled catch fencing. This is in select parts of the track where the grandstands are either very close to the track, or it's a high speed corner. Forgive me as I don't remember the part numbers off the top of my head for these but they were really tricky to keep stable. The straight post catch fence stays put pretty well, but these were very fragile. What I wound up doing was looping a string over the eyelet of the top vertical post and then anchoring them on either end to put tension on the strings.

 

T2 with no cars present. This shows how far I pulled the apex back and shows the additional runoff. 

 

New traffic light.

 

Expanded garages. The entire garage was expanded 12 studs to accommodate the length of the new 8 wide cars. Garage width was OK. The pit road was expanded 4 studs so the minifigures didn't get run over on the tight pit road.

Edited August 5, 2021 by westracing01

[Feuer Zug]

Great street course you've built. I love all the small details, including the heap of round plates for the runoff.

[westracing01]

Thank you! I was editing the post to provide more details when you posted. 

[Vindicare]

This just keeps getting better & better. Love the gravel traps & the catch fence looks excellent.

[The Brick Boss]

Now that's something I can use for my town. If I had enough money, I'd hire you to build a race track for my town. 

[westracing01]

Haha. Thank you!

I don't even really want to count the cost of this thing. I've never really added it up but you could start with every Modular ever released (including Market Street) at retail price. The brick built roads were SO much more part intensive and costly than I estimated at first. That was the number one reason why I've shelved my plans to expand the track. We're currently building a garage and I had originally intended to put a loft in it and move the track out there so I could build the long course. But after building the roads for the current size I realized that the cost to build that long track was just so astronomical that I could never truly justify it. 

However... That said... Once the real life garage is built, if there's any way to weasel the space needed up in those trusses... Maybe...

[westracing01]

Small edits and fixes to the Indycar. This is the car in it's disassembled form showing the actual chassis. The sidepods, engine cover, rear wing, diffuser, wheels/tires and front nose cone/wing are all designed to be easily removable. I might change the attachment method for the rear wing to make it a little easier to get on and off.

The car all put together for it's photo-op. Complete with perfectly poseable font wheels. It's somewhere in another picture but there's a piece of thread that runs across the chassis from one wheel to the other front and back that simulates the wheel tethers. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by westracing01

[westracing01]

Rebuilt the tow truck to allow for two across the cab on a 6 stud wide with doors.

 

Between the top picture and this one, you can see how with right parts, the minifigs will sit in between the studs. They don't click in but the friction between the studs keeps them pretty tight and straight... Along with the close confines of a regular cab.

 

The reason for the rebuild. Counterweight. Lifting the Indycar off the ground picked the front wheels up so I took one of the old floating boat ballasts and shoved in the front end of the truck. Need to go one stud length longer on the nose and use a more sloped windshield. 

 

The finished truck picking up the stranded car. All 4 wheels of the Indycar are off the ground and the tow truck is level. Also built and boom extension that you can many of the real life tow trucks use when dealing with an Indycar.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by westracing01

[westracing01]

Currently working on clearing room for the Boutique Hotel. I moved Market Street over next to Brick Bank and the Detective Office and the new Hotel will go in the corner of T4/T5 (Cinema) across the street from the Palace Theatre. The angle is almost perfect as the back stretch approaches under the Marlboro bridge at a 45* angle. 

The only hangup I ran into was the bridge. I had to move it ever so little and I will have to build some new steps on the infield side so the stairs will actually turn coming down. Still not 100% sure how I'm going to work that but we'll figure it out. 

Should have updated pictures of that in a couple days once I get it sorted. 

[westracing01]

So actually this wasn't as big a change as I thought. I have the foundation for the new hotel laid for the most part. Now, where the bridge comes down on that little platform will be the very edge of the new hotel right about in front of the Art Gallery part. It'll land on what would be the curb and there should be 3-4 studs of space between the edge of the bridge and the gallery. The angle of the hotel means that anyone in the rooms on that side would have an excellent view of the approach to T4/T5 from their window. Should work well. 

 

We'll find out for sure in three weeks.

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by westracing01

[westracing01]

OK, some random updates then the new Boutique Hotel...

1) The next two modulars foundations are laid... Work continues... The road plates are just place holders until I get back to the store for the proper baseplates. 

 

2) This is the best shot I could get of what I did to fill in the "almost" 45* angle. Some trickery was used to cover the gaps and I happened to have the correct angle pieces to build the bases. Now I just need to order 4 of the 45* triangle tiles.

 

Cleanup from the Porsche wiping out some of the barrier and a catch fence post...

 

And now here's the new Hotel in it's home. Also seen are the second medical car giving the Porsche driver a lift back to the pits and at the top, the remains of his wrecked mount on the rollback. 

 

BH to the right looking back up the back stretch... Red flags can be seen out of course. 

 

Wider shot of T5 where the BH nestles in next to the 10th Anniversary Assembly Square... That wasn't on purpose, just a happy coincidence. 

 

Full on shot...

 

And a shot looking at over the top of the Marlboro Bridge. The angle of the hotel worked PERFECTLY for my layout due to the angled backstretch. I also replaced the palm tree in the set with one of my gazillion that I have. The art gallery is almost lost as it's hidden behind a couple of billboards that are there in lieu of catch fencing to protect the store and it's patrons.

 

The BH as it was built before placement. 

Edited January 3, 2022 by westracing01

[Wesley D]

What a great placing of your latest modular acquisition!

The Boutique Hotel looks really great in that corner. Would you consider relocating your Green Grocer, as it uses the same sand green color?

What a unique and fantastic project you have, combining the modulars with a racing ciruit! I wish you a lot of fun!

[CopperTablet]

10297 is well-integrated into your racetrack.   I feel the 8-wide cars are out of scale in your streets.   The whole thing reminds me of Cruis'n USA and that theme "House Special" plays in my mind when I look at it.

How do you plan to address that wedge between 10185 and 10297?   This ain't your first angular rodeo so I'm sure it will look good.

Edited January 3, 2022 by CopperTablet

[westracing01]

Yeah, the 8-wides I wasn't thrilled with when they went there. That's what sort of forced me to expand the garages and open the apex of the corners up. I have room to widen the streets but that would be a massive undertaking and I'm not sure I want to deal with that. But, you never know. The rollback has a 10 wide flatbed portion and it basically takes up a whole lane. We'll see how it shakes out. Despite the American flare of the buildings (and the palm trees), the track/town has in my mind always been somewhere in Europe. They do tend to have narrower roads in places so it's not totally out of whack although I do agree with the general assessment. I think the compact nature of the circuit also hurts the perception of scale but that's not something I can do much about. If I ever widen the roads, it'll be one brick height (turned on its side) on either side. Right now, the roads are 8 bricks high (a little more than 8 studs) laid flat, so any expansion to include a road "shoulder" would up that to 10 and probably be about the right width. 

I think Green Grocer is staying where it is, for now. It depends on what the next modulars are. If something comes along I think works better there then I will move it. I have room planned for the next 5 years of modulars starting in 2023. 2 spaces you see here and there is room for 3 more where the grandstand is across from the Palace Cinema. After that, it's going to get tricky. 

As for that wedge... Not sure the solution there yet but I was just thinking about that whole corner and it's something I will start playing around with. Probably copy what I did on the other end of the back stretch but I'm not sure I have any of the parts I need. If I can find another couple of angled parts then I can lay down the framework of what I need and head off to bricklink to order parts as I'm totally out of pieces in dark bluish gray for the roads. 

[westracing01]

The wedge filled in with a "poured concrete slab". 

The wedge with as many tiles as I had available to complete the look. I have parts in my bricklink cart to finish it off.

New catch fencing to protect the Art Gallery instead of the bill boards. Those bill boards were moved down toward T2/T3 in front of the stairs to the top of the garages. 

And just a shot of the 8 wide Supra Medical Car #2 on it's side of the road to show more correctly the scale of width of the 8 wide cars on the road. 

Edited January 7, 2022 by westracing01

[westracing01]

Rebuilt the pit box gantries. I find these are more accurate and they also allow a lot better access to each pit box. In the WAY back you can see where the Jazz Club wound up. 

 

Closeup of the gantry. This is the only one I built the impact guns for but that'll change. Going to start working on the pit tools and the pit boxes in general. I ordered the Ford crew guys since those minifigures seem to be hard to get ahold of. 

 

Building out all the Indy/F1 cars is going to take a while and will have to wait. Since Speed Champions is doing a bang up job with the GT cars, that's where we'll be really starting. 

So far, we have the following:

Ford - x 1

Corvette - x 2

Ferrari - x 2 (Kind of. These are different teams so I need to rework the cars a little and bring them together.)

Porsche - x 1 (Waiting to see if Lego redoes the Porsche GT car in 8 wide.)

Aston Martin - x 1 

I need to get 2 of the Lambo's and I do hope that Lego comes back to re-do the previous 6-wide Mercedes Benz in 8-Wide... Or we get an updated Audi or the Acura NSX.

There are 7 pit boxes so what will eventually happen is there will be 2 Factory GT cars per pit box pitting in a style similar to F1. It's not realistic, but you have to work with what you have and to double the length of the pit road to accommodate 14 cars, while awesome, is simply beyond what is feasible. It would basically require doubling the length of the front straight and that's room that I do not possess... Unless I moved the whole thing to the garage and took up a bay, but that's not happening. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by westracing01

[westracing01]

Ferrari lost a left rear tire entering T1 and had a rather sizeable off. Marshalls are quickly responding.

 

The other Ferrari panicked when he saw his teammate try to knock the wall down, locking up the fronts and sliding off into the gravel (which actually works quite well to stop the car as I just lightly pushed it straight in and the "gravel" really stopped it.)

 

Where all the tires and gravel landed is exactly where they landed when I played the wreck out, so that part is 100% organic to the scene. Debris placement is somewhat where it landed, but mostly where I assumed the trajectory after impact would take them. Fireman in the above image is leaping the wall to assist, one in the background has the longest to go bringing both extinguishers with him. 

I like the plume of fire extinguisher, though I admit it's hard to get smoke/vapor to match ones imagination in reality, even if you're imagining in lego. This is reasonably close for the first attempt and it gives it a little bit of extra reality that the action is "happening" as it's presented. That's something that can be hard to get across in still shots.

Edited March 13, 2023 by westracing01

[Feuer Zug]

Your city and track setup is coming along spectacularly. Love the wreck scene. Tire wall and gravel is perfect for a street course.

[westracing01]

Well, too long as usual since I updated this, but with a new Modular just a month away, time came to see where it would go. With the size of it, it presented problems. I had also had some issues with the table itself and while not fully fixed, they're better. To fix it right I'd have to take the entire thing down and rebuild the table. I thought about it... Then thought I didn't want to do that much work, so I braced it as best I could without going nuts and also added an additional 16" of table... Why?

So I could swap the front straight and the pit area/garages of course...

This change, while a lot of work, really gives me two things... 

1) The interior portion is all city. So, in imagination land, the town decided they wanted a race so they built a dedicated garage/pit lane/grandstand complex to accommodate this. A lot of real F1 tracks have done this. 

2) I was hesitant to put the grandstands on the pit garages but I really like how it came out. To me, that big grandstand and pit area have a combination look of Le Mans, Suzuka and the Moto GP track in Thailand. I was pleased with how that came out. 

As for the new Modular... 

I had intended to slot the Museum in between Boutique Hotel and Assembly Square, with the Diner, Jazz Club and Theatre across the street. However, with that Tour building as well (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-162743/Brick Artisan/souvenirs-tours-compatible-with-set-10326/#comments), that adds another possibility for placement that might be better actually which would be down at the entry to T1. 

I feel like the Museum would be a show piece for a city and I don't know if sticking it off on a side street is a good idea, which is where I plan to put it now. 

There's more to do but it's back in a useable state. The Corner Garage and Assembly Square have to be moved down, the barriers over there will have to be adjusted and I want to expand that gravel track at T6 a bit while not screwing up the pit area. I have an idea for that. Also have to get A LOT more road bricks to finish off the areas adjacent to the new pit lane/garages.

Edited November 3, 2023 by westracing01

[westracing01]

Did some re-working on the pits. The larger 8 stud, now basically 9 stud with the new BMW set, continues to cause relative havoc with the width of the track and pits. I moved the pits back as far as possible and added 5 brick heights of width to the pit surface. Now the cars can be parked at an angle on pit road while allowing other cars to pass. Also completed the addition of 3 additional pit boxes for a total of 10. Garages don't extend that far, but I was able to do this with parts I had laying around... Basically every one of them. LOL. 

 

I also rebuilt the last corner/pit entry/gravel trap. The long version of the track, which will remain in imagination only, has a chicane at the pit entry that brings the track down by the Brick Bank. This construction seen below is part of what that would be. It allowed for the inside to be opened up and gravel trap expanded so that I could complete the pit expansion. The Museum was moved to the front straight and the Corner Gas Station moved back 18 studs to accommodate the extra track needed. The next Modular (hoping now for a 10x10) will go next to the Gas Station to complete that street. 

 

Edited March 25 by westracing01