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View Poll Results: What surface do you like to run your Mini-Z on?
RCP 21 67.74%
Carpet 7 22.58%
Other 3 9.68%
Voters: 31. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 2009.05.06, 07:57 PM   #1
Sinister_Y
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Question Vote for what you like to run on: carpet or RCP or other

I'm in the process of rolling the Mini-Car Club of Canada into a full-on retail spot in Toronto, Canada, specifically Mississauga.

I would like your opinion regardless if you live in the area or not. I have the ability to host both carpet and RCP tracks together, but would like to get your vote on what you like to run on.

After results have been tallied, I may decide on one or the other.

Thanks!

Last edited by Sinister_Y; 2009.05.07 at 08:07 AM.
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Old 2009.05.07, 01:05 AM   #2
Flashsp-2
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MR-02 with foams, carpet. Everything else, RCP works out much better, in my opinion...
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Old 2009.05.07, 02:17 AM   #3
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I chose what I race on, mainly because that is what is common for all of the cup races.

I would love to try a regupol track... or even carpet, with foams. Should be nice and smooth.

That is my problem with RCP. All of the seams make it too bumpy, which makes grip inconsistant. RCP is great because it is easy to change the layout, and make a large track that you can setup almost anywhere.
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Old 2009.05.07, 03:27 AM   #4
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If I had a choice I'd go for carpet, even if it means sacrificing layout flexibility... having a smooth track surface makes the driving more fun IMO. RCP is extremely flexible and achieves its intentions perfectly, but at least were I to setup a track, rearranging and swapping tiles to get the edge heights and grain patterns lined up perfectly would take more time than disassembling and reassembling all the rails on an already flat carpet surface.

Foam tires might be fun.
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Old 2009.05.07, 05:48 AM   #5
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If I too had a choice, I would definitely house a carpet track. You can make different types of turns, you can make it tight or wide lanes and mostly it is smoother than RCP. Also, you can make it fit in your garage and have lots of turns unlike mini96 or 1x wide L.

I'm hearing atomic will have their own track for atomic race (not 100% sure tho). It'll be reversible with carpet and foam. I don't think this is good since you pick up dirt everytime you flip it. Also with this type of configurable "RCP" type tracks, bumps are significantly noticeable.
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Old 2009.05.07, 06:53 AM   #6
boroEF
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From experience:

Carpet is more enjoyable. As other's have mentioned: It's smoother, more consistent. For those that have come from 1/10, it's a familiar surface!
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Old 2009.05.07, 08:57 AM   #7
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I always had a blast running on carpet. We started out with it, as it seemed common (on a world scale), it was less of an investment than RCP for the area we wanted to cover, and I was really turned off by the lack of total control of RCP.

For our carpet track we came up with a foam modular wall system that could be changed even easier than an RCP layout. I could swap from one layout to the next within 20 minutes without any help what so ever. I had different radius turns, so I could make any size sweeper I wanted to, and they were integrated with different length straights. Mainly I would layout the turns, then just fill in with straight pieces. I was able to make any lane size I wanted to, which meant I had total control over laps times as well. We had 12/13 second laps on the same piece of carpet as we had 6 second lap layouts.

Here are two examples of our layouts. Again, I could switch from one to the other in a matter of minutes.





After running for a while, we even came up with modular run-off areas that could move around with the turns, or be eliminated all together if the turn ended up where the run-off was out of place.



We werent just limited to 90 degree turns either!




I guess we raced on carpet for a little better than a year or so. We got pretty heavy into racing, and even went out and travelled to a few races. Our set ups were horrible, and we couldnt adapt to the traction of RCP. Since a majority of the large scale events (all of them I know of in the US) are held on RCP, we decided to take the plunge, and made the switch.

To keep things interesting, we bought a wide radius turn kit, and a 45* turn kit to go with our 3 wide Ls. To be honest, even though I was very happy about the grip levels, and the fact that the walls were very car friendly (so were my carpet walls), I was a little hesitant about layout options. Im a pretty creative person, and felt like I was making the most of what we had, but still desired a little more.



This was one of my early layouts, and it was fun, and we had a great time on it, but at this time, I was missing my banked turns, run-off areas, and the little details I was adding to the carpet for more realism, and racing 'effect'.

Over the next year or so, we travelled to many events, and I could tell, I was benefitting from racing on the common US surface. I could see the benefits, and knew we were in with RCP for a long time. Recently, my desires for more from our race track have kicked in again. Ive decided to make the most of RCP, and really get creative to enhance the racing atmosphere of our track. A few months back, I decided I wanted to do some elevation changes, not just banked turns, but actual hill climbs, and declines. I came up with a modular system of brigdes and hills that could be moved around to accomodate most any layout.



We then came into contact with another 3 wide Ls which one of the club members bought, and has so generously let the club borrow, THANKS 2EZ!!!

It jumped the track size up tremendously, and got my wheels turning for bigger and better things!




With the extra track, I really decided to fill the room as much as possible, and that really got me elaborating on the elevation idea. I knew if I went high enough to drive under, it would really increase my track area. I decided to mount the main straght to the wall, and make a few more modular pieces to make multiple ups and downs. It has really grown into a huge set up, and I love it. With a plan, a drawing, and a helper, we can change the layout in about 30 minutes, elevation changes and all. It takes me about an hour by myslef, but it is still an easy job, and the elevation sections only weigh about 15 pounds, so I dont strain myself at all when Im alone in the operation.


Most recently, to add to the elevations, I came up with a run-off/corner dot idea, that has really enhanced the look and feel of our track. Again, its modular, and can be moved around easily to fit with whatever layout I come up with, or be removed if there isnt a need or a place within the layout.



Our track has come a long way, huh?



Id say I have become very fond of RCP, and couldnt do some of the things I do now with carpet. I am happy we made the investment, and definitely happy that we are competetive when we travel, and we draw in folks from all over the east coast to our local events.

In the end, I would say if you are looking to draw an existing miniZ crowd to your shop, it would be valuable to go with RCP as it is the accepted track surfce right now. There is a lot of talk about other materials being used, but it has taken RCP a long time to become the staple it has. Itll take a very long time for any other surface to remove/replace that staple.

If you are drawing in a new crowd, and dont plan on attracting too many serious outside guest racers, or hosting any type of events, carpet would be fine. It would limit your guys in the same way it limited me though, as in they will be at a disadvantage if they decide to travel to other events held on RCP.
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Old 2009.05.07, 11:37 AM   #8
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thank you for showing that rcp can be more than just a flat surface track. many believe you are limited with rcp by it's construction and material however you can be very creative and come up with some very interesting designs.

i've only rarely had issues with rcp tiles (differences in thickness) and it's easy to spot and replace them when found. in our club racing experience, the actual floor surface has more to do with the levelness of our track than any tile variations. i can only imagine how bad it would be if we were using carpet. your subfloor is just as important to the track levelness as the track material itself.

not having run larger scales on carpet, i can say i'm glad i never had to deal with foam tires and the added work that comes with them. no sticky sauces, no truing machines, etc.

i did enjoy a texture painted track we had a mini-z cup event on however the club had wooden rails that absolutely destroyed autoscales and made mince meat of f1's.

anything i guess is better than what i started out with, asphalt parking lots.
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Old 2009.05.07, 09:33 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hrdrvr View Post
Our track has come a long way, huh?
L, my only question is: where have you been hiding all of this stuff - this is the first time I've seen pics of your track I think!?
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Old 2009.05.08, 01:29 PM   #10
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D, All of those pictures have been posted on the forum before Most of them were in the "Myrtle Beach area track" thread, but once we got the hobby shop on board, I got arch to hook MB up with a section in the GTG forum. You can see a slew of pics of the stuff Ive been messing with in there, as well as some pretty recent pics of the LHSs track, which is a lot more RCP!
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Old 2009.05.08, 11:02 PM   #11
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Hardwood Not really. Since I've only really raced on RCP, I suppose thats my answer. Im curious to see how carpet handles since plenty of great tracks are made on carpet.
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Old 2009.05.10, 03:34 AM   #12
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Ex-carpet fan, converted to RCP a while ago and haven't looked back!

There was a certain freeedom with making my own carpet layout that I enjoyed but it was pretty much done out of necessity because RCP wasn't out yet when I started out. As you've probably noticed though, some can get pretty creative with RCP now so I think it's just a matter of good track engineering. (incedible work there Landon!) Once I drove on an RCP at an event a long time ago, I was hooked! I've heard others are coming out with RCP type systems sometime soon but I'm fairly certain they will not compare well with what RCP already has.

As far as consistency, track to track they can differ but they're usually in the ballpark. And as far as the seams and bumps go... I never really minded them too much, I always try to picture the chassis sparking as they go over them like the full scale racers! (can someone make something to shower sparks out the back when I hit bumps? )

Some pics from the old days, and the first RCP I ever raced on:
Attached Images
File Type: jpg dow pre rcp 1.jpg (120.8 KB, 28 views)
File Type: jpg dow pre rcp 2.jpg (209.6 KB, 25 views)
File Type: jpg action rc pre-rcp.jpg (170.7 KB, 22 views)
File Type: jpg WinterChallenge 2 19 05.jpg (147.2 KB, 27 views)
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Old 2009.05.11, 11:53 AM   #13
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Thanks guys for the nice comments about our tracks.

FYI, we do have a new carpet track coming out that will suit those who are looking for more of a permanent and scale looking track layout. The carpet track will be available with either our existing foam barriers or can be ordered with our new PP (polypropylene) worm rails. The kits will incorporate scale like inside corner curbs and grass run off options. We designed the track for the dNaNo cars, but it can be used for the mini-z as well. The worm rails are 3/4" high and can flex to any radius, sweep or chicane. You can vary the lane width at any point of the track .. The worm rails will attach to either our carpet or our RCP foam tiles for those that may already have some of our track products, but are looking to change the foam rails out.

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Old 2009.05.11, 03:16 PM   #14
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Who is drifting on RCP?
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Old 2009.05.11, 05:55 PM   #15
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Me... or trying to. Unmodified plastic drift tires do NOT play well with the RCP tile gaps if you have 0 camber. I either need camber or need to bevel my drift tires.


I am extremely piqued by the mention of RCP carpet track... inside corner curbs and grass run-off? Do want. Would these be cut-to-size pieces, of modularized like current RCP tiles?
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