Farmring Walkthrough

Well, I know lots of you have been waiting for some snaps of the Farmring, so here's a walkthrough of the track. Bear in mind that the gate ruined most of the jumps and banking, and that hasn't been fixed yet. (If that sentence makes no sense, I suggest you read a few previous posts :) )

Let's get started on the front straight :

Nothing much to say, other than some difficulties will be added later (a rough zone, for example). There was a big mound that was to be a tabletop, but that got flattened. The soil is still there, but it need making back into a pile in the right place.

The straight leads into a left hander (the course is anti-clockwise, in fact, though for the moment it can be used either way since all the jumps are gone.

The turn is up a hill (the photos don't show it too well, but it's a decent gradient) and tightens progressively :

This then leads into what should have been a banked 'S', but again the gate got the better of it :



And then onto the back straight - same remarks apply as to the front straight, there was (and will be) some jumps on here :

This part then starts to swing left into what was (and will be...) a sort of banked hairpin. I must admit, I've been struggling to get this bit right. It may just remain a tight corner :)

After the hairpin comes Frankenstein's Corner - its a hard to describe crossover between a jump and a banked 'S' - the photo doesn't do it justice, and the gate calmed it down somewhat - it's a fun thing though, that it's quite hard to get right.

And after Frankenstein's - it's back onto the front straight :


Overall - the track has so far been quite a learning experience. I'm following a scraper blade for the tractor on eBay, because I think that's the best way of getting a good finish on it. The jumps and final finishing needs to be completed by hand. The track is not as wide as I would have liked it - but a) for the moment, there's only ever one car on it anyway :) and b) I was limited by the size of the heavy objects I used to drag round there. The scraper might change that :).

I'll try and convince my dear wife to take a few action shots (wish me luck!), and I think now that I'll gear down to 13 or 14T pinions, as the 16 that's cool for bashing is really too long for the track. Lots of fun to be had - shame that winter is now closing in...

Elvis fully approves of the track, btw :))

Welcome to the Farmring!

Well, firstly, apologies. I am full of fail (hello, Brench!) cos the camera is in Paris, about 400 kms from the Farmring.

There is some good news, however. My idea of dragging a big log round the 'ring was sucky. The log wouldn't stay behind the tractor. After searching around the farm, though, an old gate was found that did a damn good job. Once the overall finish was smoothed, a bit of handwork with a broom and a rake to clear the excess vegetation, and the 'ring is about finished. The jumps and banked turns need revisiting by hand, as all of this dragging stuff around meant that things didn't stay the shape I wanted (you can get airborne over a couple of the jumps, but to do so you have to be so damn fast that the next turn'll wipe you out anyway : / )

More Farmring

Well, on the weekend, I got further than I thought. Once the basic layout was rotovated, I moved a lot of earth (well, the tractor did ;) ) to start on the banked turns. I now only really need to get a way of hardening the earth round the track around 2m wide - which I think I can do by dragging around a big heavy log. Updates will be posted here :)

The Farmring - Part 2

Work started on the Farmring (permanent course :) ) today. That meant, first and foremost a good trim for the field in question with the flail mower. Hadn't been done for a while. I'd read somewhere on the internet (which knows everything, remember) that rotovating (or tilling, as they say in the US of A) is a good idea as not only does it help "draw" the track but it also make the soil much easier for moving around for jumps etc.

That's how far I've got. Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I'll get the spade and shovel out and start "shaping" it - but I suspect bigger features like banked turns will have to wait a while until I'm happy with the overall layout and have tried it out a bit.

The Farmring - Part 1

Knowing that the weather wasn't going to be kind enough to let me make a real start on the big track, I cobbled together (using thin logs and laid down fence-posts) a "short-track" Farmring in the yard. And I'm really glad I did. For a bit of a n00b like me - it was a great way to find out what kind of shape I think the Farmring should be.

The Farmring (Short course) evolved a lot over the laps (and not just because I kept hitting the logs :) but the final version had a hairpin at one end, a long (well, relative to the rest) "straight" that, in actual fact swung left slightly with a wider, faster turn at the end, leading into the back straight with an "S" that could be taken flat out if you got the exit right of the fast turn at the end of the straight (and, of course, your b4lls are big enough :) )

There were some nice terrain bits too - where there were choices to be made between what was in theory the best line round and a slightly "slower line" but that offered better grip.

All round, lots of fun. The car now needs quite a clean :/

Alloy hubs - The End...

Well - just a quick post tonight.  Basically Mirage don't know when they'll have any hubs available, so I've agreed that they'll send me the equivalent value in some spare parts.

The End...

?

The front hubs don't fit

It's official. Mirage have received the parts and confirmed they won't fit. Unfortunately, they don't have any to replace them with (although 4 days ago they did have some to try on a car...)

I have asked if it's a problem with all of them (design fault) or a particular run of the part - we'll see what they say, but for the moment BEWARE: The EDIT Front alloy hubs don't fit the firestorm (or the e-firestorm - they share those parts). I've yet to find any evidence, even on the internet (which knows everything) of anyone ever actually having fitted these successfully. So for the moment, my statistics are 100% "DON'T FIT" (sample size = 1 pair :)) )