New Rally Special Stage from Chaos Canyon
We just launched our new Stadium Special Stage track, prior to the official launch of the Rally 2021. It is based on the special stages you see in pro rally, where it is one continuous track, and you race to your starting point.
It features a custom, hand-built start finish line, unlike anything we've seen before and the total track is in a footprint of 1.8m by 1.2m so it is a small track. Took a lot to get it dialled in to work but super happy with how it worked out so far.
Have a look and let us know what you think
Discussion
Man,I like that track.I'm guessing it is about 6x4 feet in I remember converson correctly..
Looks like your using boosters,which I like.Brings me back to 68,when I was 8 and got the supercharger set for my Birthday.Maybe it was 69.........
Are they stock Hot Wheels boosters,or custom made?
- They’re store bought but converted to run off power, instead of batteries plus I installed speed controllers in them all to dial it in — Chaos_Canyon
- Thanks,great setup!! — Rusty
Wicked cool setup, brothers! i especially like the way you hid the boosters in the shop buildings. Great track, and some real excitement there.
Very nifty and well done, as expected. Certainly one of the few closed circuit tracks I've seen, which begs some questions too...
- How did you decide to make a closed circuit?
- Which boosters did you use?
- How did you fiddle with things to make sure everything is as fair as it can be, especially given the boosters?
- Do you see this as The Canyon's true head-to-head course?
But great job tackling a different type of track that comes with its own challenges to build and make fun. And don't forget to add it to the Track Directory :)
- Thanks Brian. 1) I have made two new tracks for my upcoming rally 2021 because I enjoyed making last years multi track rally and wanted this one to be even bigger. So I have added a hill climb and this stadium stage, just like the kind of things you see in a real rally, so cars have to compete across 5 unique stages and it should make for a really fun rally series. 2) They are standard hot wheels boosters, bought from amazon, that I modified to run on power and added a speed controller to each one, so I could tweak it to get the speeds as close as I could. 3) The hardest part was making it as even as possible. There was months of testing different layouts etc, and I didn't just want straight loops, hence the snake section. I tried to keep both lanes as close in length as possible, especially between the boosters, but also had to allow for the different slope angles on the under over sections, so one lane didn't get more boost than another. As long as the cars can hit the boosters at the same time, then it removes as much bias as possible. This is just a temp track, it is literally in a tent on my backyard as I have no where else for it currently, so will only be for special events, rather than regular racing. the other thing is not all cars fit in the track or can make it around some of the curves - which is why I limited the vehicle types for the rally to ones that were doing ok in testing. — Chaos_Canyon
Lots of fun to watch. I was blown away by the idea to make it on lane but have the cars start at different points on the track so it acted as a two lane circuit.
- Thanks. it's based on the real life rally stadium stages, because I really like the idea of those and I hadn't seen one anywhere else. I can also use it as a bit of an enduro course or chase course, where I leave them going till one car catches the other or one flips/comes off the track. Sometimes when I was testing I'd just leave them running and they'd go 3-4 mins before someone flipped over :) It's super fun for me to play with — Chaos_Canyon
Great work! Can't wait to see the Rally events, loving the concept!
One of the other things with this track was how to start the cars. They had to be able to make it to the first boosters, so they needed to roll, but because the cars do laps, they had to not get in the way, and I also needed a clear way to decide a winner so I came up with the push start and indicator bars.
Originally I was going to go with a standard gravity drop but the problem was that they needed a boost up the hill to get to back to the start and cars were often flying right over the start and off the track - cause you need enough power in the boosters to get all the various cars to the top, but fast cars got yeeted - so then I had a drop in type start, where the cars went through a trap door on their second lap and that was working, but it became hard to spot exactly who got first, as you've seen how close some of the races are, so I came up with the tabletop flat start.
Under each lane there is a 6V actuator that is lined up with the push bar. These are wired to power as well so I didn't get any loss of battery power over time. Then there is a push button for each to activate it. When I hit the button, the actuator fires and knocks the bottom of the vertical piece which in turn pushes the cars from the flat to the inclined section. This also was really tricky to get right as one lane drops faster, to get the under/over working, so i had to make sure the distance to the boosters was really similar so no car got an easier run. Then that starter free floats, the actuator just hits it instead of being attached to it, so they cars can driver right over it with no issues. Took a bit of time to get right but I'm really happy with how it turned out.
The boosters are standard HW ones i got from amazon (I have some others that I picked up in different track builder sets too) and then I wired them all for power so i can cut the battery packs off for size and also keeps the power even as the batteries would drain or not cycle fast enough all the time.
To enable me to dial in the speed I also added some speed controllers to every booster. This was what makes everything possible as I can simply turn the dial for more or less speed. Without it, I had to keep making the track longer or more banked etc to stop cars getting yeeted and that just wasn't practical for the size I needed this track to be
Overall the track is about 6ftx4ft so that I can store it in my garage (hopefully) but i still want to get a proper backdrop printed for it, instead of this sheet but you use what you have to :)
You REALLY put some heavy-duty work into this track. It is VERY well thought out, and the execution is spot-on. Using the speed controllers for the boosters is a brilliant idea to get them as even as possible, and the whole race-and-chase setup is perfect!
You just pushed diecast racing to another level.
- Thanks man. I love building tracks. The biggest thing holding me back is space at the moment. The hill climb track launches next week and is another unique track I haven't seen anywhere else either. Hopefully everyone enjoys that one too — Chaos_Canyon
- Will there be a special behind-the-scenes look and commentary on how you built it? — SpyDude
- I have a lot of footage, so will probably look at it for this one and the hill climb some time soon — Chaos_Canyon
I've been waiting to see a circuit track. Awesome job! I'm just hoping my car makes it in time for Rally 2021
- I’m holding off as long as I can but looking to start mid-June. If the car hasn’t arrived I’ll enter a modified group A I make, entered with your driver details. — Chaos_Canyon
- Ok, thought you were starting June 1st so it should be in by the middle of the month. Sent it April 28th — RLoRacing
Love the kind of Möbius strip style of this track with the cars doing alternate loops, really innovative!
Some of those races were impressively close, it shows how much testing must have gone into it.
- Thanks. Yeah many months of testing and tweaking went into this one and the hill climb. Very happy how it turned out — Chaos_Canyon
Looks great! Fun video!