Game room Race track?

So, I finished my basement this year, and I put in the theater, arcade, craft room, and kids play room, along with my woodshop...

But, my xmods are bugging me to run again, as I used to have a track in the unfinished basement for them that we set up for the winter (some people do trains.. I prefer to r/c race). The kids and I had a blast racing together.



My first attempt at a race track you can see above, it was ok, but not great. I used shipping L's as my guardrails, which were hard on the cars, and then I used chipboard for the track, which was pretty fun, but didn't give the grip I desired, plus it was very dirty on the cars... And pretty much impossible to break down and put away easily.



So, I've been thinking about it and last month I bought part one of the "new" track.

I picked up a large piece of vinyl flooring 15' X 5'. Which works great as a track, the cars fly, and grab really well, and when you flip it over you can use the other side as well, and it grabs the tires differently. Plus it rolls up easily and stores in a closet without taking up any space. I just made sure I got a piece without the dips that most vinyl has.

I've been thinking about the sides, which we haven't been using yet, we just go onto the carpet if we go off the track, (and since the burber really slows down the cars, it works pretty well).

But, I want boarders. So I'm thinking of getting some 1/2 inch pvc pipe, and then using foam insulation around it to keep it in place and protect the cars... I'm working on it and I'll post pictures when it is done.

Anyone else do this?

So here is the progress from today.

Bought pvc 1/2 inch and put it down, cutting the pipe to make the track I desired.



Then using pipe foam I covered the boarder.



I need to buy some more pvc... To finish it, but I put the whole thing away in less than 5 minutes. And it works great. If you hit the wall, the car will slow or stop depending on how you hit it. So it forces you to use throttle control instead of flooring the cars and wailing into the walls... Its really fun, and easy to change the layout if you want, since none of it is glued, just pushed into the joints to keep it all together.






Now, I just need to figure out an inexpensive lap counting system...

Still not finished with it, but I had over a bunch of friends and they wanted to see it, so I put it down, and 5 minutes later we were racing!

In fact we had 5 different cars all running at the same time, and the kids had a blast!

When they were done, I took it back apart and put it away in less than 3 minutes. The kids loved it, and there was zero damage to the cars.

The cars are Xmods, available at radio shack. They have been out for about 4 years now, but the best part is, when they discontinue a car, they start lowering the price...

I got my last car (the police car based on the transformers movie) for $7.00 brand new this past summer!

Once they are gone, thats it... And there are companies that make all the parts in aluminum so if you break stuff on them, you can get parts for them. The newer style (evo, or evolution) are much better than the original xmods (gen 1). They just came out with the evolution 2 style, which I don't like as much because they eliminated the crystals from the radio and car... So you would have to be much more careful in choosing which cars so that you can run them together... I have 5 right now that I can run at the same time. I need another two crystals to be able to use my others. There is a big market for them on ebay as well.

I shot some video last night and I need to edit it and post it for you guys to see...

1:28 scale.

Great inexpensive r/c experience. I used to race rc10's and then moved to nitro powered off road stuff. I sold all of that as my summers are really busy with kids and all...

But, these give me my r/c fix and they are a blast to use indoors when the weather is bad outside.

My kids had 3 of their friends over for races the other day. I bought some lap counting equipment, and I need to install that and figure out a way to do the multiple cars. I have some ideas, and I'll post when I'm done if it works. I got 4 inexpensive lap counters for $3.99 each... They count up to 6 laps, also keep track of highest speed, fastest lap, ect. I'm hoping I can put tape on the antenna's at different heights to trigger the optical sensors...

You guys are funny...

well... Radio shack has a sale on these and I picked up two more. I'm not even sure how many I have now... I think I have around 10.

They are only $29.99 until the 24th. So if you want to make one of these it is a blast. I got my oldest a new car last night the Audi R8. It is sweeeeeet!

Some people set up trains for Christmas, not me, I set up the racetrack.

vrrrooooom!

I'll make a new video soon so you can see my upgrades.

Yeah, I rode flatland for years and years.

Today it would be called "old school"...

Well, last night I asked my kids if it was time to get out the racetrack, "YEAH!!!".

So we went racing till we used up all the AAA batteries in the house. Turning out all the lights in the basement and racing around with only the r/c headlights/tail lights is a blast. I can run 10 different cars all at the same time on this track. With how fast they are it takes lots of practice to maneuver around all the wrecks!

Too bad Radio shack stopped selling Xmods, but at least I picked up a bunch of the discontinued models before they were all gone. You can still get them on ebay btw...

I cleaned out my workshop, and I am thinking of setting it up full time, and doing banked turns and such... And maybe a ramp or two...