Hometown Grand Prix!

[penski]

An idea that I like to rekindle every now and then for a laugh...

A usable, viable GP (or touring car/sportscar) track in your local town or city. Village people choose the nearest large settlement

Your challenge is thus:

Use www.multimap.com to plan out a viable track in your hometown...If not your hometown, where you live will do

Screenshot and trace the track then upload it and share.

Here we have the Gateshead International Circuit



Ran clockwise, start/finish line is in the middle - just past the roundabout to the left of the Civic Centre (big orange square-ish building).

A few rules to stop people making 50-odd mile sojourns into the countriside:

1 - all roads used must be able to fit three cars side by side.

2 - there must be a usable pit lane.

3 - maximum length of 5 miles (Spa is less than 4.5 and that's a long track. Longer isn't always better)

4 - must be contained wholly within a town or city.

5 - roads used must be suitable for the task. It's okay if traffic lights need to come down to make room though

6 - routes cannot go through housing estates. Business/industrial/civic areas only.

And think about the route. Think about the roads, racing lines and so forth...

Have fun

*n

PS: A couple of gooduns here including a few vids of the Portsmouth GP ;D If you make a vid, instant win! ;D

[misteralz]

Let me boot up the PC with its ancient MS paint, and I'll sketch out the Tayport GP. It's a cracking circuit, reasonably picturesque with some fab gradients and odd camber. The Scumdee ring's quite good fun too, helluva lot faster though.

[penski]

misteralz said:

Let me boot up the PC with its ancient MS paint, and I'll sketch out the Tayport GP. It's a cracking circuit, reasonably picturesque with some fab gradients and odd camber. The Scumdee ring's quite good fun too, helluva lot faster though.

I did the above pic in MSPaint

*n

[tigran]

'I can't think of any decent routes through bournemouth'

WHat a plum on that thread. Bournemouth would rock at it! I'll get one done later on.

[tigran]

Right 'en. Cool course imo with a fair bit of fast sweeping Dual carriageway and narrow kinky (oooerrr matron) centre streets. Could get a video i spose sometime this week. The only problem is that the end of the track (that white bit) is a pedestrianised area - but meh, they can make way for a GP. Would be an awesome grand prix in the summer with the beach and sand - kinda like Miami GP but not as good i spose. The start line would have to be different to where i showed it - would be up that start hill and left - on the dual carriageway - would be perfect space for pits and grandstands and start/finish straight.

[Tim]

google earth would be spot on for this and would give you distances :-)

[Tim]

tigran - i think i recognise that area - there are some great wide straight roads with trees own each side and big houses behind - sprinting between the roundabouts :-)

[tigran]

Yeah those are in the middle of the track - and go under the dual carrieageway. You could include the uni area as well - as those roads are wide and sweeping n all.

[jiminwatford]

HA! Watford already has it's own, it's called the ringroad!

[stealthstylz]

This is mine. 2.6 miles of the SouthHaverHill GP (goes between South Hiendley, Havercroft and Ryhil).



Start Finish straight is on a long steep hill done 130mph in a clio down there so an F1 would be flat out. You're then into a hairpin, then flat out round the next section into another hairpin. Through an uphill twisty section past the church, then round a 90 right and straight into a 90s left into a junction. Through a twisty narrow section then all the way up the hill past the school. Flat out up the last section into a Monaco style hairpin round the roundabout, then onto the finish straight.

Matt

[Mike]

Lincoln Grand Prix

With a start/finish outside the train station, and using the station car park as the pitlane. The track has fast sweeping bends (far left) a good straight (far right) and some twisty bits too. Probably in the region of 2.5 - 3 miles long. Would be a right laugh if you could actually drive it!

[mk14dr]

stealthstylz said:

This is mine. 2.6 miles of the SouthHaverHill GP (goes between South Hiendley, Havercroft and Ryhil).



Start Finish straight is on a long steep hill done 130mph in a clio down there so an F1 would be flat out. You're then into a hairpin, then flat out round the next section into another hairpin. Through an uphill twisty section past the church, then round a 90 right and straight into a 90s left into a junction. Through a twisty narrow section then all the way up the hill past the school. Flat out up the last section into a Monaco style hairpin round the roundabout, then onto the finish straight.

Matt

I know it well

D

[Seth]

I give you the Brent Cross 'o ring.



No made up circuit is complete without bridges and tunnels! It might be a little tight in a couple of places and there could be a couple of pedestrians islands and mini roundabouts that'd need flattening but hey-ho. It'd be a laugh to put the pits in the bus station but the shopping car park at the bottom would have more space with a entrance/exit from the roundabout the main track whizzes past. I think I'd try and book a room in the ugly Holiday Inn for the weekend - its the tall building (big shadow) at the bottom of the circuit inside the loop ;D

I've already had a go at videoing part of this but it was too dark. Will have another go sometime. Trouble is its all really busy obviously during daylight at the moment.

[misteralz]

Okay, so this is my hometown. It's not ideal for a proper F1 race due to the complexities of the circuit, but for the likes of a tarmac rally it would be the absolute dog's. No traffic lights, one mini roundabout and they remove the speed bumps on Maderia Drive anyways...



The blue bit is where the pits would be, by the way. Total track length I'd imagine to be something in the region of two miles. I'd expect the lap time to be about two and a half to three minutes for your average mk2 Escort. It's against the rules because it's all residential, but it'd be bloody good fun!

The next one is on the other side of the river, and is the Scumdee ring. Total track length is more like eight or nine miles, but is better suited to your GT or F1 cars. I've done this many years ago in a mk1 Fiesta in eight minutes, which even accounting for speedo error is slightly illegal. In an F1 or GT car I'd expect the lap time to be close to three and a half minutes.



This would be your lower-class Monaco - it has a harbour where they ship out Tarmac. This, incidentally, would be the pit lane, as marked out in blue. The pink bits are ideas to make the track more interesting if the 'no residential areas' rule was relaxed. The easterly one is a long straight bit of road with a tyre place, a graveyard and a few minks on it and has a better surface than the bit by the harbour. The westerly part starts in an industrial estate, loops around the back end of the hospital and rejoins the main ring road after a small amount of abuse in one of the housing estates. Both of these additions would increase the lap times by a marginal amount but would make for more interesting spectating.

[stealthstylz]

mk14dr said:

I know it well

D

Its my test track lol my house is where the little arrow is on the right. Theres a 0.2 mile long straight outside my estate, then the test track.

Matt

[penski]

Orsum stuff!

Seth's ring (fnar) looks doable

*n

[Seth]

penski said:

Orsum stuff!

Seth's ring (fnar) looks doable

*n

Ouch!

Yeah, I'm sure Ken would love to close the North Circular for a week. Oh and Brent Cross loose a weekends trading. ;D

Of course I would never dream of taking a slightly convoluted route home from a night at the Ace especially if its a bit damp.

[penski]

Of course not! ...Being a fine, upstanding pillar of the community and all...

The one I did is completely doable, I reckon...Only 'thing' that it would block out is the bus/metro interchange slap-bang in the middle of the track...But that can easily be accomodated at the Metro Centre interchange a couple of miles away.

There aren't many shops in Gateshead...And they're mostly market type affairs...

I started on a 'Tweedmouth TT' track but this laptop threw a hissy fit.

*n

[Odin]

It's a bit long for a GP at 11.3 miles, but is ideal for a Stafford TT or endurance race (it even features Staffords very own Mulsannes - the M6).



Overall a fast, wide circuit that's generally quite flat but with some nice crests and bridges. The town centre section would be great, with wide multi-lane roundabouts for a good racing line and a bit of high-speed dual carriageway.

Of course it wouldn't be do-able by a road car, due to the abundance of speed cameras and traffic lights. It would be awesome with GT cars though, maxing it out down the M6.

[Speedman]

READING GP


also known as the IDR (Inner Distribution Road) the pits can be in the carpark of TGI Fridays at the top right of the picture. It'll be a fast track with a few tight corners, and best of all my office over looks part of it so free parking for my mates