27 replies to this topic

[Jim Pearson]

Something for those who enjoy real road circuits like Dundrod and the Isle of Man Mountain Course.

Started working on this, which shouldn't take too long.
That is a relative term mind!   

https://www.youtube....h?v=zh7B2l8vddg

[Alan Davies]

Phew! That'll be a challenge to drive and really difficult to set the car up.
Looking forward to that one Jim. Thanks in advance.

[Stefan Roess]

Jim, thx for letting us know.

Good luck with building the Tandragee 100 track.

[Arno]

[Claudio Pablo Navonne]

Thanks Jim!

[gliebzeit]

Hair-raising!!  What a ride.  A couple of slow-speed jumps and one along the straight that must look incredible as a spectator!

Thanks for letting us know your next project, Jim.

All the best.  Stay as safe as possible.

[ginetto]

[jgf]

Had never heard of this race (a motorcycle venue, which explains it), but very reminiscent of Dundrod.  Looking forward to this.

FWIW, the only circuit map I could find online-


 tandragee-circuit-map.jpg   33.93K   48 downloads

[TomJ]

Great to hear, thanks!

[marco lenarduzzi]

That's going to be wicked ! Thanks Jim. Hope you are doing well in these strange times.

[Jim Pearson]

marco lenarduzzi, on Apr 17 2020 - 12:13 AM, said:

That's going to be wicked ! Thanks Jim. Hope you are doing well in these strange times.

You too Marco.

Me;........... same as always; .............."duckin' and divin', ...still survivin'  "     

[Brocky05]

Jim i would of thought you would of done something a little more local like Lobethal or Gnoo Blas hint hint

o well i hope this one doesn't take well over 10yrs  haha

good luck on the project

[twinpotter]

Jim i would of thought you would of done something a little more local like Lobethal or Gnoo Blas hint

Then a full-blown classic motorcycle mod like GPL 🤭🤔😛😁

TP: 🏁

[Jim Pearson]

Gnoo Blas has been done for another sim.UTube While that sim track is quite good, it does show that this is a very simple long straights layout, not my "cuppa" at all.

Lobethal, yes I have looked at that several times and have driven the roads there to do some filming, but it still doesn't quite float my boat ATM. Reason? Its a long track with only a couple of interesting bends. Most of it would be almost flat out acceleration just slowing for a couple of hairpins and right angled corners.

Why I like doing tracks like Dundrod, Tandragee etc is because of the bike history, but mostly its because they have a lot of variety in road conditions; rise and fall, different radius corners; complex corner combinations. Hard to find others like this that haven't already been done.

Makes the building and driving / learning experience more enjoyable for me and I need that sort of motivation, especially as I got rather flat after finishing IOM MC..

That said, I do have one concern about the viability of Tandragee as a GPL track and that relates to the serious dips in the road in some quite high speed sections. In the first post video, you can actually see where bikes have scraped the road / bottomed out their fairings between the wheels in some of these dips.

I don't want to compromise on gradients / altitudes to soften it, so will have to see how a GPL car can negotiate the layout when I build the surface.

It may well be that it is not suitable for further development, even with max ride height / max bump stops / stiff Wheel Rates etc.in the setups.

Time will tell.

Edited by Jim Pearson, Apr 17 2020 - 06:02 AM.

[JonnyA]

Hi Jim, less a suggestion more curiosity, but have you never been tempted to overhaul the Nordschleife?

[Border Reiver]

Hi Jim,

I did wonder if you'd be having a go at the NW200 course as another classic road track? I do see the appeal and satisfaction of road racing and the discipline it requires of its participants. In his autobiography "Poetry in Motion", Tony Brooks has some interesting thoughts along these lines and why in relative terms he was so much more successful on these natural road circuits compared to others who did better on the converted airfields.

Hope all is well with you and indeed that one day we might get another round of golf together!

Rob

[Jim Pearson]

Hi Rob

Yes it would be good to catch up again. I remember catching up; that was a good day. Still at the University, or moved on? I get over quite a bit, but had to cancel this year because of that Bl>>dy Virus closing borders.

RE the NW. Yes I have that layout mapped, not the current track, but the older longer one that also uses the coast road but goes right into Port Stewart, then almost into Col'raine before returning to Portrush without chicanes. Made the big church and the railway overpass, and took a lot of photos, since lost in a HD crash many years ago. Point is though, while a fast track, only 1/3 rd of it is really interesting and the number of objects to be made would be excessive, with all those buildings. A tough one to be motivated to complete.

Are you working on any tracks yourself?

Jonny, re the Nordschleife, no, never been tempted. I enjoy the track for the same reasons I select the ones I do replicate and while I am told the original is not quite accurate in some areas, I don't see the value in trying to identify where those are then doing a whole new track.

[Border Reiver]

Hi Jim,

Yes, I'm still at the University, although I now live in a village near by rather than in St Andrews itself. I do now have a Links ticket though and I'm trying to play a bit more regularly, although at present that is on hold for obvious reasons. I remember we played Drumoig on one visit and Boat of Garten on another, both of which are enjoyable courses. Apart from the St Andrews Links courses, I've also been playing a bit on other local courses at St Michaels and Scotscraig too plus we have an annual match against Heriot-Watt University which we tend to play at Aberdour which is another semi-links course on the south coast of Fife about half way between us, and which rather oddly starts with back-to-back par 3s!

Fair point about the NW200 layout - it does have some very long straight bits and for sure apart from the right hander at Mather's Cross the really interesting part is the coast road, but yes, also lots of houses to build!

I did a few bits and pieces on the recent Goodwd65 release, although mostly just testing really. I have a few ongoing projects I've been playing with for years, but never seem to be in the right frame of mind or have enough time to sit down and make any real progress, and having lost momentum I find it hard to pick up again and remember what I was doing without a long phase of relearning, by which point the spare time tends to have run out again! Most often they stalled because I had hit some problem that I couldn't solve at the time and so I either started playing with something else because I was interested or got distracted, or put them down to have a think about the problem but then didn't pick them up again. Knockhill is probably the closest to finished and I think that the track surface is really pretty accurate. Colin, who started the project, raced Scottish Formula Fords there and we also got some very helpful input from Ken Murray too, so I am pretty confident that the layout is accurate and it is definitely a load of fun to race on, especially in the small cars we ran there when doing some other beta testing.

I keep thinking I'll find some time and make some progress on one track project or another, but then something else happens and there is urgent marking to do, or something to work on in the lab, or it is a nice sunny day and I fancy 18 holes... One day...

Take care and all the best,
Rob

[Saiph]

Jim Pearson, on Apr 17 2020 - 05:50 AM, said:

......
Why I like doing tracks like Dundrod, Tandragee etc is ....... mostly because they have a lot of variety in road conditions; rise and fall, different radius corners; complex corner combinations. Hard to find others like this that haven't already been done.

Makes the building and driving / learning experience more enjoyable for me and I need that sort of motivation, especially as I got rather flat after finishing IOM MC..
......

And for me Jim, this is exactly why I like driving your circuits so much when you've finished them.

[D_J]

Oh my goodness, this looks like an awesome drive. Dundrod is bar none my favorite gpl track , IoM is also a masterpiece but I must admit a bit too long so I havent gotten around to it , yet... But Dundrod is a fantastic drive and even though it kills me every chance it gets I keep coming back for more.

Many thanks Jim , cant wait.