Circuit Courville - a new track in Québec

[cgingras]

[cgingras]

[vins123]

Bonjour Mr Gingras
très beau circuit, je ne savais pas qu'il y avait des amateurs à la ville de Québec, j'y vais de temps en temps, est-ce ouvert au public ou sur rendez-vous? Je suis de Joliette.
Pour utiliser flickr pour les photos, est-ce qu'il faut être sur facebook ou on peut transferrer des images directement de notre banque personnel.
merci
Sylvain

[cgingras]

I don't want to «pollute» the thread by using French. I replied in a PM.

As for Flickr pictures, there's a Share button in the photo page. No need to be on Facebook. The Flickr Share button even has the option of BBCode, all ready to copy and paste here. Easy!

[cgingras]

[TuscoTodd]

W O W!!!!
That turned out VERY nice!!!
Would love to see a video of a couple laps if you get a chance! :D

[SlotCarCorner]

Christian did a terrific job with his new track - the attention to detail is evident throughout. No two corners are alike and each lane drives a little differently which adds to the challenge. As Christian mentioned, the track has a great rhythm once you get the braking points down. Anyone looking to design a layout should study this layout carefully. Lap times are very, very close across all 4 lanes - some of the best side-by-side racing I've experienced in a long time - we were both grinning from ear-to-ear during and after our racing sessions.

Special thanks to Christian and his family for taking very good care of me during my visit - Quebec City is a wonderful place with some of the friendliest slot car racers you will ever meet!

:auto-driving:

[Florida_Slotter]

[cgingras]

Thank you for the kind words, gentlemen, I really appreciate. Just like Steve said, we had a blast racing side-by-side. What was even more interesting is the fact that in addition to identical lap times in all lanes, the cars stay side-by-side all through the lap, instead of each lane having a distinct advantage in half of the circuit and vice versa (something most layouts with an overpass create, my previous layout was like that).

Maybe it looks big but it's not really that big. And when driving it, it becomes even smaller in your mind because you can't relax anywhere on this circuit. Even the "long" straight has hard braking points (in either direction) so you have to be prepared to stop soon after you press the trigger for the straight.

I'll be the first to admit that this layout is very challenging and probably frustrating for beginners and agressive drivers. The technical part in the corner is not easy and even the faster part of the layout has very precise braking and reacceleration points that you can't miss for fear of destroying your lap time. I wanted a layout on which a perfect lap would be very difficult to achieve. On this level, I think I succeeded.

And if it ever happens, we'll just run in the opposite direction !! :lol:

There are two things I would do differently, I think. First of all, the overpass creates a blind spot at the end (or the beginning) of the straight for the two drivers that are closer to the camera (I knew the overpass would create this but I didn't think that the border would make it worse!). This was compensated by putting the red driver station on the far end of the track. But that's an additional and interesting challenge. With the track so low, the visibility is also perfect everywhere else. Slot tracks on tables are a thing of the past for me.

I would also make the "pif-paf" (the left-right combination close to the wall) a little bit less pronounced, for it to be a little faster to negociate. Something to reflect upon if you're designing your layout. It would make for a little faster and even more varied layout.

That being said, I think one of the strong points of this layout is the variety of turns. No two corners are the same and they almost all have varying radiuses. The big sweeper on the overpass is like two turns in one. Miss the reacceleration point and you've just lost at least a tenth. In the other direction, miss the slowing down point and you're in the wall. Frustrating but challenging at the same time!

It will be difficult to finish everything now that the track is functional... :P

[SlotCarCorner]

[HomeRacingWorld]

Very impressive. Congratulations on a job well done.

[cgingras]

[turbokev]

ok I admit it.. no clue what pif-paf is.. I even tried to google it. I got nothin' :lol:

[nhdungeonracer]

[cgingras]

Remember, we speak French here in Québec. A «pif-paf» is a word sometimes used by some racing commentators and it means a succession of two fast changes of direction. A tight chicane, in other words.