building racing strip

[cosmin haraga]

Hi there,
I am looking to build, literally, a small race track for the quarter mile and doughnuts.

Right now I am mostly enthusiams.

Can anyone help with the know-how?

Aside from half a mile asphalt, parking, workshop ... what else would I need?

Help!

[LosXC451]

maybe a christmas tree light?

[The_Blur]

Get a dyno to test and tune cars.

[Kyle2k]

Originally Posted by cosmin haraga

Hi there,
I am looking to build, literally, a small race track for the quarter mile and doughnuts.

Right now I am mostly enthusiams.

Can anyone help with the know-how?

Aside from half a mile asphalt, parking, workshop ... what else would I need?

Help!

A crap load of money or contruction equipment and know how.

[BigRigMike]

Originally Posted by Kyle2k

A crap load of money or contruction equipment and know how.

also permits and neighbors that won't complain about the noise and added traffic.

edit: I didn't see that you are in Romania so you might not have to worry about things like permits and noise complaints. But don't forget about a sandbox at the end of the track to stop cars with brake failures.

[LosXC451]

Originally Posted by cosmin haraga

Hi there,
I am looking to build, literally, a small race track for the quarter mile and doughnuts.

Right now I am mostly enthusiams.

Can anyone help with the know-how?

Aside from half a mile asphalt, parking, workshop ... what else would I need?

Help!

where would you be doing this anyways?

[MIchael Westen]

To save money, you can make the oval a dirt or clay oval if you have the right soil (dense clay). I presume that labor in your country is relatively inexpensive; I don't know what your access to financing is, but the asphalt is your greatest expense. It consists mostly of oil the tar component) so wait for oil prices to drop as low as possible.

An American drag strip is a very simple operation. You will have a scoring tower, a public address system, some aluminum bleacher seating, poured concrete or cinder block safety walls lining the track (very important), the starting lights, a large scoreboard to display times, an optical light-based timing system to determine elapsed times, race winner, 60 foot times, and normally 330 foot and eighth mile times.

Also consider, if you don't have enough land area, you can build an 1/8th mile drag strip, which is also very fun and growing in popularity. Many larger tracks started with an 1/8th mile and expanded to a quarter mile later on, either with funding or once the track as made some money.

Other additions: have a large, paved parking lot which can be used as a paddock by the racers, and also for skidpad testing, autocross and gymkhana. If you have enough land, you can set up areas for motocross, rallycross and other off-road activities which just require some clearing of vegetation and earth moving.

If you are serious, there are a number of facilities like that in Northern Europe, or if you like to travel, a nearly endless number North America. Look through a website called Trackpedia and you will see a huge variety. Most have websites with photos, so you can easily see what kinds of facilities they have, and what sorts of schedules they run.

Good luck!

[cosmin haraga]

Thanks guys,
This helps me a lot!!!
Land is no object as long as we won't start building near a major city.
We have a few of the best off roads tracks in Europe, but nothing for city racers /tuners.
We get on ocasion a yearly race in some of the larger cities, but that's about it.
I'll have to start mostly with land and a strip and build from there.
There many people that would join in my project, as it will probably start as a joint venture - had I this kind of money on me , I'd probably move to the States and have fun there...:flag2:
We may also find enough funding and sponsors , it's the know how that we utterly lack.
There are many powerfull cars here, mostly lambos , r8s, bmws and ferraris and plenty of modified mid to lower ends so what I am looking for is a system that will allow everybody to have fun.
The real roads have a limit of 50km to 130 km ( 31 miles city / 80 miles highway ) and the roads are far to poor even for a spiting contest. Also there a lot of cops around as they are very crowded.
Once we get started I'd expect tyre sellers and mechanic companies to show themselves in.
So anything else you can throw my way will be welcomed.

happy holidays !!!