Grand Prix in your home town

[Mark]

Forget Valencia and Singapore. Where would you put a Grand Prix circuit in your home town/city?

Google maps or illustrations needed!

[Alfa Fan]

Are we to be realistic here? As my ideas for a serious GP track where I live would be much different to the incredible "fantasy" track it could host!

[Mark]

You have to be semi-realistic. Think about where the start/finish straight would be. How the pit lane and paddock would fit in, where would the spectators go?

[Alfa Fan]

Ok then - not a complete fantasy route then! Will have to have to think out a good layout!

[Alfa Fan]

I'll have a superb route round lancaster later on!

[The Black Knight]

Forget Valencia and Singapore. Where would you put a Grand Prix circuit in your home town/city?

Google maps or illustrations needed!

This is something I've often thought about actually. Unfortunately, my hometown track, if it wasn't done correctly, would make for some of the most boring F1 races ever due to its narrower than Monaco streets. However, there are two potential layouts that we could use which could be incorporated into the city to provide some good racing and maybe one or two potential overtaking zones but to realistically achieve this there would have to be a lot of changes to the city and it would cost an incredible amount of money.

I'll see if I can do this in google maps later.

[AndyL]

I just had a look at the map of my old home town and the main challenge seems to be finding enough high speed corners. Most urban roads are either gentle bends that would be flat out for an F1 car, or tight junctions. Even a big roundabout doesn't have the radius for a fast F1 corner.

[Alfa Fan]

Lancaster has some absolutely bonkers corners if they were on an F1 track. One of them is a bit like a reverse Eau Rouge. I really should get the track finished up!

[Brown, Jon Brow]

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb43/jmatthewb/LancasterGP.jpg

C-D is the Pit Straight on the A6.

Turn 1 - The Pointer Roundabout

D-E-F includes a a downhill left hander which I believe is the 'reverse Eu Rouge' Alfa Fan mentioned.

F-E is a sweeping uphill section past the Queen Victoria statue and a left hander next to the town hall.

E-H is a very steep uphill straight into a tight 90degree right.

H-G goes past Williamsons Park and the Ashton Memorial.

G-H is a tight twisty downhill section down to a hairpin which brings us back to the A6 pit-straight.

[Alfa Fan]

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7537/image1to12.jpg

The Lancaster GP! Part 1

Starting on King's Street, the main through road in Lancaster and probably the best place for the grid to go, no idea about a pitlane though!

Pretty narrow streets so like Monte Carlo rather than Valencia for example. Start "straight" is fairly flat, ever so slightly uphill and bending to the right, but not enough for it to be classed as a corner. The straight to the dip is about half a mile long.

Turn 1 is an extremely quick and dangerous right left esses, a bit like doing Eau Rouge in reverse as it is steeply downhill, more steep than it appears in the pictures and probably a little bit too steep for F1, but not ridiculous.

Then its straight on by the bus station and down to the next set of lights where it will be an extremely quick left hander which tightens onto the bridge across the river. And that covers the first set of pictures! In all about 1.1 miles of track.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1180/image13to24.jpg

Next up across the bridge would continue into a length straight, narrowing slightly. This would be another 0.6 miles taking the total track length to 1.7 miles. Then at the end of the straight you'd come to the roadabout, which would be taken as a 180 degree turn, returning down the other side as shown in 18. Due to the one-way system the return will be different to the way out. The route is up to 2.4 miles by the time you get to the roundabout, and 3.6 miles by the time you return down the other side. The return would be into a deceptively slow right hander onto another bridge, as shown in 19-21. Medium speed left after the bridge before going into a long wide hairpin right which tightens in 23. By the time you get up to 24 we're upto to the 4 mile mark.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3406/image25to36.jpg

Final section. At the end of the staight into 24, your taken into the right then left bends in 26-28, before a fast blast uphill back to the top of the city, and 34 is the hairpin right back on the the start finish line, with image 36 being the same as number 1 to show the continuity.

This layout would rival Monza for the highest average speeds, but in a location more like Monte Carlo. Far too dangerous of course, but I think this would be an absolutely amazing track to drive!

[Alfa Fan]

Oh I forgot final distances, last section is about 1.1 miles long, so total distance of nearing 5.5 miles. I'd reckon around about the 3 minute mark per lap in GP cars, it would be pretty special.

[SGWilko]

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7537/image1to12.jpg

The Lancaster GP! Part 1

Starting on King's Street, the main through road in Lancaster and probably the best place for the grid to go, no idea about a pitlane though!

Pretty narrow streets so like Monte Carlo rather than Valencia for example. Start "straight" is fairly flat, ever so slightly uphill and bending to the right, but not enough for it to be classed as a corner. The straight to the dip is about half a mile long.

Turn 1 is an extremely quick and dangerous right left esses, a bit like doing Eau Rouge in reverse as it is steeply downhill, more steep than it appears in the pictures and probably a little bit too steep for F1, but not ridiculous.

Then its straight on by the bus station and down to the next set of lights where it will be an extremely quick left hander which tightens onto the bridge across the river. And that covers the first set of pictures! In all about 1.1 miles of track.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1180/image13to24.jpg

Next up across the bridge would continue into a length straight, narrowing slightly. This would be another 0.6 miles taking the total track length to 1.7 miles. Then at the end of the straight you'd come to the roadabout, which would be taken as a 180 degree turn, returning down the other side as shown in 18. Due to the one-way system the return will be different to the way out. The route is up to 2.4 miles by the time you get to the roundabout, and 3.6 miles by the time you return down the other side. The return would be into a deceptively slow right hander onto another bridge, as shown in 19-21. Medium speed left after the bridge before going into a long wide hairpin right which tightens in 23. By the time you get up to 24 we're upto to the 4 mile mark.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3406/image25to36.jpg

Final section. At the end of the staight into 24, your taken into the right then left bends in 26-28, before a fast blast uphill back to the top of the city, and 34 is the hairpin right back on the the start finish line, with image 36 being the same as number 1 to show the continuity.

This layout would rival Monza for the highest average speeds, but in a location more like Monte Carlo. Far too dangerous of course, but I think this would be an absolutely amazing track to drive!

Herman, is that you? :D

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Is this your layout Alfa Fan?

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb43/jmatthewb/lancastergp2.jpg

[penagate]

http://www.clublurie.com/dorichi/F1/Circuit/pic/Adelaide.gif

[nigelred5]

Easiest to just do this and switch series. :)

Baltimoregrandprix (http://baltimoregrandprix.com/track.cfm)

My course would be very different and would use Lombard Street and Pratt instead of Conway include a leg into Little Italy east of what wil lbe turn one. I wouldn't have them crossing light rail tracks twice, but I realize the stadium lots are necessary for a temporary pit complex and pit lane. If it were totally fantasy, my F1 pit lane and pit garages would be incorportated into the ground level of the proposed renovations of the convention center along Pratt street, making the entire pit, paddock and Top level accomodations all in one building. Even with the ALMS/Indycar track situation, they aren't far from that at all, or at least hte indycar teams won't be.

[Alfa Fan]

Is this your layout Alfa Fan?

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb43/jmatthewb/lancastergp2.jpg

Yep. I couldn't find a way to get it to show the roundabout and several other sections properly without ****ing up!

[555-04Q2]

What about the A1GP Track that we used around our city, Durban :p :

[N4D13]

I live in Gran Canaria - there's an IRC round here. It's an island with lots of climbs, and many roads have lots of turns, so any racing circuit in here would be like Bathurst with shorter straights.

They could also make a circuit next to the beach, and it would be quite an interesting thing to do, but the green guys would go berserk (rightly).

[schmenke]

Most people in my town think Formula One is high-end baby food :dozey:

[steveaki13]

To all involved at the Lancaster GP organising commitee.

Well done, thats a great piece of work a lot of time and effort there.

[slinkster]

It's not really my home town- but it is near where I live... Mine would HAVE to include the spaghetti junction in Birmingham. :-D

[SGWilko]

It's not really my home town- but it is near where I live... Mine would HAVE to include the spaghetti junction in Birmingham. :-D

No way Pedro - that's an unfair advantage to Ferrari, surely??? :laugh:

Can't you choose 'Bubble 'n Squeek' services interchange instead, give the Brits an advantage....? ;)