how do u practice driving your rc when not at the track?

[SwedishPhish]

Heres the thing, im getting a ft tc3. Now i can handle stock and i raced m t3 with a D4 15T. So i dont want to do stock at the TC Track. But all the racers there use from 9-13T motors. I worry that if i pop for a reedy ti 11 turn i might not be able to handle it, and the track is kind of far for practice, and i can only stalom through cones a few times without geting bored(plus thats not exactly high speed) so what do u gys do to practice when not at the track.

[jeepinator]

Pop cans on the street !

When you hit them it doesn't hurt anything, but it is a big pain to chase them down and set them back up in position, so it is good motivation not to hit them :p

Or, you could just pitch a tent at the track. I did that once. I literally camped at the track for a few days. A few of us did. It was actually pretty fun. And yes, that track was a long ways away ... http://www.theshreves.com/pics/smiley/uhoh3.gif

[Gutter Ball]

Almost the same as Jeep! I change the tires to street tires, use pop bottles with some water in 'em so they don't roll away too easily, but give if we hit them dead on and I built a couple of jumps to make it interesting. We go to the schooly ard (usually get a small crowd of kids) and I usually race with one of my buds so it doesn't get boring!

[R/C Homie]

Hahaha jeep ur cool. Ya but, i like kinnda place cones on the street by mental projection like imainary stuff. Might sound dumb but it works, also i use rocks if theres nottin else around. :D

[RustlerBoy]

If you like off road, build a little track, or big track, dpending on the size of your yard in the back or fron, or somewhere nearby! Thats what I did!

[ChumsGum]

My buds and I, back in the day, would take our trucks (converted buggies actually) to the local park playground, you know, the kind that are made of colorful plastics and rubbers. We'd take our trucks down those spiral slides, launch off those bouncy bridges, and all kinds of other fun stuff. The top of those playground structures make excellent drivers stands.

Not really practice, but a lot of fun.

[Grizzbob]

It's far from ideal, but I do like playing some racing games on my PC, like Sierra's Ultra Rc Racers(I know it's not a very good game, but it's tolerable on occaision), ReVolt, TOCA 2, & South Park Rally. Believe it or not, when you use a controller that's like our RC transmitters(like Interact's Ultra Racer PC or Traxxas's Freewheel), it works very well, & I think it's pretty good for staying in practice(as long as you don't mind them not being very realistic).... :)

[bullfrog]

well i dont race but i just bash spin doughnuts, burnouts, high speed passes,jumps, and the ever so fun crashes. :D

[Lordcalvert]

I just built a track in my back yard. It's only 50' by 24', but it takes away from the boredom I encounter while driving on the street. It has a little table top, a set of doubles, an inside line that bypasses the tabletop, and a little rhythm section. Basically a whacky oval, and it helps me work on controlled power slides. Of course you could always setup 10 empty popcans next to each other in a triangle and play RC Bowling. :D That is fun.

[Oyster]

I use some chalk. At the last race, an S corner was tricky, so I drew out an S corner in the drive-way and practiced a few packs thru it. Enter, Exit. Tried different ways... after all that, I got real good at it! I then moved on to my parents drive-way down the road. It's cement and pavement, so it gives me a changing condition/traction. Go clockwise, then turn around and go counter clockwise. Nice exits then turn to off camber exits. Tests skill for sure.

You can also get a stopwatch going, to see if you're getting faster. That is, if you can't tell.

It takes awhile to get used to a much faster car. Just take your time, and use yer head. You'll get used to it if you want to. :)

- jon

[Crazy Canuck]

I live on the end of a street in a circe, and theres no traffic, so I can just drive around. And the best part is the street just got repaved last year. I use those little orange pylons and sewer gratings as corners.

[SwedishPhish]

alright i **** he chalk idea and ill line it with bottles like jeep said. I just finished building a small off-road track in my backyard. Its a small yard and an even smaller track!! Its abut 30 feet long, and 4 feet wide. The only thing that saves it is the fact that it empties out into the street so you can go keep going, instead of having to reposistion your car. Its not much of an offroad track, but it would be perfect for rally. Its got two small jumps, one large jump, a gravel pit, and two turns.

[SwedishPhish]

alright i **** he chalk idea and ill line it with bottles like jeep said. I just finished building a small off-road track in my backyard. Its a small yard and an even smaller track!! Its abut 30 feet long, and 4 feet wide. The only thing that saves it is the fact that it empties out into the street so you can go keep going, instead of having to reposistion your car. Its not much of an offroad track, but it would be perfect for rally. Its got two small jumps, one large jump, a gravel pit, and two turns. Then it empties into an almost deserted street (no traffic) so then i go about 30ft down a straightaway, an s curve, a 180 degree turn, 20ft straightaway and anotherS-curve. The hardest part is choosing a good tire. :D

[HauntedMyst]

You guys are forgetting, racing is 80% mental. I have an old transmitter sitting next to the john, that way when I sit down for some quality time, I grab the transmitter and close my eyes and it's off to the races! The only down side is that it's sort of embarassing when your wife walked in and there you are, pants around your ankles and your making "wwwwwwwhhhhhiiizzzzzzz" sounds trying to sound like your TC3. The nitro guys don't look so silly.

[TC3Racer]

what i do with my TC3 is i go down into my basement and we have a tile floor and its all dusty so i make a little track and when you go around a turn you can kick the backend out and it gives you really good practice in controlling over and understeer. it helps me at the track to when i get bumped near the rear quarterpanel area and i can recover. i also drag race down the street.... :D

[ATeam]

HM the nitro guys don't look silly ONLY if they have a tuned bowl.

ATeam

[TC3Racer316]

One thing is to practice running TC's on the slickest concrete you can find. We have that warehouse-kinda concrete. I go buy some of those little corner dots...

[Randy]

well i race off-road and im lucky enough to have a pile of dirt in my backyard (complements of a planter that never got finished). i use that to build differend jumps to practice with. im also lucky enough to have 2 dirt lots with in 10min. of me so i just load all my rc gear and a few friends and there gear in my VW and head for one. well put coans down and make tracks and build so interesting obsticals. iv found out that its actualy alot harder to drive arount on the dirt lot track than it is to drive around the race track.

[Rotorranch]

We run in my front yard. I set up a track with the plastic drain tubing. Used 400 feet of tubing, for about a 600 foot track. The house has a full length front porch, so it works great for a drivers stand. Found a close out at Wally World on Halogen flood lights for $5 each, including extra bulbs! Those added to the floods that were already on the house, plus a couple of extra Hella driving lights, and we're cookin with nitro!

Add a few pieces of 4x8 plywood, and some concrete blocks, and Viola! instant jumps!

The yard is a little worse for wear, but at least I don't have to mow so often! :D :p ;)

Rotor

[Andrew the RC man]

for me...i got to my local school and use the tightly webbed tellerball polls(best modivation not to hit one) you hit one, your car moves,m the the pole and it helps you prpepare by putting your mind in the tohught of "if i hit that, its not movving, im not finishing" :)

[Obi112]

Usually, I'll just try and find a big, open, clean parking lot to run in. I don't bother setting up cones, I'll just practice powerslides at both ends, and hairpin turns around poles and stuff. It works pretty well.

So people suggested cones or soda cans to make a track, but the best thing I've seen is discs. They're shallow, weighted discs so that your car can just run them over, and they won't budge. The only problem is that it's more expensive than buying cones or drinking 10 sodas.