Drift Bible - Tracks

What makes a good RC Drift track?  Let's just focus on a few elements.

Why am I looking at 1/2 a track... well that's because even a 500meter long real straight equates to 50 meters in real life.

Add the rest of a track like Meihan C Course and the size is simply too big for replicating in RC. Even at only 840m total circuit length, you would still need a 50meter length, which most places simply can't handle.
not to mention pit area and other facilities. 

Here is a selection of layouts in Japan right now.

Yokomo's Yatabe Arena is the biggest indoor asphalt course. With a width that allows about 8 cars side by side, the line is unclear. RC cars only have a single gear so this means that acceleration is not realistic, so how can you build from 100-200km/h over 40 meters? Typically accelleration on bigger tracks is more like double this speed.
  
It also means beginners can mess up and still be somewhere on line but the result doesn't look scale at all. This all comes from the Yokomo Touring Car legacy and their competition RC focus having the RC car go as fast as absolutely possible by any means.

Tetsujin  is at the total opposite end of the width. A very scale narrow 3-4 car width is great but it means accuracy is required. Speed is variable that you can choose. Tyres can regulate speed and you can get a realistic result.

Win's takes this a little further, eliminating the straight in favor of constant arcs and continued proximity for side by side by side mountain styled drift.  Speeds are kept slower and the result is more time to react and control drift.

Iroha has perhaps become the defacto "RC Standard Course"

It has a long enough straight with a big sweeper, and a small S-Curve technical section. Typically these 3 corners are all that's required for Drift Competition. Then link them back together for continued running.

Shift, Faster, Circuit DR, and others share this layout. Even Neo's smaller size still replicates the main elements. You might say they all look the same. This is true.

1. Straight to build speed ( optional kink )
2. Sweeping corner for braking entry (is this the definition of drift? Off throttle car control?)
3. Hairpin inclip for exact judgement of distance
4. Switch back transition zone and measurement of proximity
5. Power on corner exit for measure of car setup.

This is replicated in many D1 competitions. The exhibition courses like Odaiba, Centrair, and other circuit based venues like Nikko and Ebisu also take the smaller track size and influence RC layouts.

To replicate formula D you need massive horse power, and a venue to resemble an abandoned Nascar or Sprint track for constant application of Full Power even during supposed braking zones where tyre side bite has almost replaced brakes completely.

The best track layout in Forumla D is stll Road Atlanta which returns to the above straight, entry, the technical S loop section.

I mentioned the point 2. Braking entry. In some ways this defines D1 style. Suzuka enters at over 230kph, Autopolis also over 200kph, Fuji changes layouts but maintains the high speed entry as a major factor.
Ebisu's Downhill entry is also a braking drift circuit. The rest of the course is somewhat irrelevant.

Meihan, Nikko and others all start with that braking entry as the peak of drift measurement.

Secondary is the left right proximity battle that emulates Tsukuba Double swicth on entry and the old days of the Suzuka S-Curve sections.

This is the "touge" mountain left right drifting that kids used to grow up with pushed to the extreme.

Once you have two cars side by side, power on oversteer is somewhat the lesser skill.

So the above components together should all be part of the RC drift course.

Team Tetsujin is iconic in rc track layouts. their curbing system is fun to climb all over. While some dislike it when your car is beached on the curb, it's still an easy way to build in some dynamic action as you ride them. however scale they are not. A little too high for realism.

At GCRC we used a 2mm board cut to shape then tape to define the edge. This makes a less intrusive curve, although far less flexible.Its easy to screw barriers from beneath the board and can change as requirements do.

Elevation... While we all like Jumps for buggies, gravity and drift cars don't really mix well. Slow gradients work much better. About 5cm over 1meter is a decent gradient for RC drift cars and traction should be relatively uneffected.

So while layouts may be compressed to use as much of the floor space as possible. Don't be afraid to leave vast areas of green as roads rarely are built 1 meter from another. This is also reality.

When promoting scale RC drift, I love to immerse myself in the surroundings.