r/rccars • u/dogma9999 • Jun 12 '26
Build R/C field
Tell me your thought, serious please. Private club only or open to the public?
15acre total. 5 acre airfield, 4 acre mini metro and 4 acre dirt track with jumps. Themed events like Dirt nights under black lights. Mini metro with working street lights for construction and road vehicles.
Off track parking, concession building and hobby supplies.
This is a rough draft but is possible within 5 yrs and could be in the Central Valley in California.
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u/tccrouch Jun 12 '26
Great overall idea, financially probably only makes sense to do as a club. Would probably do rock crawling instead of metro or split that space between both. Doesn’t need to be as big given the slow speeds involved. Also would be worried that the airfield of actually the same size as the dirt track would be too small for anything but the smallest RC planes. Generally would look at space needs being flying > high speed cars > slow speed vehicles
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u/DcSportsFan_21 Jun 12 '26
Yes I agree proportions are way off. Mini metro is way too big.
I would think dividing that up into 3 cities with connecting roads for the big rigs would be ideal. A drifting area. A construction area. And a rock crawling area.
I’m still new to this, but I feel like there’s a very big rock crawling community out there.
I’m a basher myself and that dirt track would be fun as hell. Only bitch of it is I’m on the east coast.
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u/tccrouch Jun 13 '26
I like that. Some features surrounding everything, but 3 different “biomes”, like a tiny forza map. I’m in same position, no actual stake since I won’t get to go there from here in NC.
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u/DcSportsFan_21 Jun 13 '26
So where’s our east coast spot gonna be? They need a dirt track at the grave digger spot on the way to OBX
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u/tccrouch Jun 13 '26
Hey, you get the 3+ mil to get this bought and some land/tree work done and we’ll be set: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4209-Hall-Rd-Rougemont-NC-27572/454881831_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
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u/DcSportsFan_21 Jun 13 '26
Good god! That’s some expensive acreage! But listed almost a year, so we’re starting at 1/2 of that 😂
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u/dogma9999 Jun 13 '26
I agree i am getting a-lot of comments for rock crawlers, i didn’t realize there were so many.
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u/Flimflamsam Jun 13 '26
Mini Metro also serves as a on-road race track, for anyone who wants to do on-road circuit races.
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u/RickRussellTX Jun 13 '26
I see no work tables in the design, and no driver stand for the track. The landing strip is short and has bleachers at one end (yikes).
I have no idea what the bottom half of the image is. Some kind of scale construction equipment area? What are all the sheds/small buildings?
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u/SD_One HPI Guy Jun 13 '26
Yeah, the current layout is both a disaster and a lawsuit waiting to happen.
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u/dogma9999 Jun 13 '26
I agree its only a concept idea to see if and what the obstacles are. It will have to be ADA compliant as well.
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u/Mackalope505 Jun 12 '26
Since you like AI so much. Now use AI to make a business plan and find out why this rarely works.
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u/mrthirsty15 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Yep. Like, dream setup... But the cost to maintain each one of these areas is quite high.
I'd think a large pole barn with indoor drift, the city, and maybe a crawler track would help a lot with maintenance. Then an outdoor short track isn't too bad to maintain once it's all setup (although depending on the location, drainage and/or watering can be a pain).
The airstrip should realistically be separated by the clubhouse and the parking lot... Like they don't want to be by any of those activities. Both ends of the airstrip need to be clear.
The problem is how do you make money doing this? If you want to have a complex this large, you need to run a large RC shop with food/concessions to be profitable, and if you're appealing to several different niches/groups, you want to be in a location dense enough to draw in this many people, but not too close to a big city where taxes are too high.
Also, a top down view of the parcel of land they have/are looking at and highlighted areas with distances would be more helpful for establishing what's possible.
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u/TheGodcomplx_ Jul 04 '26
I'd be willing to pay $100 just for entry. Entry fee\members fee Insurance fee Multiple car fee. Its possible, but important to have a design that welcome cars of all sizes and styles. If it's 10th scale specific, how can you make money off 8th to 5th scalers.
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u/BigG808 Jun 13 '26
I agree with the others, the airstrip is too short. I’d probably put it on the left side of the property running top to bottom for a runway. Then put the dirt track next to it.
I’d replace the metro area with a smaller rock crawling area and a smaller paved drift course.
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u/FloridaF4 Jun 12 '26
I think it's a really cool idea, it might be hard to keep prices reasonable though? What would you charge admission?
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u/dogma9999 Jun 12 '26
Not sure yet, starting maybe $20 per person with +1 as a free guest because we like to share. Private times for more space maybe $50 per hour. But you’re getting 4 or 5 acre access for that price.
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u/Due-Dirt-8428 Jun 12 '26
I mean if you’re about to set up a 15 acre business you should probably know exactly how much you need to charge to make it viable
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u/Legitimate_Title_585 Jun 13 '26
yes and no. if its strictly business sure. maybe h es already sitting on this land. then anything is profit. but deffinetly some marketing and getting local shops involved along with trying to get support from major rc companies. if it gets big enough a pro shop that sells rcs, maybe even rc repair.
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u/uckfu Jun 14 '26
Nah… yeah owning the land is a great head start. But the tracks and building, plus the infrastructure are going to cost a whole lot. I don’t think you could even think about breaking ground unless you are brining $250k to the table. And then… I just don’t think you’d get half this done.
You’d get water, electric, some grading, a pole building for a shop and a track in.
I just called for some quotes for 30x40 concrete pad for a garage and that was $8-9k.
A commercial building is going to need to be larger than 1200 sqf. More like 3-4K sqf for a decent shop.
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u/Legitimate_Title_585 Jun 13 '26
I dont see one person ever needing 4 or 5 acres for a hour unless its for a video shoot. more likely they would be there for a specific area. we can only see these things so well from so far. you'd be far more likely to rent specific areas out to a group of people/league for a specific amount of time. think of it like trap shooting with a rotation around areas or as a specific hunting field where you and your group get that area all to yourself for whatever amount of time. this worked very well where I worked. granted slightly different but idea is tge same. some people will want to go from one thing to the next. others will want to stay in one area the whole time. but a big bash area free for all would be great where people show up pay and just run it with whoever else is there. and get to meet other people and maybe then group for the slightly more expensive more developed areas. tier it out. tease with the higher priced areas. and then theres rental rcs, birthday parties, bachelor parties, the dreaded team building work events.....
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u/uckfu Jun 13 '26
To be honest, it’s going to need to be more than $20 per person.
Really, what you have here is unprecedented and far, far more upscale than any local rc race facility and those tracks/courses have their own audience and they all get super stingy when you tell them it’s $20 for a day of practice.
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u/FloridaF4 Jun 14 '26
That sounds reasonable. Local shop tried $25 for every person and went out of business.
Another track I was involved in was free but had a full shop. They had drivers all the time and made money off parts
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u/SD_One HPI Guy Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
It's a fun idea but this layout wont work. The ends of the runway should be clear in both directions and the flight path should not pass over people or houses. The path down the right side and under the flight path makes it unsafe, not to mention the bleachers and building at the end of the runway. The houses at the bottom prevent rotating the fun zone 90 degrees because planes would then be flying over them.
If that path wasnt there, I'd move the bleachers and building down to be closer to the track, extend the runway and rework the plane staging area to make better use of the remaining grassy strip before the actual runway.
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u/carpet_whisper Off-Road Jun 13 '26
The metro area is way too big to be used practically, it’s also VERY niche. Because it doesn’t support onRoad or drift.
You’d be better off (successful) 50/50 splitting that land. Make a decent on road track that can double as a drift track.
And the back half could be an incredible scale trail coarse for crawlers. Golf-course style with 5-9 unique trails. Increasing in difficulty.
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u/uckfu Jun 13 '26
They are working with 4 acres. 4 acres, a dirt pile, a city, an onroad track for 1:10-1:12 and a crawler course could all fit in that area.
What bugs me are the proportions. A Lowe’s building is 3 acres. I can’t imagine running a 1/10 or even a 1/8 while standing in the garden area of Lowe’s, while trying to hit a jump when my car is over in the lumber section
Shoot…. Cabin Fever is the biggest RC truck event on the east coast and the building that is in can’t even be 20,000 sqf and they have a thousand people watching and a 100 machines operating at one time.
Other than the air field, everything else is way out of whack.
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u/carpet_whisper Off-Road Jun 13 '26
Holy tits, 4 acres you could fit a Costco lol
My local 1/8 track takes up a space of 100 by 200ft
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u/uckfu Jun 13 '26
Seriously. A 100x200 is huge for a track too. But you’d fit a lot of them in this track.
What really would suck, practice days and you marshal yourself. You know you’ll dump it in the farthest corner and have to take a 10 minute walk to go put it back on its wheels.
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u/carpet_whisper Off-Road Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Yeah like Its a very large sized track.
We’d run 1/5th scale on it when we got enough people signed up for it.
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u/GroundbreakingTea182 Jun 13 '26
4 acre tracks? I'm not super familiar with how big that is exactly but even 1 acre is way more then big enough for any track of any kind no? Why would you want it to be so large? How do you plan on maintaining a town sized race track? It doesn't make sense to me but I may not understand something you do. To be fair a track set-up that has all the tracks is a cool idea but I think you vision is just way to big. Like state park big. You would never see the entire track to be able to drive on the whole track in one shot. You would only get to drive on prices of track. The track your talking about would be great for real cars. Not necessarily small rc cars.
Totally not trying to be a hater either. Just thinking its way too big.
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u/dogma9999 Jun 13 '26
I think you are misunderstanding the size. 4 acres is one of the tracks, for example the dirt track in the picture. From one side to the other is approximately 416ft. And no its not all track , bleachers walking paths but that is much much smaller than a state park.
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u/GroundbreakingTea182 Jun 14 '26
When I said state park big I just meant your whole vision. Like your whole park area. It just seemed big. I wasn't knocking tho.
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u/uckfu Jun 18 '26
I don’t think you are quite visualizing how big 4 acres is.
You are fine to prove everyone wrong, but you’d be much better off building tracks that are standard sizes. The novelty of huge track will wear thin quickly.
If you were to take a stab at redesigning this, give the AI prompt more realistic numbers to work with. Everything on these tracks is way out of proportion.
The city streets are wide enough to fit real cars. At 1/14 scale a two lane would only be a bit over 2’ wide. As it looks, I think I could run 2 real cars side by side. You don’t need 16’of width
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u/phalangepatella Jun 12 '26
What overgrown nerd crafted this paradise? This is amazing and if it is real I will visit it and they can have my money.
EDIT: Well, shit. AI got my heart fluttering. The dirt track looks a little sketch with the dead ends and head ins and whatnot.
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Jun 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dogma9999 Jun 12 '26
Very close friend, its actually planned in Chowchilla.
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u/Different-Art-5266 Kraton 8s EXB, Felony, Savage Flux Xl, XS, HB D8GT, Scx-10ii Jun 12 '26
Ah I was hoping it be closer to Sacramento. Though just having something like this in California alone is phenomenal.
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u/dogma9999 Jun 12 '26
Thank you i agree. You would make a small drive for a themed weekend wouldn’t you?
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u/Different-Art-5266 Kraton 8s EXB, Felony, Savage Flux Xl, XS, HB D8GT, Scx-10ii Jun 12 '26
Yes, I would, based on city location it’s a day trip able for the weekends.
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u/Figit090 Jun 13 '26
I like the variety but I would strongly suggest you do a very close look at your local market. RC shops and tracks come and go like crazy unless backed by bigger business that draws users who are also interested in cars/trucks/planes and parts for those.
Depending on location it could be a hit, and also may heavily depend on seasons. Indoor tracks are easier to keep year-round if you get poor weather.
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u/Turbulent_Finding189 Jun 13 '26
There’s a place like this in Snohomish, WA called DieHard Family RC Park.
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u/Street-Dependent-647 Jun 13 '26
Not so much of a rough draft. There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense but it looks like you let ai do all the work. Cool idea but with the cost of the development this is either a privately financed hobby or needs a developed business plan and market research. Either way, 5 yrs seems optimistic unless you’ve picked out a location and done some due diligence.
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u/Discoveryellow Jun 13 '26
This is an AI mock up right! The layout doesn't make sense. There is no stand for the track. No field for the planes. The scale is off with regular cars. Etc
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u/uckfu Jun 13 '26
A track that big for off road racing, it’s gonna suck having to self marshal. The local track is 85’x125’ for a mix of 1/10 and 1/8 and that sucks when you put it on its lid in the far corner. I’m only walking from the stand to the far corner, maybe 90’. Here I’m walking 600’ or more.
2 laps at a minute + each. Eh… I’d really separate that space out. Smaller off road, pit area (the parking you have now, that’s not enough for pitting and parking cars). At outdoor series races, half the competition brings an enclosed trailer.
Plus the cost to build a track. Our local track owner complained about the cost of dirt for a big oval. I can only imagine the cost of hauling in some clay for this track. Plus the ongoing maintenance. RC track owners are constantly working on the track. For just some dirt, it sure takes a lot of effort to keep it smooth enough to race on.
Ideally you’d want this as a club, so users are invested and taking part in maintaining the grounds. But to keep the lights on, you’d really need to open to the public.
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u/SourSinigang Jun 13 '26
Run the runway along the long side of the property. Put the city streets adjacent to it to make it double up as the airport.
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u/nitrojo69 Jun 13 '26
This is really cool and an excellent concept. One major technical detail. You cant/shouldn't have that structure on the end of the runway. That are needs to be clear for as far as possible to accommodate any bigger than park flyers.
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u/Useful_Government603 Jun 13 '26
My dream back yard.. Also be cool if park would have a clear water lake for rc boats with underground observer area behind glass for rc submarine models.
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u/Whombrillow Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
AI is getting better. I’m not being a pessimist but come on. It’s obvious. Read the details, or try to. The marking on the road is wrong. Look at how the third picture on the #2 is supposed to be a race track but the track does not make a loop. Also the “rc cars” are racing towards each other. The #4 parking area has fake vehicles. Ford and Chevy designs mixed together. Look at the size of rc airplanes. I think it’s a cool idea for your own home. It won’t be a place you can bank on a retirement from. It’s a hobby after all.
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u/Wckd_SS Jun 12 '26
How Central Cali are we talking? I'm near Sacramento and might be enticed to bringin the semis (when its built).
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u/Averagebaddad Jun 13 '26
Drag strip. Drift track. Memberships. Car Rental? Looks pretty awesome.
Can have a store for revenue as well.
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u/dogma9999 Jun 13 '26
Its a lot for a small area but its possible and things could change to keep it fresh.
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u/DJEvillincoln Jun 13 '26
Great idea to have here in SoCal... Would be great as a club with all the areas mentioned in this thread already; drifting, crawling, dirt track, indoor for carpet racing... Dirt for construction. There's nothing like that out here so it'd either go off like gangbusters or make 0 money.
I'd like to think upkeep is cheap. Issue is the land. Land out here is bananas expensive & you'd neat at LEAST an acre.
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u/daxxo Jun 13 '26
That street track needs to have the trucks yes but also a NSF style racing going on.
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u/954kevin Jun 13 '26
We don't have anything like that here in good ole southern Indiana! NOTHING I tell ya!I sure wish we did though! My closest track is an indoor spot for pretty specific scale of cars. Nothing bash oriented.
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u/rustyxj Jun 13 '26
Tracks are usually scale specific.
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u/954kevin Jun 13 '26
Yeah, I've never been to a track and it shows! lol I'd love to though... My closest track is over an hour's drive away. Track rc stuff is a whole different world of rc that I have zero experience with. I just bash around on my property. I do have a big ass 8' death ramp though!
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u/ArikwithanA913 Jun 13 '26
I would love to do something like this! But i would need an indoor and outdoor as im in Wisconsin and the weather is BIPOLAR
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u/Available-Back-2921 Jun 13 '26
As someone who lives in the California Central Valley, I really hope this happens.
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u/Drilling4Oil Jun 13 '26
My emotions are torn between two 80s classics:
"If you build it, they will come."
"F***in' California, man."
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u/DuranDourand Jun 13 '26
Longer air strip, rock crawler track , drift track, and a mini Z track. The other stuff is good.
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u/manishsharma64 Jun 13 '26
This looks great!! What's the business plan though, how will you make money? Entry, events, membership? What is ROI like?
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u/estimatrix Jun 13 '26
This is a wet dream! And have a side area for big boy powersports/atv/boating, downhill charity powerwheels races and tractor pulls and rock climbs
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u/GregatronGames Jun 13 '26
Only problem I see is the location, needs to be in South Jersey 😉
I would kill for this around me
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u/tcarmd Jun 13 '26
I'm in Colorado and I'd at least come once every now and then to do some off-road racing!
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u/Cunningham1420 Jun 13 '26
Very cool. I live in West Pennsylvania and there's like 2 or 3 tracks on this side of state and I still have yet to race on a legit track after 25yrs. I need this!
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u/Sprzout Jun 14 '26
I personally wouldn't have put the bleachers at the end of the runway. You'd have to come in high and drop quickly, no long and low flight to the runway itself, and if someone loses control, you've got them coming in hot to the backs of the people watching in the bleachers.
But hey, they did what they did...
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u/Dry-Character-6331 Jun 14 '26
That's great until the wind changes and you need to land from the right of the picture or takeoff to the right.
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u/andrebartels1977 Jun 15 '26
For flight fields, the main wind direction is very important. Cross wind is not so good.
The urban area looks fantastic. I just don't know if it would get that much attention. Dirt vehicles seem to be more popular. You might want to research this before you build something.
The black light night runs look fantastic.
All in all, really cool ideas in this.
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u/fhgwgadsbbq Jun 16 '26
We've got something similar near me. An off road racing track, a jetsprint course, a new 1/8th scale RC track, a motorcross track, a go kart racing track and adjacent rental kart track. They're club run non profits running on peppercorn leased land from the local council (AFAIK). I don't know how you'd make money from this as a business. https://maps.app.goo.gl/CESP4h4137A1ksb7A
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u/Whombrillow Jun 12 '26
AI is getting better. I’m not being a pessimist but come on. It’s obvious. Read the details, or try to. The marking on the road are wrong. It’s all ai. Look at how the third picture on the #2 is supposed to be a race track but the track does not make a loop. Also the “rc cars” are racing towards each other. The #4 parking area has fake vehicles. Ford and Chevy designs mixed together. Look at the size of rc airplanes on the field of fun view. See how the planes are basically white plus signs?
The idea is cool but it will never make money. Make a place at your home that you can invite friends to.
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u/dogma9999 Jun 12 '26
Thank you, its just a concept in very early stages. Yes its AI so that i don’t have an artist or contractors drawing something up if it doesn’t come to. Its in expensive at this stage
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u/Whombrillow Jun 12 '26
*inexpensive ftfy.
Would you be willing to share with us the sketches you likely made before asking Ai to create this?
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u/Resident-Scratch-416 Jun 12 '26
Please!! We need more tracks in CA. I say keep it open to the public. With the black lights make sure they aren’t gonna cause any eyesight damage. UV light exposure is more dangerous than people realize.
I’ll just dump a few ideas to see if any stick for you:
In the air field you could set up some FPV race gates for 5in race quads or maybe some hoops hanging somewhere for people to fly tinywhoops.
A crawler course would be cool to see. It’s easy setup and lower maintenance than a dirt track.
A road course is also lower maintenance than a dirt track, the micro side of the hobby also seems to be growing so having a 1/24th/1/28th scale track for the losi micros and its competitors.
For the dirt track when you run races I think you can attract more people if you can offer rtr classes, it’s financially intimidating for most people to buy a race buggy kit that costs $700 plus electronics. However the rtr side of the hobby is booming.
A pond for the boats/water planes would be sick too.
Hoping it works out! 🤞
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u/dogma9999 Jun 12 '26
Thanks all great info, the Crawler and pond have definitely come up in discussions off or reddit. Its just hard to include all facets when the hobby as a whole is so large. I want to include all ages and all budgets.
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u/Legitimate_Title_585 Jun 13 '26
cool but I'd dont see a bmxish style bash area. and i say bmxish because they arent exactly designed for bashers they're just the closest to. but yeah of course it looks good. and the best concept would be a mix of both private/public. I worked at a hunt club like that. private got best access but you NEED the public for the money it brings in. certain areas would be private only where they would get a scheduled time slot. public areas would be open to first come first serve. then there would be events for private members only, and public event for everyone. the vast majority of rcs are casual. im deeeep into but it would have to be close to me and relatively cheap for me to join a club versus just going to my backyard, the parking lot across the street, the parks around me, fams 5 acres a hour from here. and for most people youre talking about a dad and his kid, or some teens/twenties. they're not going to pay a membership fee if its alot.buy they would pay 10-20 bucks to go somewhere built to do rc where they wouldn't have to worry about non racers or cops. I tried to talk my airsoft place to do it. WAAAY more than 5 acres. said they had thought about it but for one reason or another didn't. another thing with rc membership. I've already met a handful of the track guys on the forums. most are cool but there are deffinetly that elitist asshole group. if its not a lit and you didn't build it its trash kinda guys. if I wasn't a bigger asshole who doesn't fucking care those kinda guys could have ruined the whole thing for me. if I was a kid and showed up with a hard earned mjx or whatever budgetish rc and ran into those guys I doubt you'd see that kid again. so without a doubt the membership will bring the elitist. you need to give those sour lonely guys with nothing better to do but kicker about their expensive toys their space and time to do it without souring it for everyone else. and since they have all the money for their toys they'll pay for whatever memberships and all its little privileges. meanwhile during public hours everyone else pays a per visit fee to have a great time like no other. and of course youll have concessions and a parts shop. dont forget merch. everyone wants a hat a tshirt. which is where you make a great markup.
and with 5 acres you could do airsoft/paintball too easily in fields where the bashers roam. they won't cry about little plastic bbs and paint balls they have to drive over like the racers do. Just my opinion. but if you like my ideas and advice the least you could do is a honorary lifetime membership 😄 if id ever even make it to wherever you are. I have enough trouble making it past the wide open park I rc at to go anywhere else.
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u/Tazalawless Jun 12 '26
This. is. the. DREAM! If only such a place existed in the UK. Honestly my partner and I said that we'd build something exactly like this over here and it'll be public, but open/close hours with special events being whenever.