As i stated before the hay bails would make great sound barriers but over short periods of time they start to smell bad and fall apart. So i came up with an idea.
Seal the surface! If you seal the lot with asphalt sealer it will look nicer (dark black) it will protect the asphalt and the cars will slide a lot easier, and when its wet its super slick and make almost NO noise. I have a video when i was at a driving school at barbers, they have a special mix of sealer that makes it super super slick but there a few local people who can seal the lot with basic sealer pretty cheap. Yes it might wear off over time but it will be worth it, and i have noticed almost no wear when its wet unless you just sit there spinning the tires. I know the stuff barbers put down was not cheap but it works great. Let me know what you guys think.
I think that having the lot wet actually kills all of the sound. The only places we were getting noise yesterday were on the dry spots. It's a good suggestion though and it might keep the asphalt from soaking up so much water.
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"...every time my fingers touch brain, I'm superfly T.N.T.!"
Have any of you actually ever DRIFTED, like at an event, on sealed asphalt?
First, you're just going to pull up the sealant. Intermediate drivers probably won't, but SKILLED drivers and BEGINNERS will.
The SKILLED drivers will do this because they'll be able to put the car a lot deeper and stay on the throttle a lot longer. You'll see white smoke, then yellow smoke as it begins to come up.
The NOVICE drivers will pull up the sealant because they're going to spin out, lay on the throttle and do mini-burnouts until they get going again. Same situation with the smoke color.
Now, if they still wet the track down before drifting on sealed asphalt . . .well . . .that's just going to seem like an impossibility. Drifting on sealed asphalt is one thing, but if you wet it down . . .it's not like normal wet asphalt . . .sealed asphalt when wet is like ICE! You'll turn in, start going sideways and you'll not only lose control of the rear of your car, you'll lose control of the steering as well.
Trust me on this one.
I say just stick with what we've got . . .if Chris and U-Drift spend a TON (because asphalting is VERY expensive) of money on something, just repave the surface with a good layer of smooth, not as rough-on-your-tires, pavement. That should help to bring the noise levels down . . .
-- Edited by TheFogMachine on Saturday 14th of November 2009 03:32:34 AM
Your thoughts are appreciated, but we are OK on the noise levels now. The Council has approved our operations based on 437 bales of hay being installed, and we have added 142 additional (hay) sound barriers after that approval to further reduce our noise levels just to err on the safe side.
11/14 around Noon we'll be doing a sound test. All are welcome to attend/watch/listen. In the past, we sound-tested only a single-stack of hay. The single-story of hay gave us a 13 dB noise drop, which as you know is on a logarithmic scale (i.e. that's an enormous drop in sound ~~ 60% less noise emissions). 11/14 we'll be testing our double-stack.
For those who were at the October "sneak preview" we had only a few hay bales placed as crash barriers. Now we have encircled the *entire* skidpad with two stories of hay bales! 11/14 we're testing that double-stack.
With only half of U-Drift double-stacked, the tire squeals on our dry ashpalt were only 66 dB in the nearest residential neighborhood (600 feet away through the woods). Obviously our next test will show even lower noise levels.
For comparison, our highway street address averages 70 dB to 76 dB daily.
Anyway, I've personally taken the noise issue seriously and we *have* reduced the noise that comes out of U-Drift to levels that persuaded 4 out of 5 Moody City Councilors, plus the Mayor, to vote to allow us to open.
This was not lip service; this was action. Deeds. Real testing. Real sound reduction.
And then I added 142 more sound barriers *after* the City Council attended our demonstration; after they approved us to re-open.
Which is to say, we can go play out there now!
Yes, we are going to enforce our 92 dB exhaust limit *inside* the U-Drift sound barriers, but that enforcement will enable U-Drift to operate for years to come because what little noise escapes past our sound barriers is below the level of the nearby train tracks and nearby highway by the time it reaches the residential neighborhoods (e.g. 66 dB at the closest neighborhood).
For reference, Alabama law is 78 dB at the closest residence...more than 50% louder than what we are doing is within the law.
Anyway, our sound test on 11/14 will probably show a sound reduction greater than 13 dB on-site (which translates to even greater drops over a 600 foot distance).
Terry is guessing that we will get a 15 dB drop now that we've double-stacked the hay around the entire skidpad.
No problem, im just trying to help. Sounds like nothing but good news lately. And yes i actually have drifted on a sealed surface before and that where i got the idea from :)
BTW I dont think your going to need much advertising because i swear that at least once a day someone asks me if i have heard about this drift park in moody lol.
No problem, im just trying to help. Sounds like nothing but good news lately. And yes i actually have drifted on a sealed surface before and that where i got the idea from :)
BTW I dont think your going to need much advertising because i swear that at least once a day someone asks me if i have heard about this drift park in moody lol.
Thanks! I really do appreciate the good thoughts and help. As for "advertising," we will do some in Birmingham and Atlanta...maybe in Huntsville and Montgomery, but all along our business plan was to *first* identify the organic demand for drifting.
Once we know that organic demand, then we will be able to measure the effectiveness of our future advertising.
We'll repeat this strategy with a few enhancements as we expand to subsequent new drift parks, later.
When the pavement is wet . . . a baby could sleep in the spectator area. I think a passing Harley on 411 would wake it up though :)
Yes. We have actually *had* baby's sleeping in the protected spectator area. One thing that obviously impressed the City Council was that we could have a normal conversation in the specator area while drifting was going on.
No need to shout. No need to wear hearing protection such as that needed at Talladega and Barber's.
In fact, the Friday CBS interview was on our skidpad while we were doing a drift sound check, and the camera mikes easily picked up my voice without being overwhelmed by tire squealing that was going on behind me.
Thanks! I really do appreciate the good thoughts and help. As for "advertising," we will do some in Birmingham and Atlanta...maybe in Huntsville and Montgomery, but all along our business plan was to *first* identify the organic demand for drifting.
Once we know that organic demand, then we will be able to measure the effectiveness of our future advertising.
We'll repeat this strategy with a few enhancements as we expand to subsequent new drift parks, later.
Well, I was checking out 240atlanta.com and Importatlanta.com and those guys on there seem to think coming all the way out here for a skid pad that small and plus with that dip in the middle is not worth their time. Apparently they have some sort of port or something, they spoke of that they drift at...Also they mentioned it was illegal. So maybe they will make an appearance here despite the negative feedback from them on the forums.
Well, I was checking out 240atlanta.com and Importatlanta.com and those guys on there seem to think coming all the way out here for a skid pad that small and plus with that dip in the middle is not worth their time. Apparently they have some sort of port or something, they spoke of that they drift at...Also they mentioned it was illegal. So maybe they will make an appearance here despite the negative feedback from them on the forums.
People are supposed to diss you online! That's what being big in chat forums is all about. Gotta slam everyone else.
I'm cool with that. This is more of a place for drivers instead of talkers. The talkers will diss us without ever leaving their sofas to see for themselves what we're all about. The drivers will barely give them the time of day, they'll just be out here drifting...legally.
yeah the altlanta drifters are a little bit spoiled, and the drivers that could acually benifit from comeing out to u-drift, would rather drift on the streets, insted of spend the extra money to drive 2-3 hours, pay 50$, and drift all day
It would have lots of room but it would take a lot of money and work to get something going there. Even wiki says that the pavement is "in extremely poor condition." You don't want crappy pavement when drifting . . . and repaving would not be cheap.
I think that wet is good for learning the feeling of being and staying sideways. It is also good for learning the differences in steering and throttle inputs. Remember, this is not a D1 track. It is a track for learning and practice and having fun. The wet also helps you pay attention to changes in the track. The u-drift lot is much slicker in some areas than others, when it is wet (particularly at the beginning and end of the large sweeper). You'll see what I mean, when you drive it wet or dry. It takes just as much skill, if not more, to drift a wet track.
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"...every time my fingers touch brain, I'm superfly T.N.T.!"
I will concur with that last bit, the changes between wet-dry, wet-dry really did throw people off . . .even Gary was thrown off on one of his runs . . .
Well, I do believe we have the wet/dry consistency fixed now. Needless to say, our new and improved system will have the track where its one way or the other.
Yeah don't worry about inconsistencies in the wet. We've devised an entirely new track wetting system dubbed "the asphalt zamboni" gets the track wet in a perfect and even way. And freaking fast too!