Fast Lap:
2:07.87 by SLO_ALL2much
Garage Settings:
1700 med tires/soft supension
He seems to appear out of nowhere, crank out a few tracks, then disappear into obscurity again lol. The positive spin on that is he always leaves something behind, something for us to play with, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s yet to disappoint. This track was released several months ago (Nov 22, 2003 to be exact), and even though I was still on my self-imposed hiatus from reviewing tracks, the first time I ran “204Whippet” I wanted to write about it…but I couldn’t, because as I said, I was on a break. I suppose I could have though, but…well, it’s complicated lol. I don’t know much mike204 the man…but I sorta get the feeling the guy either really liked geometry and trig (maybe a touch of physics, too) or some of his tracks are his own way of poking fun at those two forms of math lol.
The track layout is simple, as seen
here in this overhead shot. After looking at that overhead shot you may be thinking, “So what’s fun about racing on a backwards “E”?” Well, as you may have guessed, I’m gonna tell ya lol. What mike did was slope the road approximately 45°, which by itself is somewhat awkward if you use chase far because you’re not centered behind your truck. However, being the clever individual he is, he selected
several areas along the course to throw in a twist (literally), allowing the road to unfold and slant approximately 45° in the opposite direction, as illustrated
here. Shortly after the angle of the road flip-flops, you head into a semi-elongated banked switchback, and the process repeats itself all over again. But wait – that’s not all! Did I mention mike was clever? Here’s the deal; the twists vary slightly in terms of how they unfold, which means it’s not a “once you’ve done one, you’ve done ‘em all” kind of thing. Additionally, just before you round the bend to start a new lap (or finish the race), he throws in a triple whammy – slanting the road back and forth three times within a relatively short distance, which definitely keeps you on your toes and makes for pretty exciting, unpredictable racing. It’s no secret that the key to this track is learning to flawlessly traverse the twists while maintaining contact with the pavement as much as possible. It fun when you finally figure out how to cruise through the often times precarious transitions…and admittedly I’m only about halfway there with lap times of 2:11 lol. If you’re a rookie racer the computer trucks do a pretty good job of getting around so you’ll definitely have fun honing your skills by practicing against them offline. As for advanced intermediates and pros, the track itself should be enough to keep your interest while you try different approaches to maintaining maximum speed through the twists while minimizing…well, you know, the bad stuff that happens to ya when you screw up lol.
As per usual mike kept things simple with respect to models. You’ll find a few trees and light vegetation growth down in between the track where the water level is fairly shallow, and that’s pretty much it. I was wondering about this
boat, however. I can’t help but think that there’s a perfectly logical explanation how a vessel that size could end up abandoned in 4 feet of water lol. I’m just poking a little fun at mike, actually. The fact is the lack of decoration has become a sort of trademark, as has his “204” denotation, which signifies that the track was designed for extremely exciting, close-knit racing with the intent of yielding dramatic finishes. True to form, mike gives you all of that, and maybe a little more with 204Whippet. He seems to march to a slightly different beat where track making is concerned, which I find both interesting and very impressive. Speaking of being impressed, mike’s 204Whippet chalked up a Copey Rating of “9.5” out of 10 possible points, which should come as no surprise given this guy’s history and reputation.
Another very nice track, mike! It’d be nice to actually run a few with ya sometimes, bud. Heck let me know and I could arrange to do a “204” racing extravaganza. No really, I could--honest lol.
