Ice racing
 

Has anybody ever tried racing their sedan on ice? if so did you find any particular tire that actually worked? I am having a club meeting this sunday that will almost certainly be held on sheet-ice thanks to the lousy weather we're having here at the moment.
I was thinking of making up a set of old tires with drawing-pins pushed through from the inside, but is there anything that I can buy that would do the same job?
Thanks

I played once in a wooden basketball court with similar characteristics as ice. No traction at all!!! The only tire that worked (extremely well, it was like having foam in ashalt!) was HPI rally tire with soft insert!

Nick

Me and my friend where just talking about the same thing just yesterday!

Well I race on polished wood and Schumacher Mini Pins (yellow compound) work best, we use mainly the 22mm version as they are obviously thinner and its similar to what the WRC cars use on snow etc.

We were planning to book the local ice rink and see what it was like.... and maybe hold an Ice Race if local people were interested...of course water is a big problem i suppose..

Sleighty:sneaky: :weird:

I havent tried this, but it sounds to be fun!

I suppose tire warmers could be very helpfull?

back in the early 90's I built sort of a snow mobile on a car chassis with ski's on front from tamiya hornet parts. Pretty fun, but didn't jump on snow too well ;) The rear tires were studded snow tires :) I made some wierd stuff back then. LOL

I made a set of skis for the front of my RC10 (6-gear) and used Pro-Line tractor treads in the rear...that thing was a BLAST to drive....the tricky part was setting up the spring mchanism with the proper tension to keep the front skis from flipping over..but still allowing them to articulate a bit...

What is being asked though is about ice racing..not snow bashing...

it actually sounds like a good idea...I could imagine that it could be a blast to get an ice pad at the local hockey arena..and water wouldn't be a problem..with a freshly Zamboni'd surface it would be smooth without many loose particles to get into the car??

Crap...now I need to know what tires will work too..going to have to bring this up at our next club meeting:D

Re: Ice racing
 

If you had an old set of foams that were shot you could true them down so that when you stick the pins through the rims, they just poke through a bit. It would keep your cg low and the pins would stay in place better(as long as they were glued down and didn't rub anything).

A number of years ago we tried this with offroad cars on an indoor skating rink. I don't recall exactly how he did it, but the most successful was a car with offroad tires and the tread smoothed and replaced with very small metal minipins. Traction was great. Fatdoggy's basic idea sounds good. You don't need the pins to stick out very much.

Thanks guys, I've been thinking about things and taken fatdoggy's idea into consideration, I'll post some pics in an hour or so when ive got the tyres put together.

i think foams would work well they would hold the drawing pins in pretty stable, you could put either tape around the inside of the rim or some sort of glue to hold them in place.

this is just a example i rushed this on an old jaco foam i used pliers to get the pins in, i would recommed if you where making one for serious racing to maybe true the tyre so all spikes are even, buy small headed pins because mine were huge and i could only fit 2 rows on, buy strong pins so they dont bend and also work out how you are going to position the pins before ramming them in :smile:

ya know, its funny you guys are discussing this i have been driving past this frozen pond on my way to work every morning and i started thinking about converting an old bolink pan car into an ice sled. the rear wheels you are working on look good. but for a 2wd car i was thinking of fabricating some type of sharp edged ski or razor rails, i am not sure yet. anyway this thread has inspired me to start on it.

Hey guys, sorry it took a bit longer than an hour, but it was a bit more complicated than i imagined. i ended up using 24 pins pushed through the inside of a pit d20 treaded narrow tire, with a cut down firm moulded insert to support them. i just have to do the other 3 now :eek:
http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/135227/57.jpg
http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/135227/58.jpg

we are going to test the spikes out! there is ice outside just on road but we will take some pics :sweat:

sounds good, make sure the pics are good!
ill have to wait till tomorrow to test mine, i havent got any tyre glue at the moment. ill let you all know how they go though