1/12th scale rubber tires
 

The classes that seem to be growing at our local tracks are F1 and GT-R. I'm sure there are several reasons why but among them for me is the simplicity and durability of the rubber tires used in those classes. This got me to wondering if anyone knows if any companies are working on similar tires for 12th scale?

I would love to run 1/12 scale again if they were on tires similar to the GT-R tires but obviously smaller. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this topic?

I apologize if this has been brought up, I searched the forums but didn't find much.

Marcos - thanks for the link. Interesting read. Now that the thread is 5 1/2 years old we have a bit more data to go on. Most of the arguements posed in that thread say that rubber tires do not (or should not) perform as well on pan cars as foam. While that is obviously true, I think that with the advent of the GT-R class and the performance achieved in F1, I wonder if those assumptions still hold to such a large degree?

I don't think that rubber tires are good idea for 1/12 and I really wonder why this keeps coming up. I know that F1 are a growing class, but I can't see this for GT-R. At least not on the West Coast or at the IIC. I personally see a problem with the tire size, a typical tire diameter of 1/12 is 41/42 and smaller.
Let's use 41mm rear as base line. The rubber tyre needs at least 4mm hight from the wheel. This gets us a wheel with a maximum diameter of 32mm.:lol::lol::weird:

Foam Tires work great and therefore we don't have to change it.

I do not race 1/12 enough to render an opinion. So I will any way. Rubber tire 1/12th pan car is End of the World talk.

world gt was dying locally, wgt-r killed it completely.

i guess its the evolution of racing for this to happen. the tires are getting better bu ti dont think they will ever be as good as foam.
for spec classes i think the spec tires on black carpet last a very long time if you dont true them to one run spec, and unlike rubber tires, they dont drop off after x number of runs. as long as their is foam on the rim they are good. for club racing you could start larger, 42/43 and get a few days of racing on them, takin them off to save when they get really small for the main or what not.

I do wish the tires were significantly less expensive though. $17cdn for a pair of crc tires is a little silly when im going to walk over to the truer and take off like 80% of it. sell the tires pretrued for less money... its a waste thing for me...

if gtr tire price is any indictation im not sure how i feel about it. if they can sell a full set of tires close to what touring car tires cost, then id be onboard. as with touring car tires, i wouldnt expect the tires to be GOOD for more than weekend of racing. sure they will last and be usable, but if your competition level is high, it will just add cost i think.

it wont stop me from enjoying club racing, but for bigger races id stay away and just run modified i think. then again, with most touring car races pushing a spec tire it might be fun to show up and you get one set of tires for the pancar as well. for $25-$30 this is reasonable, but arent gtr tires close to $70?

GT-R and F1 tires last for months. I have over 100 runs on some sets of tires. So cost is based on perspective. In my personal experience, the cost is justified. Foam will always be more expensive in the long run. That being said, tires are a tuning option in 12th scale. Even spec tires are usually chosen compound that best suits the racing.

Someone, tried making rubber 12th scale tires back in 89 or 90. I know I have them somewhere. They did not have rubber like we have now, so they did not hook up at all. Ended up being more of a shelf piece. lol I started running wgtr a year ago Jan. Still running the same set. TQ'ed today but ended up second thanks to my mechanic. I think I missed 2 weekends, so I have no problem with the cost.
I do wish they were a lower profile though &
I would like to try a set made for 12th's with this compound.

Tom

Here's what it looks like with Yokomo rubber:

http://www.rctech.net/forum/attachme...s-p1010157.jpg

http://www.rctech.net/forum/attachme...s-p1010156.jpg

.....

No rubber for me. At MHIC i ran 2 sets of spec foams in 17.5 the whole time including some practice so 4 quals and a main with some practice. Started at 39.8 front and 40mm rear. I still could do a few more practice runs on them too. Imo wgt-r ruined the class, MHIC had i think 4 or 5 of them. Id still run wgt if crc wouldnt have pushed to make it rubber tire.

I am in the same boat, at the MHIC even tiny tires lasted me 2-3 runs on the front, and at least double that on the rear. Rubber tires are unnecessary.

I personally thought that WGT had a bright future, it seemed like a fun class with durable, quick and easy to drive cars on spec tires. The rounded nose bodies made it such that the racing could even involve a little rubbing without both cars getting mangled, I hope it makes a comeback.

i'd be highly upset if this happens. It sucked that WGT died because of rubber tires

Mine sat on a shelf for 3 years. It didn't die because of rubber tires. It died from lack of interest. I'm just happy to have a viable pan car class to run locally.