Artificial-I

iTrader: (17)

I hear grape soda is the best for track surfaces if you go the soda route. Its also least exspensive if you buy from bargain store brand.

Also tires will absorb almost any oil , what works best is up to you and your testing to find. Everyone has there tricks. I use after-run oil.

The best way to go though is go with actual tire traction formulas. I think one of the better ones is trinity tire tweak. Add that into a bad the day before your run or leave it in a bag the entire time before a race , right before take it out and off you go.

ohio mike

coppertone sun babbies spf45. we have used it on foams for dirt oval and pavement. it works.

mike

FREELANCE_RCer

iTrader: (27)

I think you can use K Y gelly to soften rubbers too.

mistercrash

iTrader: (5)

Make a puddle on the ground with a little coke and roll the car in the puddle enough for the foam to absorb it. Let sit in the sun for a few minutes and the liquid will evaporate leaving the sugar (or coke syrup) in the foam making it sticky. I tried it a few times when I needed more traction on asphalt and it worked well.

rc_alan

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RC_Alan

GrandeGixxer

iTrader: (21)

Most people that run nitro dont put any compound on their tires for this reason, it doesn't last more than 5-6 minutes. That wouldn't do a whole lot of good in a 30 minute main. In electric it is fine, but not in nitro. As far as putting coke on your tires, I dont think that would work at all. All it would do is gum up the tires and make them glazed over. Kinda like if you don't wait for the compound on the track to dry out and go run on it. It will glaze your tires over and you will be all over the place.

GrandeGixxer

iTrader: (21)

Also, the best way to find traction is to mount the right tires and put the right setup on your car.

rcfoolz

iTrader: (22)

When running dirt oval, use the Coppertone for babies, the stuff that looks like elmers clue. What it does, is make the tires stay clean and improve the actual grip of the tires to the clay pack that they run on. As for asphalt, I tried it once......it was like the car was on marbles and it didn't work well.

If all else fails and you want to make something, I have also made a few sets of tires that have a groove cut near the inside of the tire and filled with clear silicon and trued back down to whatever size I need. Although this is ok for club racing, it IS NOT OK for a state or national race. you use these when there is no traction what-so-ever.

You can also make them with the silicon all across the tire,they work good if you want to play on a wood floor like at a school gym, or smooth concrete that has a sealer on it and where you have fine powder like sand and you cannot get anything else to work.

Slapmaster6000

iTrader: (16)

Sunscreen is a "back in the day" trick for outdoor racing. We used to use Copertone with Paba. Rub it into your foam tires and toss them into a zip lock bag over night somewhere warm. Or on the dash of your car with the defrost on warm. It was meant more for the "yellow, green, blue" family of tires instead of todays exotics. Todays tires should work fine or you need to keep looking for set up sollutions.

We also used to water break-in Mabuchi's.

We also used to weigh cells to match them before voltage/time matchers were available. 53 gram cells GE's were the ticket!

Carbon Fiber was sooo cool then.

jake alton

Ive used W-D40 on my 1/8 with the tires completely soaked, on a dirty asphalt track and it did help increase traction with no problems. Try it!

RoyU

iTrader: (2)

Ooooh the good ole days...I remember using Coppertone 15 for 12th scale and 1/10th electric pan cars. Oil of wintergreen mixed with some kind of adhesive remover.

Is oil of wintergreen still available?

GrandeGixxer

iTrader: (21)

Oil of Wintergreen is the main ingredient in Paragon Ground Effects. It has been banned at many tracks because of the intoxicating smell. I like the smell though.

fraz

Ahh, fellow old timer FYI we still use water to break in Mabuchi's. More like we used to use water to break in Irigashi motors. That was the hot ticket

nitro_racer23

i think it is just the suger in the products that is having this effect as we have sprayed suger water on our track once before because the VHT was locked up and no one had the key and it worked just as good.

cheers
Chris

mistercrash

iTrader: (5)

Well if you never tried it how do you know it won't work and what's with that theory that it would gum up the tires? Anyway, I was up for a 5 minute qualifier at that time and didn't have time to wrench on my car 'cause I was volunteering a lot of my time to the club so I thought of using some of the Coke I was drinking on my tires and it worked very well. I write this from experience.