foam or rubber?

Old 04-26-2007, 09:17 PM
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Default foam or rubber?

whi

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Old 04-26-2007, 09:22 PM
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Originally Posted by civiceg
which tires are good for asphalt racing,foam or rubber?
Both.
I prefer foams.
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Old 04-26-2007, 10:55 PM
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so

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Old 04-26-2007, 11:14 PM
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Foams lighter weight, less rolling mass, depending on surface more grip, easier to set your car up
Foams wear down in size, making you change gearing more often than with rubbers, not allowed at all tracks / classes.



Rubber: a lot more tuning options, compounds, inserts etc. can last a long time depending on driving style, constant diameter
heavier, trickier to set up for a track
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Old 04-27-2007, 08:32 AM
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Why do the gas guys get to run foams? And if some one wanted to run rubber against foams would they allow it as if it were a different brand or type of foam?

In the past in elecrtic racing we ran foams of the same compound as gas cars, and due to the lighter weight they lasted longer than rubber. And were more consistant to the end of the life of the tire. I sure wish our track would allow them again. In electric that is. And we didn't use traction aditives

I could run Parmas down to 57 or 58 and they would be ready for indoor carpet.
Yet the way foams are heading with the 58mm's right out of the box it may make rubber way more atractive.

I guess its all to keep people happy and keep it fair?
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Old 04-27-2007, 08:37 AM
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RUBBER
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Old 04-27-2007, 08:53 AM
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Old 04-27-2007, 09:01 AM
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Originally Posted by civiceg
which lasts longer?
That really depends on the track, and how small you want to run foams.

Some tracks eat up rubber tires, while others will be easier on the tire, sometimes resulting in faster 2nd or 3rd runs with rubbers.

The same goes for foam, it depends on the track and compunds you would use.

Rubber tires wear out, foams just wear down.
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Old 04-27-2007, 11:29 AM
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Im a rubber guy, and I do run foam a bit but I like rubber best. It lasts much longer (if you use right compound of course) and is in general, cheaper. And to answer the question about why gas cars need foams: they need the extra grip from foams at high speeds, because just using soft rubber tires would blister.

In my opinion RUBBER OWNS. Faom is better suited for carpet racing than asphalt, and wear down too fast on asphalt's rough surface. but I do like how there is a hardness system for foams (shore), I wish rubber had an established hardness system.
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Old 04-27-2007, 11:43 AM
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I've run both, and in my experience, always found foams to be far less expensive and more consistent. Running gas compounds on the electric cars the foams lasted FOREVER. I was cutting them down to 59 mm and could easily get three weeks out of them on our particularly rough surface. If you looked at the guys who were burning up foams on our track their cars were always way off on set-up. If they slapped a rubber tire on the car it would overwork the rubber the same way it would the foam, the only real difference is that the diameter of the rubber tire wouldn't change so they thought rubbers worked better. Most of them didn't realize that their times on rubber fell off so bad after the first one or two runs because they really weren't good enough to notice. The Bottom line is that the fast guys are gonna be the fast guys regardless of which tire everybody's on, so I say try both and see what everyone in your area prefers.
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Old 04-27-2007, 12:48 PM
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So the overall consensus for the choice between rubber and foam is that foam will last longer but they will change in diameter so gearing will have to be adjusted accordingly. I am wondering because I am on a budget and can't afford new tires every other week. Thanks.
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Old 04-27-2007, 12:55 PM
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What class will you be running? If running silvercan or stock you can use rubber tires for quite a while before buying new ones. There are advantages to both, rubber tires have alot more tuning options.
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Old 04-27-2007, 01:14 PM
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Originally Posted by shaneriley2
So the overall consensus for the choice between rubber and foam is that foam will last longer but they will change in diameter so gearing will have to be adjusted accordingly. I am wondering because I am on a budget and can't afford new tires every other week. Thanks.
It all depends on the surface and how competitive you want to be. I ran half a summer when I first started on some TakeOff CS-27s (rubber tires). You can sometimes find people unloading their rubber tires used after 3 runs and you can pick them up cheaper.
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Old 04-27-2007, 01:24 PM
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Originally Posted by shaneriley2
So the overall consensus for the choice between rubber and foam is that foam will last longer but they will change in diameter so gearing will have to be adjusted accordingly. I am wondering because I am on a budget and can't afford new tires every other week. Thanks.
Rubber tires last pretty good as long as the rules will let you run specific inserts and compounds to meet or exceed the temperature of the track.
I prefer Sorex in that aspect.

But in all foam is my favorite. As long as your track will allow it and theres enough on the band wagon, to my experience its overall cheaper.
The trick is to run 45 shore or some thing like that like the gas guys run, you just have to make sure of the widths because some cars wont handle 30mm rear tires. Research the car vs. tire and weather they are adaptable. May have to make some mods? Or purchase 28mm widths.
If you choose to run indoor carpet tires they will wear faster. And even faster if you use traction compounds I never used traction comounds with foams out side.

The good part of using the indoor carpet tires is that if you do indoor carpet foam they will work indoors with out truing them to size which wastes a lot of foam.
If you don't run indoor carpet foam, I would recommend compounds like the gas guys are using. The harder the compound the longer they last with the lighter car.
Good luck most tracks don't allow foam electric for some reason?

The nice thing with foams you don't only have temperature choices, but traction choices. If it dusty, softer compounds will work even if its to hot for that compound.
With rubber to my experience the temp limits the compound to the traction level. If the traction requires RP 27's the temp may require Sorex 32's.
In this case rubber or foam the tires will wear faster. I Would rather have foams in this situation.
Trail and error, when the temperature comes into play.
Lots to consider when choosing tires, and foams have a lot more options.
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Old 04-27-2007, 02:15 PM
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So if I am going to be running indoor 19t electric on carpet I should choose foams for the better life or rubber?
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