Announcing my new book, the Essential 1/12th & F1 RC Racer’s Guide (Book and eBook).

Written with the support of:

• David Spashett - 3 x 1/12th IFMAR World Champion
• Jan Ratheisky - F1 IFMAR World Champion

153 pages of full-colour step-by-step guides, advice for every setup option, checklists, troubleshooting, case studies and quick reference material.

Available now from www.davebstevens.com and selected online RC stores.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...4329b7757a.jpg

Melbourne F1 drivers.... ATS at lillydale 😎👍 come race on this awesome nitro track!!
https://www.atsrc.com.au/products/round-1-lilydale-melbourne

Is this thread still going?

Having read the past few pages, I'd have to agree with many who say that the tyres are the reason they are held back from running F1. You can go into many different RC stores and see a rack or more of options for onroad touring, yet F1 tyres are really hard to come by. The other problem I have come across regarding tyres is that with cars like the F103s and Serpent SF2W, they are unable to race due to the wider track and needing wider tyres (especially the rear). If you want to go down to the local club with an older spec wide car and race for fun, you can't.

There was a club running F1 in Brisbane (near me), but F1 seems to no longer feature.

Yes, the tyres aren't easy to get, but the hobby shops don't stock many because they don't sell very well. Though I'm not sure if tyres is the big issue, the cars are just generally one of the hardest classes to drive. It's really hard to get newcomers at all, and clubs try to steer the newcomers at a class that's easy to learn with. You have to really be passionate to stick with F1.

You're probably right, it isn't an easy car to drive. I've yet to attend a race meeting, but have spent some decent time at a Serpent research test track in Asia, and with a few mins with a staff member I was able to keep the car facing in the right direction most of the time hehehe. I'll persist though because as you say you'd have to be a die hard F1 fan, which describes me to a tee, but if it weren't for the F1 class, I wouldn't bother with RC at all. I just run out of tyres too regularly to have enough practice to be confident of attending a race meet, assuming I can find one post Covid.

Mr Brooksy, are you running foam tyres? The majority of F1 racing is on rubber tyres these days. Pit Shimizu used to make rubber tyres for the wide spec cars, but I'm not sure they do anymore.

QRCCRA (Brendale) will probably be offering F1 racing again soon, it's on our schedule, run every 4 weeks. It's on the calendar for Sept 5 Events for September 2020 ? QRCCRA

We haven't gotten into the full swing of things post Covid restrictions.

Pit Shimizu doesn't make anything anymore, they retired and sold their IP to Schumacher. As far as I've seen so far, they've only ramped up production of the wet weather TC tyres that are used for the British racing series.

Oh nice, I hadn't heard about that yet. Though they seem to be for carpet and we normally run outdoors.

Plus look at the price?

Speedy RC is selling them and a full set of rubber for an F1 car in these Shimizu brand is $95. That's just getting stupid.

But they're on sale! Think of how much you're saving on each set you buy! :sneaky:

I am not enthused about buying a set of tyres just to find out they don't work well at this sort of price point. The 575's had a habit of tearing the sidewalls, but that was also partly dependent on the rim. I've no experience with these ones, but hear the Ride GR's are decent for at least some outdoor asphalt surfaces, and RC Mart has a few other brands compounds of unknown performance.

I'm thinking I'd kick in some money into a pool for someone to do some independent testing on a local track with a contemporary chassis and tyre selection. Would almost certainly save me money in the long run.

Phil.

Looking at the Schumacher website. They are selling all the F104 tyres that we used unglued as well as the pre glued. Tyres only don't have the C in the part number.

Over the weekend I battled with my F1 on a cold outdoor track

575's were good until track temp got to about 25-30c then they just slid and ripped the side walls (573 fronts) (Older set I had prob bought a yr ago)
Tried Volante Green / Double Pink combo, lots of understeer
Tried Pit 573 front and Double Pink Volante rear, car would randomly snap oversteer mid corner other people had the issue as well

It's been a few years since I ran F1 (last one was an X1 '16), but I found the '575s only good for cold (<15) days, before moving to the '572s and then to the Ride R1s if the temps got north of 30. Mostly stayed with the 571s or 573s on the front.

Got a new chassis to build, so contemporary tyre choices are on my mind...