Masami Halsey

Competition would be better -and healthier- with a durable spec tire and a ban on chemicals. Problem is, as soon as one guy with deep pockets does it, the others feel they have to follow.

It's really up to the sanction to set rules that keep the sport healthy, but pressure from the tire companies, in this case, seems too much for them to withstand.

RC reminds me of BMX racing, which started out as an affordable sport for anybody with a bike, but then changed to suit the top racers' wills, making it removed from kids riding bikes, and bringing it to the brink of failure.

ray4624

iTrader: (5)

kind of like "no prep" drag racing
i think oval racing in some series spec a tire.

i know with karting it went that way with certain tires being specd but then became a way for event locations making money by forcing you to buy tires there and jacking up the pricing.

with this...i tried breaking in a set yesterday with loc-tite brand penetrating oil becuase it smells mint lol.
well see how they do tonight. i ran some laps on them last night and they seem ok.
these were s4 shadows, v cut foams on a 17.5 22 elite

rcgod

iTrader: (33)

The fast guys at our track run s3 prolines ground to slicks and sauced and tire warmers. They say mc is too much bite. Yah if you’re saucing and heating them every round. I’ve found mc with no sauce and no warmers work great. Just clean them with simple green. You don’t have to follow the herd. Plus saucing them kills the foams quicker. I get many weeks of racing before the foams get too soft. Unless you’re the guy winning and not making any mistakes (rare) then you don’t have to play that game. Hell, even the guys winning at our track get marshaled at least twice per race. How does it make sense to do all the prep on tires to save .2 second, and give up 3 to 6 seconds per crash? SMH.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

There’s a 4 second(or more)a lap difference where I’m at between new tires and prepared tires. That’s nothing to brush off.

There’s nothing more fustrating then watching a driver repeatedly need to be marshelled. But I’d fast enough to recover from any and almost all mistakes

rcgod

iTrader: (33)

If it’s 4 seconds then that’s one mistake. If you can come back from that then you need to move up a class. The best guys I’ve raced with make no mistakes. My point being if you’re getting marshaled 2x a race then you need to work on your driving and not your tires. Everyone thinks that tire prep is king. BS. Driving Is king. I saw a National top ten drive a borrowed 21.5 car to laps that were 1 second better than 17.5 lap times. Until you can run 5 minutes at full race pace and not make a mistake then you’re wasting your resources IMO.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

There’s not always the option to move up every weekend. Mod classes don’t always run.

Tire prep seems to be absolutely required where I’m at. And unless I can figure it out. It’s probably going to be the reason I stop if I can’t. I can, if not hit by another run in the 95-98 consistency range. But because I don’t fully know how to get tires right. I’m minimum of 1 lap down.

Right now I’m a full 1 second(1 lap) slower just going from older slicks to new slicks.

hunterdawg

iTrader: (19)

Where I race, everybody uses a tire sauce. I didn't at first and had a spinning car. One of the team guys who has been helping me with setup has recommended tire sauce, so I use it. It's 7 bucks a bottle and goes along way.

rcgod

iTrader: (33)

What compound do you run? 95-98 percent consistency is pretty good!

Funkydrummer1

iTrader: (7)

I dont quite understand how tire prep, at least in the past decade, is NOT king in indoor 1/10 offroad. Ive heard Rivkin, Maifield and Tessman make specific comments on how, at least at the tip top level of rc racing, that the difference is in the tires and how you prep them..The Tessmans had to learn all the tire sauce "rituals" early in their career, so they struggled a bit..They were a mostly 1/8 nitro team.
I'm not trying to argue with ya. I totally understand and agree that driving is first and foremost. But if, because saucing has become the standard at most tracks, your tires aren't at where everyone else's are, your not going to have pace with the top guys.
I really wish we could do away with sauce. Not because its somewhat "toxic" and it smells like crap. Although there are non toxic, less odorous substitutes that seem to work well, but because its just a pain in the ass. Also, it seems the racing would be more, uh, off- roady, if you will..
But on the other hand, if you take away sauce, the lap times get higher, guys aren't going as "fast", do they quit because its not the style of racing they're used to?

Family_Racing

Are the fast drivers at your track so full of themselves that they won't help you figure out your tires? Why not ask them between rounds or at practice if they would give you a hand figuring out the tire prep for that track. I dont know of many racers that wouldn't at the very least tell you how to set up to compete. Nobody wants the competition to be so one sided that they blow the field away by 5 it 6 laps. A close race is what makes it fun.
I don't sand or soak my tires. My kid and dad aren't fast enough to benefit from tires that are only useful for 1 or 2 nights of racing. I take new tires and "sand" them on our driveway with a few launches and donuts. Then they get sauced at the track and cleaned between rounds. This last set has been going strong since mid January with 1 track day per week (wife won't allow any more than that). We race on med-high bite clay.

Mason

If they're spending that much time on s3's to get them right.. Have you considered a light saucing on the inside .5 - 75.(not coating the outer edge to reduce possible traction roll) By light saucing I mean a little strip applied and then brushed around (no drips) or just put some on a rag and wipe it on the tires? This works quite well when I'm trying not to add grip necessarily but help get some heat into the tires during pre-race warm up. I'd shy away from the simple green unless you have a lot of sticky pick up as it draws the oils out of the tire and shortens their life span.

Just a general tip for the newer racers out there. If your tires are dripping with sauce before you finish saucing all 4.. you're putting too much on. You could save a few bucks by leaving it on the tire lol.

rcgod

iTrader: (33)

I’ve tried sauced mc and unsauced. I have also tried sauced and unsauced s3. To me the sauce brought the s3 up to where the unsauced mc were. So in my mind I would rather run mc with no prep other than sanding rather than spending an hour burning in the s3 with sauce, doing heat cycles, saucing and warmers at the track, etc. Between my son and I we race 4 classes, so it’s almost impossible to deal with the tire stuff in the time we have between rounds. I guess we’re lucky that we have an option to run tires that work without prep. I know a lot of tracks aren’t like that. I also wonder why all the work to bring s3 traction levels up. Why not run s4 or m4? Idk. Sometimes I think it’s follow the herd mentality.

Alexv2024

iTrader: (2)

Theres something massively wrong if you are consistent and find 4 seconds a lap between a tire that is fresh out of package and one that is prepped. The wrong compound or I donno something. Ususually its .5-1 a lap at worst 2.

Thats why I run AKA now. Minimal prep, mostly sand to slicks and run. Liquid wrench every run and the 1st run is about .5 off pace. runs 2-4 are usually the fastest. I'll get 20ish runs maybe 30 if I can deal with the stretch in practice. No foam tickery at high grip tracks. Glued front sidewalls at big races. I've tried SXT and PB blaster and other stuff. SXT seemed great but was out of stock for CRCRC so I went LW. Aka tires are also usually the lightest tires you can run, or close to it. Especially big ST tires/foams.

JC tires seem to need a decent amount of prep. Burn in sauce and carefully picking tread height and how much burn in. Raw speed are even tougher since they are mostly thicker except the radar. Which doesn't even have an inner carcass which is insane in a modern tire. Their Stadium truck tires are insanely thick and heavy. The one set I tried felt like lead weights and were about .5/lap off my aka xlinks.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

Unfortunately it’s the situation I’m in. Ask 5 drivers and get 5 different opinions how how to break in tires. One claimes he spends between 1-2hrs per tires. Between foam prep, glue, burn in, and whatever other voodoo. Tomorrow will be first full race day with them. 5 practice days have been slowly wearing them in. I’m expecting to be a lap off my regular pace because of them. But see what happens.

I know tires are not everything. But it’s difficult to get past seeing the time difference. Especially since it’s taken 5 months to get my truck running as well as it was. Now to fall back because I don’t know the tricks

Alexv2024

iTrader: (2)

Eh I'd rather drive a car with tires prepped by a world champ and a car built by a novice than vice versa. Tires are most of a car but not everything no.