The drivers who really wear them out in one run don't pay for them anyway ;)

Facts 😄

In TITC my daughter practiced tires up to 10 times till they broke. But that is useless if competitors will use new tires each run.

The grip of new tires is so different from used ones that car setup, radio setup, driving will be night and day. If one wants to be competitive in Modified, you need to practice on one or two run tires max.

Whilst pro drivers do not directly pay for them, they indirectly pay for it as it is an operating expense for the company that pays their salary. Higher operating expense eats up on staff salary.

I am not pessimistic, here are my daughter's tires from TITC as we spent 23 days on track practicing. There is no way this will attract people to run modified.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...5096c83c64.jpg

In TITC everyone I am pretty sure everyone ran new tires from control practice, qualifiers, finals. Useless to practice on older tires.

And just some inside info, for those who saw some magical single fastest lap and topping the leader board during TITC practice days, tradeoff is tire would only last 3 laps to do those special fast laps.

That is just tires. Saw many mangled cars in modified and 13.5 boost from the best drivers. Easy $300 per hard crash.
Maintenance cost (e.g. DCJs, 0.4mm bodies) is also very high in modified.

And this horrible trend of $300 steel chassis that will mangle your bulkheads and entire car in a crash. Picture does not really even capture how bad it was, bent in 3 different places.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rct...4d914eea9a.png
Photo credit: Pekko Iivonen RC (Winner of C-Main, very fast driver)

New talent will be few and far between. Retaining existing mod drivers will be a big challenge.

"I can fix her"

TITC is a huge international event that attracts the top talent. This is not the place to be attracting newcomers.

seen $600 in bent chassis locally at the last two races. One in mod and the other in 21.5.

T.V. repairman?

I understand what you're saying

"My dad's got this ultimate set of tools, I can fix it."

There was a comment that it was getting harder to break into the upper echelon of modified racing. I added my insights as to why. My daughter ran modified. Probably need to budget USD10K - 15K / year if one wants to A-main at the upper echelon. And generous vacation time off from your employer to play rc cars.

My insight is not related to attracting newcomers. It is to why the experienced racers in other class at TITC (e.g. non boost, 13.5 boost) do not step up to modified.

exactly. rccartips your (impressive) picture shows tires needed for 23 days of running... we are not talking the usual club race where someone is running mod.

If you are going to attend TITC "Seriously" as a foreigner and spend the whole week at rcaddict, I think the incremental tire/body/spares budget in mod vs stock, while not insignificant, is not material compared to the overall expense of the whole experience (travel, accomodation, normal tire/body/spares, ...). Now, for locals, it's a different story for sure.

Again, congrats to you and Porsha as "privateers" for going for it hardcore :)

I run also mine 5 to 6 battery and then use the rear tires with rear tires from another set for 3 runs.
So 8 in total when I drive hard on my local track. It is more on a track that I do not know well. (Matrix D36)
Performance wise, the new mod tires are much better than before.

In stock, there is exactly the same issue as tires like Rush are much better when they are brand new, than after 3-4 battery. So the top guys only run new tires when it is allowed.

1 hour car service to Airport = USD 15

1 day hostel/resort = USD 17

5 minute tire = USD 24 ???!!

That said I will probably be in TITC 2026 :D

So you're budgeting for the trip to the airport, but not the flights?