darkfox

iTrader: (1)

Alright. So there's big interest in having a summer asphalt series around my area. I've taken it upon myself to get the series planned and figure out the fees and whatnot but now I've run into a snag.

Here's the problem. The asphalt in the parking lot in front of our permanent club location is relatively new, free of gaping holes and more or less smooth. So track layouts are going to be fairly easy and fun to create. I've been doing some reading and some tracks use a mixture of sugar and water in a chemical sprayer for added traction, other clubs swear by their own mixtures of fruit juice, or lemon juice and honey....or whatever other vile creations they can think of.

So. My question is, what is the best mixture to spray on a track that is exposed to constant sunlight on 30C (90F) days?

...and a side question on rubber tires. I hear tell that Tamiya has type B's that are made specifically to run on track surface heat around the mark I'm looking for. Any tire suggestions?

Hebiki

iTrader: (26)

is your series a TCS series? if it isnt, i would recommend looking into other tires. Tamiya Bs are 1 run tires. B3s you would get 2-3 good runs before they drop off.

so if it isnt a TCS series, try the following tires:
- Much More Absolute 32 premounts
- RP30 premounts
- Sorex 36R premounts

you dont necessarily have to have the premounts, but just suggesting them since it keeps costs down (no experiementing with different insert combos) and i dont know the rules for your series.

razzor

Bud the water/sugar mix works well and doesnt actually give you the traction but holds down the dust to make you get better traction from the asphalt.
Theres lots of different mixes but teh sugar/water is the most practical also you could add some soda/cooldrink which helps prevent teh sugar from crystalising but id suggest keeping it simple.

A. Rhodes

iTrader: (32)

A good mixture is 5lb of sugar to 5 gallons of water, with 2 liters of soda.

Adrian has some good posts on asphalt traction here:

http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthread.php?t=162592

http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthre...ht=sugar+water

darkfox

iTrader: (1)

It's not a TCS race. I've never run rubber before, always carpet, so of course my rubber tire knowledge is pathetic. lol. I'll look into those other tires though. Most of the racers will be getting their gear from the LHS so if I talk to owner into bringing me in a set some of the other racers will most likely want to try them too.

As far as rules, they are mostly geared towards the motors and batteries being used as opposed to getting proprietary over tire choices. It's the first season for asphalt here so we're starting with a "race with what you have" mentality. Just fun racing to give us all stick time over the regional off-season.

What mixture should I use of sugar/water? I've heard 500ml sugar to 20L of water. meaning 1 part sugar to 40 parts water. Is that accurate?

edit: ah! there we go. 5lb sugar to 5gallon water with 2L of grape soda. that'll be the first try. it's a mothballer race the first one out anyway. lots of time to play with the mixture.

MrBlack

Tamiya USA is asphalt and they are not allowed to use any chemical that can adversly effect the local environment and or ground water I.E. if you can't injest it then you can't spray it. We use a gardening sprayer (2 gallon) and after many tries with various sugar additives and sugar based products we found the best grip for the buck is cheap maple (pancake) syrup mixed 1 part syrup to 3 parts water. This provides no issues with crystalisation. What the syrup does is tack down the dust especially the rubber dust which allows the grip level to increase the more it is run on. blow off the track before spraying as blowing it off afterwards simply blows any of the rubber off.

Do not put a super thick coat down just enought to see a darker line.

Too much and the track will feel greasy in the heat over time.

Hope this helps.

darkfox

iTrader: (1)

That does help. Our permanent indoor track in located in a building where businesses need the parkinglot during the week. I don't want to turn a large rectangle of that lot white. lol

swopemike

iTrader: (6)

If you haven't already, search for the thread "Rubber Tires for Dummies", lots of great info on rubber tires from Adrian M. and others.

http://www.rctech.net/forum/showthre...+tires+dummies

9 pages and worth the read, full of info.

There is more info in other threads but this search gets you 80% of the way there I think.

darkfox

iTrader: (1)

I ain't no dummy....[as he starts reading thru the pages with great interest]


thanks!

smyka

go to your local super market and buy their store brand grape or orange soda in 3 litler for a track 110 by 60 we use 7 bottles so itr cost us 8 dollars a week

darkfox

iTrader: (1)

just wanted to say thanks very much for everyone's input. i'm going to put some of my newly acquired knowledge to the test this Sunday so hopefully we get some great results.

Skiddins

How dusty is the carpark?

With 30degC temps what's wrong with just running on the track as is, should get quite high track temps with sunlight and those temps, possibly 50 degC or so.

Skiddins

Big Rigg

The best thing you can do to get even traction is blow the track off really well... then spray a light, even coating around the entire track (not just the corners). Whatever the traction is like afterwards, low/med/high, it'll at least be consistant.

darkfox

iTrader: (1)

I'd like it to more or less be as consistantly tacky as our carpet track is....or better. I think I'm going to start with the sugar/water/pop mix with a thin layer. This Sunday's looking like a low 20's day and probably won't be sunny as the forecast is calling for scattered showers.

James

iTrader: (11)

Shouldn't need to apply anything to the surface of an asphalt track, ever. usually a good wash will get rid of dirt/dust. If traction is a problem, racers can use goop on the tyres.... or find a better setup