Does anyone know if the belted tires are legal for USGT? If so, will both non belted and belted be allowed or will we transition completely to the belted tires?

so far I’m not impressed on asphalt. They are taking longer to breakin compared to previous version. It’s not just the belted tires. The non belted are taking longer as well. Don’t know if it’s the new rim or a possible compound change but my old method doesn’t seem to be money anymore. I will glue up older new set on the new rims and apply my usual method and see what happens. Stay tuned………

Gravity RC has introduced the GRC123 Belted USGT tire. These will only be available on the gray rim. The USVTA will be allowing these tires for competition September 1. We will transition to the belted tire for carpet.
The non belted tire will still be legal for asphalt racing. Testing was conducted and it was determined that the non belted tire was better on asphalt. Drivers have their choice of belted or non belted for asphalt type surfaces.

Awesome to see this finally move forward. We first raced on a set of belted tires earlier this year, same levels of grip as the non-belted though with more consistent grip from the beginning to the end of the race without the ring of death.

Now if we could only get so lucky to have Protoform come out with a belted VTA tire.

Sounds like the belted USGT tire is only good news for the carpet guys. There are a lot of us running asphalt. Sure wish they could get a belted tire that worked well on asphalt.

Could a older spec TC be competitive? I have a tc5 in a shed somewhere and was debating it’s fate. Thanks

Sure, but depends on who is setting it up and who you are driving against.

Locally a driver running a TC4 gets regular podiums in our sportsman class.
A few months ago my team won a 3 hour enduro with an old Pro4....

So for club racing, for sure but for Nationals maybe not so much :)
A good driver is the most important ingredient to having a competitive chassis.

Thanks for the insight. Would be for club racing.. I’m settling back into hobby. Nationals won’t be in the cards for awhile.

A friend had a TC5 a few years ago that he was running against Xray T4s, etc. It was VTA, but the car was a beast.

Just an FYI...The new belted tires weigh exactly the same as the un-belted tires on the same rims.

Oh nice. I'll have to get a couple sets, then.

Hoping despite the increased cost of the belted tire, should last way longer for carpet racing (no ballooning).

I got to run the test mule set of the belted USGT tires, this weekend. I was told they had hundreds of laps on them. They still looked square to the sidewalls. The set DID NOT have glued sidewalls and ran the same lap times as a my broken in, glued set of un-belted tires.

This last Sunday I ran a brand new set of the belted USGT tires. With un-glued sidewalls and less traction compound on the fronts, I ran the exact same times as a set of the un-glued tires. I'm liking the new tires.