Tony Szep

That is true where i race (mostly indoor carpet) we use foams and thats what im use to and im sure you race all outdoor rubber tire. im going to try rubber this summer

RCGaryK

iTrader: (3)

Nope, I run indoor carpet most of the year...

Tony Szep

do you have a rubber tire carpet class?

RCGaryK

iTrader: (3)

That's all that's being run right now actually, foam has died here because people have gotten priced out of it.

Tony Szep

How long do rubbers last on carpet?

ChadK

That would be sad if you quit racing because of tires. The 2002 nats, non of the mod drivers I talked to liked the traction level with the tires but it was handout tires so they made the best of it. This tire debate comes up a couple of times a year and there are pationate opinions on both sides. For me I spend about the same money on tires on foam as I did when i ran rubber. With foam I spend about 1/4 the time preping tires and I feel my testing time is more productive as I know the tire is not degrading and affecting the handling. But I will race and have fun on whatever tire is required.

RCGaryK

iTrader: (3)

Depends how agressive you want to be on your setup. The guys running at the top of the feild right now...I'd say 4-6 weeks. One of the local was getting 40-50 runs out of his tires and he'd still be a top 5 car every week. He simply adjusted his setup as the tires wore to maintain his laptimes. Now I have gone so agressive on my setups that 4-5 runs and they're toast, but I did that deliberately to get as much speed out of the car as possible. I'd say average is easy 4-6 weeks though.

Tony Szep

well that beats foam im gona try to start a rubber class now.

ChadK

That is interesting around here stock and 19t race on rubber mod on foam. At our track a number of the 19t racers are switching to mod because they are tired of dealing with the rubber tires. There switch is also driven by $$ because for the last couple 2 day races the were buying 2-3 sets of rubbers to keep the car consistant and saw that I would run the same foam set all weekend.

RCGaryK

iTrader: (3)

Larry's used to have a great rubber class. In fact he used to host a TCS regional for years. But one person started talking in his ears that foam was better for everyone, and got that changed. Talk to Chris Warren about it, he knows more details than I do

Tony Szep

I know Chris he is a great guy. where do you run at?

RCGaryK

iTrader: (3)

I can understand that for a larger race. I do the same thing. We ran a 5 race series up here this past winter. I ran a new set of tires for the last round of qualifyig and the mains at each race because there was a competitive advantage and the cost vs gain factor was there...for ME. The person who finished 3rd in the series ran 2 sets of tires over all 5 races, and also ran those tires during the weekly club races too.

RCGaryK

iTrader: (3)

Well, I don't know if I would classify him as a "Great" guy, but he's ok...At least he's not as bad a Palmer

I race at Trackside.

Tony Szep

ChadCapece

Reasons nitro should run foams and electric run rubber on asphalt:

Nitro:
-Rubber tires are made to have heat cycles that last 5-8 minutes. This is when the rubber heats up and gives good traction. When the race is over, the tire is allowed to cool down and the molecules regain their tight structure. If a tire is pushed to hard, the tire will overheat, and start to "feather" and lines will form across the contact patch.
-Longer mains which will shred up rubber tires due to the intense heat cycle that last 45 minutes.
-A nitro heat usually last 8 minutes. 3 minutes of warm-up and 5 minutes of racing.
-Nitro cars need the traction that rubber tires create due to the high (for their scale) g-forces since they weight so much.
-A foam tire is the same tire from the first run, to the next to last run. So as the tire experiences the 9 heat cycles during the main, it will not change the setup as drastically as a rubber tire would. Only change would be the castor and roll-center.

Electric:
-Most of the world runs rubber tires.
-More realistic.
-Cheaper for the average track.
-Tires only experience one heat cycle per race.
-Electric cars are lighter so they don't need the foam traction.
-Foams will chunk
-Rubber tires will not chunk.