Originally Posted by Chris Haigh

We're in the same boat here as we're not allowed to use additive on our carpet track and everyone is racing on foams since the traction is better. Here's what my XRay setup looks like:

26mm 40 shore tires front
26mm 32 shore tires rear
Stock shock springs
30 wt oil front shocks
25 wt oil rear shocks
50 wt oil rear diff
No rear swaybar
5mm ride height front and rear
Droop 3mm over ride height front and rear
Bitty Nardo body

I'm also running some pro-squat in the rear to increase weight transfer to the rear when accelerating out of corners and have had good success with that. I've also added some current limit to my esc to help control wheelspin under acceleration with less traction.

With this setup, the car is very forgiving and practically glued to the track. It may not have as much steering as you're looking for, but it's prefect for me as I prefer my cars to not have a ton of steering. I TQ and win the A-Main here just about every race night with it.

Tires get rotated and ride height readjusted after every heat. Tire wear is usually less than 1mm at the end of the night, but that's where my tire truer has paid for itself already.

Racing on foams definitely takes more work, but it's still possible to go fast on them without the use of additive. Just makes it more difficult.

Originally Posted by Boostinswifty38

Also gotta remember, manufacturers today are designing and building around rubber touring, not foam. So flex characteristics and such are quite different.

Originally Posted by tc3team

Some very interesting setup thoughts there for me to try, thanks

Particularly the 32 rear tyre. I have a very aggressive driving style where I throw the car into the corner and expect it to work, with less grip now I feel that's really hurt my results.

I should be more conservative, smooth and have less steering but it's making that change that will take some time.

I used the 42/40 with additive so now without it I guess that's where some of lap time is being lost.

50wt oil in the diff, - is that the rear diff and you are using a spool up front? Again, another interesting variation to my diff/diff setup.

50wt is really, really thin? or is it a typo for 50k?

What xray are you racing with? the T4 '14?

Originally Posted by Chris Haigh

50wt in the rear diff is not a typo. And yes, spool up front.

I forgot to mention that adding another degree of toe-in to the rear will also increase rear traction when accelerating and help the car square up better coming out of corners, but will make the car push more.

tc3team is right: 30mm tires will rub on the shock ends without spacers.

I am currently racing T3 2012's and T4 2013's.

Originally Posted by Racermac73

Foam tires on carpet... First thing to do is put jaco double pink\orange (26mm) on the front with double pink rears (30mm). And I think that you will find the same shock oil 40-50wt and the same springs all the way around are very comfortable. For springs something that rates about the same as associated purple... Not sure in xray because back when we ran foams associated springs fit the xray'05 and were 4 dollars a pair and xray came in a pack for 50 dollars and needed two packs in order to get 4 of the same thing.

Originally Posted by Juan Aveytia

When I raced in Japan for the tamiya worlds championships. We weren't allowed to use traction compound. And the carpet was brand new. Talk about low traction. I ended up TQ'ing. At the time tamiya type A tires were the choice tire. I used there softest insert tamiya offered at the time. Tamiya white springs up front/ tamiya yellows in the rear. 40wt oil. At your track, whites and blue springs would probably be better. The crazy thing in set up that I found to help with very low traction conditions was droop. I have always used an AE gauge to measure mine. 4 in the front and 5.5-6 in the rear. Can't explain why it helped. But it did. But overall to get your car working( softer springs and tires should get you happy again)

Originally Posted by Conrad

Pushing in to or out of the corner?

A softer shore rating would be my first change, 42/37 or 40/35 is nice and balanced even on low-med bite carpet I've found. 35's still wear ok, I used to use 2/3 pairs of rears and rotate them in and out with the one set of fronts. The track should still improve as the nights racing goes on?

I can understand the ban with regards to the oil based additive but what about switching to the current less oil additives the 1/12th section are using? SXT 3.0, Spider Green/Blue?