traction compound
 

what is the best tire traction compound for foam tires?

Are you kidding?
 

With all the tire traction compound fiasco at the Worlds in Homestead, I would hope that you would stay away from it. If the track that you race on is properly prepped with either sugar water or even VHT you shouldn't need anything. Since 1/8th scale tires wear quite quickly, whatever additive you try would have to soak waaaaaay longer than you think. Most of what you see is "topical" so it won't last. I believe most tracks frown on additives anyway so I think you'd be sorry if you got caught:cry:

I might be terribly wrong here since Im sort of new to the onroad scene but, as foam tires wear down fairly fast one would assume that the additive wouldnt stay on for more than a few minutes. Feels like that would make the car very inconsistent.

Ummm, what is the best compound? :D

For foams on pavement? I'd say black can Paragon or Coppertone spf30 :cool::lol:

Guys, let's look at this topic a little closer:

-If saucing would not work, the pro's would not do it (or try to do it like during the worlds)

-Swauger said a sauced set of tyres results in 0.4s faster lap times. That's a world of difference!

-It depends of how long you soak the tyres - Maybe submerge them in the sauce and let them sit overnight? Who knows...

-I tried to sauce a set of 8th scale tyres for 20mins like I used to do on my electric car. This does not help at all. The sauce will not penetrate deep enough to last longer then 3 Laps and the tyre will be greasy and have a tendency to pick up dust...

-I think, if you really want to use sauce, it takes a lot of trial and error efforts to learn the tricks of the trade...


Anyone wants to discuss further?

I dont understand, why would you need to sauce foam tires? Foam tires from the right company already stick pretty well. If you have tractions issues work on your setup. I'm pretty new to 1/8 scale racing and my mrx4 hooks pretty well on a dusty track. I'm sure it is also considered cheating even at a club race level so why bother? If you win cause you had your tires sauced do you really think you won at the end of the day?

In Europe some countrys already allow to use sauce in official events. The problem is when you race, every performance advantage counts. Yes, foam tyres stick well, but sauced ones (if done right) stick even better and this can give you the edge.

Most places yes but not everywhere.

It will be a sad day for 1/8 on-road if/when "saucing" becomes the norm. In the past, the rulebooks specifically forbade the use of tire additives. Whether these rules were intentionally or mistakenly left out of newer rulebooks, I don't know.

Why are we discussing if its legal, illegal or even frowned upon??

He asked a direct question of what is the best brand/model of foam tire additive...

Who cares (aside from where he will be racing), if he's cheating or if its allowed on his track??

It shouldn't be promoted is my opinion. At most places it is illigal and I do think people have to get more into the car setup than only getting grip out of additives.

You're getting close. Sounds like you need a way to force the sauce down into the tire, like a vacuum. :sneaky:

Rumor has it those pro's keep those sauced tires in a bag for month if not longer.

Viva Los Sauce!!!

Tire treatment
 

This is a great way to treat tires. True the tires to size first. I use Trinity tire tweak first and rub it in with your fingers . A blowdryer will help here as a little heat helps it penetrate . After you treat them with the tire tweak put a coat of Paragon black can on them. Put them in a ziplock bag for about a week and they will be sticky when you pull them out. They will definitly be faster and will not go away after a few laps.

What does the "Tire Tweak" do?

Tweak
 

It must react with the foam to make it sticky. I think it's some kind of oil. Maybe someone from Trinity will get on here and tell us what it is. :lol:

Equal parts of "Tire Tweak" and "Buggy Grip" make a good compound too. Many guys use this outdoors in my neck of the woods.

I thought that this is the "Nitro Onroad" thread, not the "Electric Onroad" thread.:sneaky: All jokes and sarcasm aside, "saucing tires" to me is for electric carpet onroad and 12th scale on asphalt that has limited traction. For nitro, just go with a softer shore and adjust your driving style a little.

I have been racing foam tire asphalt for 10+ years in both 200mm and recently 8th scale Lola-body and have never heard of guys "saucing tires" until this past 8th scale Worlds in Homestead. To me, this "saucing" thing is a slippery slope I don't think we want to slide down. It is hard enough getting racers to attend races on all levels to begin with. In my opinion, this is just another thing that will drive a few more racers to offroad (the darkside of the racing force).

My experience is that saucing foam tires in fuel onroad racing is mostly unnecessary. We race on pavement that has been treated by VHT or other concoctions (sp) that are prepared and applied by the host track. The tires actually come off the track with a softness and stickyness that resembles a sauced tire. This is from the traction added to the track and the oil in the fuel that falls from the cars exhaust to the racing surface. Racing castor seems to have the most effect.

Compare that to an IFMAR event where the rules prevent traction compounds from being added to the racing surface. The traction builds on these tracks for a long time, only coming from the tires running on that surface and the oil from the car's exhaust. Saucing tires will help a lot in this scenario.

The racing host in America tends to use the traction compound spraying technique for a couple reasons. It makes the traction build more quickly, an important factor on temporary tracks. There aren't very many temporary tracks in other countries. Then it also spreads out the traction across the width of the track so the racing line is wider, helpfull for the less skilled driver. This enhances the racing experience. Saucing tires does not enhance the racing so much in this scenario.

just because you dont see it being used dosent mean its not a few years back in off road i use to soak my tires in simple green for a couple days before a race day it helped a lot i was not the only one and did not let it be known what i was doing i would have a set of tires per pack on road is the same way you can get many different compounds some take longer to work than others the longer time it takes to cure the longer run time you can get and yes even in 1/8 scale on road it can make a big difference you can have a awesome set up and "sauced tires" will make it even a better set up i have used trinity, jack the ripper by corally and paregon they have a couple different ones it makes a diffence on what brand tires you use as for what additive to use i mostly run grp tires and would soak them over night in a zip lock bag again one set per run i would show up with about 10 to 12 set ready to run my last two kits i ran were a 960 08 and a 966

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