By truing a set of rubbers, i do not mean cutting them down like you would foams. You simply make a skim cut on the tire, a little at a time as you do when you true the armature for your motor. Of course you would have to have the high quality bit on your lathe. But the idea is to take off the excess rubber... or the "high spots" of the tire. Try it on an older set of belted tires, and use sandpaper (100 grit) to gently round the edges of the sidewalls. Clean the tire with denatured alcohol and a clean rag... make sure your glue beads are tight. Wait about 5 minutes, you will see how sticky the tire is. Not from heat, for the tire will be cool. I then take a bastard cut file, and using the most agressive side of it, i run it diagonally across the face of the tire by hand. They run like scuffs on a real car, and are ALOT smoother at high speeds. With the flatter contact patch, for those of you that run rubber on carpet, you will have a tire that gives you more bite... and the rounded sidewalls give consistent sidebite compared to a squared sidewall. I actually got sight of this by a racer i know in the Maryland area many years ago... since then it is something i have played with, and get great results from. Try it on an older set of belted tires you have retired after 3 or 4 runs. I think youll be impressed. Ill also mention that the tires (24mm) i run are always mounted on inch up rims (26mm) with a firm (26mm) insert. The car is really responsive with a tire that is stretched like this, but there is less airgap between the belt and the insert and the rim. The insert plays more of a role in tire tuning, and not as much by putting a hole on the inside of your rim to allow air to escape.
- Dave