by War Eagle River » Thu May 09, 2019 3:47 pm
Quote from MRE.
Hands up anyone who thinks that tyre choice is just like random black magic ? Yes, thought so, it is a perplexing mystery to everyone at some time. You probably have a favoured tyre for the cars you race on your regular track, as long as they are available in the right size. But what about other situations ?
If you go to another track, what do you do ? The obvious answer is ask what the locals are running and try to use the same. Not always possible as a supply of different tyres probably won't be available, and then you have to fit them, probably true them up and to the right size for your setup, and you can't do that when you need to get on track as soon as possible.
What is your usual preference ? Do you like wheels with solid ribs, or do you prefer to run air-tyre type hubs ? Although not used much in the UK, our American friends favour silicone tyres but running these and also rubber tyres on the track leads to unpredictable grip and is generally banned in most places. What about tyre treatments ? Most serious racers will soften their tyres to some degree, but there is a multitude of methods, liquids, and variously poisonous concoctions that people have as their own preference. Mostly, as long as the tyres are dry when the car is put on the track there is no problem, but some of these treatments can take weeks to be effective, allowing rubber to absorb tyre treatments can't be done instantly.
Having raced back in the day with sponge tyres of most colours (black, blue, grey, olive, orange, red, yellow, etc) we are now seeing coloured rubber tyres being competitive. Grey and red tyres are now available as spare parts, and found to be effective for many racers. Personally, I would prefer all tyres to be black, but if you want to keep up..........
Then we come to what is possible for some cars. The grippiest tyres are seldom supplied on cars "out of the box" as manufacturers want to give a long life to their products. The fact that many cars are basically undriveable without a magnet when using the standard tyres means that you have to search for alternatives if you want to race on a wooden track or without magnets. This brings up the problem of standardisation - or not, as it seems to be. Try fitting one brand of tyre to a car of another brand - possible in some cases but usually a source of frustation. Yes, the manufacturers logic is simple - we want you to use only our tyres ! But if you can't race that car against other brands because of lousy tyres, you must look for an alternative, either tyres or cars.
What about size ? The grippiest tyres are made for cars with wide wheels and low profiles. But there is a very big section of racers who like classic cars - larger diameter and narrower wheels, but with no suitable racing tyres. Many get around this by buying something that will basically fit and then spending time fixing them securely and then profiling them to the required size and shape. Surely a gap in the market for somebody to produce narrow grippy tyres in larger diameters ?
I think I have raised most of the issues we hear about tyre choice, but can't give anyone a positive answer to your grip problems as there are so many issues and alternatives. I have thought about it a lot, tried lots of ways of getting reliable traction on many types of track, but all I can sy is that it has made me..........tyred out !