Epiphany or bad dreams

[War Eagle River]

Not sure why at 3am I popped up out of bed for this...but here it is. We are entertaining the idea of going exclusively to silicone tires on our wood track. The track has always had rubber/urethane raced on it. For testing and demonstration purposes, I’ve cleaned one lane, removing all the ‘rubbered’ in residue. Did a few test hits with a few different silicone brands and shores. Not too shabby I suppose. This is only the second time ever running with silicone, so not really certain on what to expect.
Here’s what yanked me out of my slumber...if which seems to be the consensus, that we should be running rubber/urethane and silicone tires separately, wouldn’t the front tires be leaving a rubbered in residue on the track as well? So running silicone rears and rubber fronts would actually be counterproductive? Yeah, I know all about coating the front tires...but for those that don’t. Did I wake up and can’t go back to sleep for nothing....

[HomeRacingWorld]

The fronts will not leave nearly the residue or build up to worry about.

Now go get some sleep. You have to decide if you are going all Fly classics only :)

[RichD]

My club, Shoreline Model Raceways, runs all of its classes with rubber or urethane front tires and silicone rear tires. We ran both rubber and urethane rear tires in the past and we also run them when we host proxy races. I have been a tester for Super Tires since 2011, Super Tires makes both silicone and urethane tires. Aftermarket rubber front tires, like Slot.it Zero Grips, are harder than rear tires and they never wear out, so they do not leave a residue on the track. In addition many people that race their cars coat the front tires with nail polish to reduce their grip even more. I have a few cars with the hard urethane low grip front tires that Super Tires sells.
The Quick Slicks silicone tires are available in three Shore values, the XF ones have worked the best for us. Any sort of tire will work best if it is glued to the wheel and trued using a machine. I have found that while Super Tires are ready to go after they have been trued Quick Slicks need a further polishing step for the best results.
For club racing purposes it is best to stick with one type of rear tire, if you mix the different types none of them will work their best. Rubber tires work best on a track that has been rubbered in. Urethane tires will not affect a rubbered in track, but it has been said that silicone tires will remove the rubber and spoil the grip for rubber tires. I have not been able to confirm that statement because I don't have a 1/32nd scale track. I do have an HO track and I have done a great deal of careful testing of silicone VS urethane tires. If you normally use silicone tires they will leave a residue on the track, if you switch to urethane tires they will have good grip for a few laps, but they will get coated with the residue and their grip will be greatly reduced. Silicone tires are easily cleaned by rolling them on sticky tape, that procedure is not very effective with urethane tires that have gotten coated with the silicone residue, the urethane tires have to be washed with soapy water or a mild solvent to restore their grip. If I am testing urethane tires and the track has silicone residue on it I strip the track down with lighter fluid and then run several hundred laps with urethane tires to be sure that the track is fully conditioned. I can switch back to silicone tires without having to fuss with the track however.
Silicone tires will pick up dust from the track and lose most of their grip. If the track has not been used recently it is likely to be at least a little dusty. It does not hurt to give the track a pass with a dusting cloth or a Swiffer. After that if you run the cars for a few laps and then clean the tires the track will be good to go after a few run/clean cycles. When we race we clean tires between heats.
Dust does not stick to urethane tires so frequent cleaning is not too helpful. Running silicone tires will remove dust from the track, running urethane tires will not. No tire that I am aware of will get good grip on a track that is very dusty. If you have been running on urethane tires those just push the dust around, if you switch to silicone tires the track may need some cleaning for the silicone tires to work their best.

[War Eagle River]

[chappyman66]

Ahhhh....the tires wars....again.

Rich says pick one type and stick to it..... that's good advice.

It depends a bit on the type of racing you do. Long stints (40 or more laps) may let you see silicone tires get slick and slow down a bit, and urethanes while initially slower don't change as much. What we see with silicones is that the track gets faster through the night as the cars clean the racing groove. After 2-3 races the (2 lane) track gets faster and your tires aren't as dirty by the end of the segments.

So it's pretty much a "pick one" situation. They aren't better or worse, just different choices depending on what you want and how you race.

And yeah.... don't worry about the fronts.

[Giddyup]

I’m curious as to what’s prompting to make a significant switch in tire composition?

[War Eagle River]