Carrera tires question

[proxieken]

I had heard mentioned that Carrera switched to a new tire compound for their cars. Does anyone have information about what it compares to and when the change happened?

The tuner tires listed have a hardness rating of 40. What are the new style out of the box tires rated at, and what are the old car tires rated at?

I am trying to figure out what is what. I know some of the old cars I have are worthless and the group is getting an order ready for some Paul Gage tires. They are rated at 40 I think. If the tuner tires are rated at 40, I wonder what the new factory tires are rated?

We have some new cars that simply go great right out of the box, and I have some old cars that are quite useless out of the box. It is very puzzling and if I knew more about this it could answer some questions and help figure out what to buy.

I put some Paul Gage tires on my Cheetah 1/24 and it goes a lot better. I put some tuner tires on a Corvette GS and it also does better. The guys running the Porsche 917 seem to be running just great with normal tires.

What I would like to do is get a constant tire rating on all the cars.

[buspor63]

I have no actual data to support my observations, but here goes. The new 1/24 917K and 512S have very nice tires that respond well to Inox. We run them with front magnet only. Without that magnet, they are too loose for our digital racing skills.

In 1/32, a couple of racers have shown up with the new DTM's. Once again, stock rears w/Inox and front magnet only. The cars run well, the tires do grip the Carrera track.

My concerne over stock tires are how will they keep their level of grip and once they go off, can you replace them? I've seen too many melted, hard or cracked stock tires. I think allowing urethane, PG etc, is a good idea. You should be able to get consistant set after set.

An email or PM to PG should clear up any hardness questions.

[proxieken]

This is similar to the issues we ran in to. Nothing could touch the 917's. It was not even close. The old cars were simply left for dead. I am waiting on a shipment of tuner tires and we are getting the order ready for Paul Gage. I am going to switch all tires over as cash allows. With tuner tires I think we can run a bit closer. We leave the magnets in, but I might try taking one out. If I figure it correctly, the amount of electric you use makes your car have to pit faster. Having no magnets might give a few extra laps in the race and make it a bit of a trade off.



Why Inox? I looked it up and it says it is a lubricant. I am guessing it is the same as using 3 in 1 oil on the tires?

[BRS Hobbies]

At first, I didn't find the stock Carrera 1/24 tires to offer much grip but have sinced changed my opinion of them as long as you can true them on a tire truer. I am using an Area 3 tire truer to true the stock tires which are glued to the stock wheels. I am getting excellent traction and can race without the traction magnets and the lap times are just a little bit slower than using PG tires on the same car. The key is the tires should appear rough (trued) and not shiny. It also helps to keep the track clean and occasionally clean the tires by running them over the sticky side of some masking tape .

Best regards,
Brian

[VenturaAlfa]

ProxieKen,

I'll add a couple more things for you, First off in my tests it makes a very big difference on all cars, including Carrera: How long the car has been on the retailer's shelf before you bought it.
I find that any tire on my cars that has sat for more than a few months has changed its compound for the worse. I have a large number of cars and because of that a large number of shelf queens (not really queens because I try and run all my cars). Any tire that has sat for more than a few months is different than when it came out of the package or out of the box (new car). Some tires have melted, some have gotten harder, some have gotten a film on them that can be sanded off. No tire including aftermarket has stayed exactly the same other than silicones.
In addition, the rating of either harder or softer does not necessarily equate to better grip. I run on Revell track, some magnets some not. I have found that the middle Paul Gage tire works better than the soft compound. Why? I don't know but it does. For my track; to hard a tire, car slides a lot, too soft a tire, car slides a lot, middle range, car is great. Foam tire without traction compound; worst of all.
The cars that have sat on the shelf for awhile need to have the tires either sanded and cleaned or replaced.
Ventura Alfa

[HomeRacingWorld]

Good advice given.

Changing to PG for all cars is a good idea, all cars equal. And no need to worry about the above mentioned stock tires going bad over time. Have cars with PG's that are several years old and still like new.

[buspor63]

We tried Inox because we had some, it says it's food grade so it must be ok for tires' right? It improved grip more than water or other treatments we had tried. Not sure what will happen over time though.

[DaveKennedy]

The switch happened about the time I got hired, so about 4 years ago. Now the cars have about a 40 shore rating. They're a mix of natural rubber.