The Correct Tires

Using the correct tires is an important element in the make-up of a fast car, and this is just as true for racing on a plastic Carrera track. Following is a short summary of my experiences with different tire materials.

•Silicone is best, and I've had excellent results with the American brands Indy Grip, Maxxtrac and Super Tires. No treatment is required other than a frequent wipe down (they pick up all the track dirt).

•Urethane do not quite match the performance of silicone but is the next best thing on the TSR track. Here I've used Yellow Dog (US) on standard Carrera wheels and SCT (France) on heavily modified plastics and scratch built metal set-ups. Urethanes reputedly require less cleaning than silicone, but after a year's use I've been unable to make a distinction.

•NSR rubber must be treated and I’ve used both their own oil, wintergreen and 3-in-1. With NSR oil the tires get close to silicone and urethane but requires frequent treatment.

•Carrera rubber straight out of the box is rubbish but improves with treatment. Oil of wintergreen gives a noticeable improvement, 3-in-One performs better, and NSR tyre oil showed the best results. On the TSR track they performed well but again treatment must be frequent and they don't last long.

•Ninco silicone when fitted on a Carrera touring car almost but not quite matches American silicones.

•Parma  & JK sponge – Used in metal set-ups and properly maintained matches silicone, giving the perfect balance between grip and slide.

TEST RESULTS
In a single continuous test session a Carrera Audi DTM achieved the following lap times;

Carrera tires = 11.75s

Carrera tires with wintergreen = 10.67s
Carrera tires with 3-in-1 oil = 9.67
Ninco silicone = 9.66s
Super Tires silicone = 8.96s

Rex, TSR

(Updated on 12/03/18)