Home Racing World

I was at my track yesterday and a guest wanted to drive one of my Carrera Ferrari 458s. When he put it on the track it bounced rather oddly and upon inspection it turned out to have a set of front tires that turned to goooo. I can just imagine a young child getting hold of a car with this problem and ending up with something that looks like black tar all over his/her clothes or worse in their mouth. Carrera better wake up to this problem, and soon.

Don`t let yours cars mingle with the Fly classics, they have a highly contagious disease. Seen it many times, mine are all quarantined all by themselves. :lol:

Wow. We're talking about one of the new Ferrari 458s? I knew that their older tire compound would just get weird after years of sitting, but I thought I read where they had changed to something new and improved.

I've run in to problems where some of the stock and even replacement tires on the 1/24 Ferrari 250 GTOs, Breadvans, and 250 SWBs are out of round. (they all share the same tire) They look good enough with complete tread all the way around, but the cars bounce and sanding takes forever to get rid of that last patch of tread.

I guess it is time for someone to start making urethane front tires for Carrera cars. If there are a number of cars that use the same type wheel that would be more likely to happen. Right now Super Tires has special hard urethane tires for Slot.it and CB Design wheels.

Paul Gage has had them for quite awhile.

Measure your wheels. Email Paul. He has helped many in the past.

Carrera need to make sure they have not used a synthetic rubber polymer for the tires. This type of rubber will chemically react with many different types of Styrene plastic, the type normally used for wheels and display box plinths.

The molecules in the rubber will unlock themselves and melt, especially in a tight fit with a plastic wheel or when sat tight on a plinth base.

Same thing happened a few years ago to a die-cast model car maker. Gloopy tires was the result.

If Carrera have been very unlucky this problem could also have be caused by the tire mould release agent. This chemical can cause havoc to rubber in just a few months if the wrong blend is used by accident.

Jules

Possibly.

Yet, I personally have had zero issues.
With cars many, many years old. Do they dry up? Sure. Seems only on ones I have sanded heavily (heated up).

Fly cars on the other hand? Many a tire has done this.

I've had the same problem with my collection of Carrera Capris. I have many that are unopened, yet you can see one or more of the tires have, as described, turned to goo. What is odd is there seems to be no rhyme nor reason. It may be one rear tire, or a rear and front tire, or just a front tire. The cars are kept in a climate controlled house, out of direct sunlight, and have not been exposed to handling. What is even more odd is the fact that my "runners" have never had the problem. I figure at least six cars have had this happen. I normally wouldn't mind except I have a number I've kept unopened for display, which is pointless when the tires are melted! I've stopped buying multiple cars for display for that reason alone, since I happen to open them anyway and change the tires to keep them on display I figure I might as well just buy one car and race it.

Got to go with Harry on this one I have over 100 Carrera cars of all ages from 1994 to the new 2014 VW, some of my cars just sit out on a shelf or pit garage and none of my tires are goo, some get a hard coating but a turn on the Razor fixes that easy :music-rockout:

maybe its the Missouri weather thats saves our tires Harry :?:
if you ever ran your heat, and AC on the same day, your probably from Missouri :laughing-rolling:

Tires made of natural rubber can be unstable if they are not formulated properly. I have tires that date back to the '60s that are in good shape and I have seen tires that are only a year or two old turn to mush. They did not have to be abused in any way for that to happen. Storing the tires in a refrigerator would certainly slow any deterioration. You have a real problem if you need replacement tires and none are available. Replacing bad tires with new ones that are also likely to come apart soon is not a great option. Silicone and urethane rear tires are available for a lot of cars, but front tires are harder to come by.
Obviously if some rubber tires hold up well then all of them can. It would be nice if the big companies made it clear to their suppliers that tires that quickly fall apart are not acceptable. Since most companies want to keep their customers happy the key to solving this problem might be good communications. If you have a tire problem contact the company directly, if they get enough complaints they may be able to lean on their suppliers.

I have about 25 Carrera cars and this problem has manifested itself on only three types for a total of 4 cars. I have three Ferrari 458s and the problem so far has only developed on one of them. 4 out of 25 is a significant percentage and I really hope Carrera identifies the cause of the problem and eliminates it from their tire production process.

Funny... I had a Carrera Capri that did this. Thought I'd left it somewhere hot - but in my basement that isn't possible. Strange things are afoot!

Had it happen on a few Carrera cars -- some old, some new. Few and far between, though, and I've owned a lot of Carrera over the years.

Because it happens with no apparent rhyme or reason, I've wondered if it isn't from getting an impurity in the tire that acts as a 'seed' that causes the breakdown. This might explain why it happens in one tire but not the other three.