Which Paul Gage compounds work best for an Artin track?

[DManley]

I know a couple of the older members of this board have had Artin tracks. I was hoping somebody had some experience with Paul Gage tires on their track. I am setting up a smaller "L" shaped 12' x 8' layout with a fairly quick line, a couple of fast corners, and a pair of hairpins. Quite a few of my cars are in need of new shoes, some due to age, some are worn down too far and some have silicone tires that I want to get rid of. I will be buying a pile of Paul Gage tires from SCC in the next few days. I plan on running the Paul Gage urethane tires with a mix of existing rubber tires including Carrera, Fly, Ninco, Scalextric and several cars with Slot.it tires and hot motors! I may also try NSR tire Oil, or another treatment to give new life to some of the rubber tires that I can't replace. (I have heard from a couple of sources that it will actually help my track rubber in.) I will NOT be running silicone tires on the track, and I will be trying to get the groove rubbered up as I go. I was wondering if the PGT or the XPG (soft) compounds would work best for this. How did the two different compounds work on your tracks? Did the soft tires help build up a groove faster? Is it harder to get a hard tire to hook up after running the XPGs? I will give up a bit of durability for speed because going fast is fun. I don't want to be changing tires more often than I changed diapers on the triplets, though! Any difference between magnet and no magnet cars? I run about half of each. I was thinking of PGT on the magnet cars and XPG on the Non Magnetic ones. I will be gluing with nail polish and truing on a tire razor, unless somebody tells me this won't work with urethane.

Thanks in advance for the help. I know the old Artin types will come through for another diehard!

p.s. Looking at my pile of "Barefoot" cars, the cars I need new tires for are mostly my magnet cars. My no mag cars almost all have fairly new Slot.it or NSR tires, as most of them are modified with aftermarket axles, gears and wheels.

[chappy]

Is the Artin track stock , or painted , and if painted with what type of paint?
Generally the smoother the track the XPGT tireswork good.
On a rougher track say like Ninco then the regular PGTs.
Of course the grip on the surfacedepends on ,my first question too.
Bob

[Nor Cal Mike]

Back when I was doing a lot of running on Artin track, Kevin Dixon was still making his K&D urethane tires. I used them exclusively. I had a wood track then too and that tire worked pretty well on both. I now have a Scalextric digital track as well as my old wood one. I just ordered a bunch XPG tires for some digital tires for use on the scaley track. I expect them to be just fine. I agree with Bob that the XPG should work well for you. I don't know if it matters to you or not but I have found that XPG tires are harder to sand.

[HomeRacingWorld]

It's almost impossible to tell you which blend will be your "best". Since you have a mix of mag/non-mag and various rubber blends, I would guess the standard PG would be a safe play.

But since you are ordering and they are fairly easy on the wallet, just try a XPG blend on one set and just see for yourself.

And yes, you can sand them on the machine. I would use a finer grit like 800 or 1000 to finish them off. The finer grit leaves a smoother surface.

[hksk25]

I had Artin track ( working on a routed track now) and used the XPG tires. They have more grip and the Artin is smooth. It will also get better as you run it in.

Harry

[DManley]

Thanks guys. My track is au naturel. (Just bare plastic, no paint or treatment.) I'll probably try a few of each and see how things work out. I know they can be ground on the tire razor, but I really appreciate the tip on finer grits. I usually start with a much coarser grit on a new tire to knock it into round. I will make sure I polish them a bit on the finer grade. I assume that nail polish works to glue them. I'll order some softs for the cars I have a harder time hooking up.

Thanks again for the responses.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Try Hansens Hard As Nails. Its in the nail polish section. It's stronger than than standard polish. Not that it won't work, just a suggestion.

[DManley]

That's what I use Harry. I tie fishing flies, and H.A.N. is a great head cement for streamers and wets that are going to be bounced off of a few rocks in faster water. It's the standard go to for tying Thunder Creek Bucktails. Since I always have it on hand (no pun intended) I use it to make gauge lenses in model cars and glue slot car tires.