Hardening front tires without nail polish?

[DManley]

I am setting up a car for Cathie's Son in Law. He wants to try a series near his home in Pennsylvania. I trued and glued the rear tires, and then ran the car. It wobbled like a clown car. I trued the front wheels, and that helped a bit. I tried two different sets of tires, but they were all a bit wobbly. I ended up gluing and truing the front tires, using the finest paper I could. (Finished with 2000 grit.) The problem is the fronts get pretty good grip and tend to throw the car all over the track now. Normally, that's no problem, as I set up front ends to float quite a bit and I also paint my front tires with Hard as Nails. The problem is this is an entry level class and they require the front end to roll and don't allow the front tires to be coated. Is there anything I can do to harden the tires up a bit? It's a Carrera BMW A5 DTM car. I have shimmed the guide a bit, but both tires have to touch and roll with the car on a test track. Even if I get them just barely touching, the car just grabs in a corner and tries to drag the nose right out of the slot. I was thinking of heating the tires or putting them under UV lights, or any tricks that would let them slip a little bit more. I know I should have left them untrued, but they were just too bouncy to leave the way they were. Once I get that solved, I will have a pretty smooth car for him to drive. He will be running both plastic and wood tracks, so I have to get the car handling both with and without magnets. (They leave the magnets in on the wood tracks)

Thanks for the ideas,
Dave

[CrockettNZ]

this is one thing that I like to do in order to lessen the front grip instead of putting a coating on
if you round the outside part that touches the track surface like if it was a O ring so there is is just a mere fraction of the tire in contact
this cuts down on a lot of traction and also gives less friction
those front tires are only acting as a outrigger to keep the front stable and stop the rear lifting when braking into and around the corners

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or you could fit zero grip tires instead
I use the above trick to save money

[Nor Cal Mike]

Does that Carrera car have the stock independant axle set up? If some those set ups are pretty loosey goosey on the front wheel play. That alone would cause the front in to "wobble" as described.

[dr fabio]

You need to get the rules and read the exact wording. It seems to be a bit strange that its a supposedly entry level category that allows you to glue and true tyres. Allows you to replace tyre brands but doesn't allow you to coat the tyres.

For arguments sake, lets say the rules allow you to glue the tyres. If it does not state how the tyres are to be glued then I would use an excess amount of superglue to glue the tyres onto the rims. So much excess that a lot of the superglue also ended up on the tyre surface.

[RichD]

You did not say if you were running with traction magnets, if you run without traction magnets the car will run better if the front tires are firmly planted. If you wait long enough those front tires will get hard on their own, UV light might speed up the process or it might just cause the tires to fall apart. Aftermarket Super Tires hard urethane Low Grip front tires are also available in several sizes, those are intended to fit aftermarket wheels like Slot.it, Super Wheels and CB Design.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Just roll the tires on a dusty track/surface. No need for any extra expense. As you run the car, the tires will pick up dust/dirt. Just do not clean them and you will be fine.

Done.

[DManley]

Great idea Harry. Right now, everything is very fresh and clean. This car has the front axle, not the independent front, so it's pretty tight and stable.

He will be running on two plastic tracks with magnets, and one wood track. They leave the magnets in the car for the wood track, as it is a box stock class. I don't think I could get away with changing the profile of the tire to narrow up the contact patch, but we are allowed to slightly round the corners to prevent tipping. The tires have to be the stock Carrera tires. I should have stated that the two sets of tires I tried were just two sets of stock tires. The only actual changes or additions allowed to the stock parts are spacers for the guide, and they allow the shallow guide in the car for the Scalextric track they run. They also allow the tires to be glued, as several people were having tires loosen up. Even the braid has to be replaced with the stock stuff. I had another DTM that I run at my house with Paul Gage Tires, so I had a spare set of stock tires, but they were not much rounder than his. The wheels were pretty decent, there was a chunk of flash on the one, but it came right off. With the flash removed, the wheels just needed a light touch to confirm they were round. It's a pretty nice little car for the money, and most of these new Carreras run pretty nicely right out of the box. Also I just realized that I referred to it as a BMW A5. My DTM is the AUDI A5, His is the BMW M4. I mixed up my names a bit. Still, both are pretty decent cars.

While I was typing this, I got the mind to try Harry's idea. I rolled the front tires over the edge of the top shelf of the T.V. cabinet. (I need to get a taller cleaning lady!) About five laps looked pretty good. I think He'll do well with this car. It's going to be a very consistent, predictable driver. He is getting pretty smooth on the controller, so I think he will run well.

Thanks again for all of the ideas.

Dave.