Carrera Tires - Beyond Round and Black

[edmagner]

We have had some suggestions to add a Tire Thread - The most significant thing suggested was to share info on Tire fitments for Carrera models, tuning tips, etc. Every slot car forum needs to have a knockdown, cutthroat, take no prisoners silicone vs urethane debate. Let's toss it out there and see what happens

[Frank9129]

I have a routed 4'x16' oval track. I have used urethane tire for most of the time. Once in a while someone will bring a car with silicone tires. I have even done so far as to recap tires with silicone. No big deal. There are no knock down drag out races on my track. Just a lot of fun for kids and any BIG kid who doesn't care about the kid next to him/her.

[Slotspeed]

Thing I have found with Urethane is... Easily trued without a proper trueing machine. And more easy to find the sizing information for Carrera vehicles (at least in my limited experience) But a bit noisy on the plastic track. What I found with rubber... Needed a proper tyre truer, (more on that later) but loved the quiet and smooth, much grippier running on the Carrera plastic, it felt like I was running on a wood track. Have never used silicone.

At some stage I think we could do with an equivalent tyre fitting chart or thread for sure.

Steve.

[dw5555]

At some stage I think we could do with an equivalent tyre fitting chart or thread for sure. Steve.

Now THAT would be worthy of a sticky. Listing the car and all available tires mfg.'s and part numbers including stock. In chart form without links so that we don't have to jump around.
Dave

[Slotspeed]

Perhaps we need a document that we can all contribute to or edit in order to get as much relevant conversions listed as possible. I haven't had much luck with this kind of thing myself but I think bit.ly works OK for collaboration?

[dw5555]

I could do it but whenever I do an Excel sheet it never pastes the right way. I'm always missing the lines and boxes and it all runs together. I Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

[Bluevista]

I use urethane, never tried silicone either.
No major racing here, just want the cars to stay on the track for the amateurs and the grandchildren to make it fun.
I true them on my tire razor and set the speed and brakes to the third setting on the CU and the tires stick good, no other mods, no borders so they can lean on the guardrails in the turns.

I spend more on tires for slot cars than I do for my real cars, sure glad you don't need snow tires for them in the winter.

[dw5555]

I spend more on tires for slot cars than I do for my real cars, sure glad you don't need snow tires for them in the winter.

You mean you don't take your urethane slicks off when it's humid outside and put your rubber treaded tires back on. Your losing time there Alan.
Dave

[Area 51 Raceway NC]

I run the silicone tires on my Carrera cars with magnets. The urethane I have tried and it is noisy but are a lot easier to true. On my Silicone tires I do fill in the extruded areas of the wheels and true the wheel and then true the silicone tires. Dry wall paper is the best for truing silicone tires as they will not build up into it like regular sand paper.
I can say silicone tires are a lot harder to true as heat gets generated through the process and takes more time to do as you do not want a sticky mess and a melted tire.
This video I have on here is with trued wheels and silicone tires on Carrera 917K Porsche's with magnets.

[Slotspeed]

I was a bit low on funds, and knew I needed a proper tyre truer to get the best performance, so I built this gizmo, proudly from bits and pieces that were to be thrown out and didn't spend a cent on it. Once I tried it I was amazed at the difference, cars that were running at 6 seconds a lap were doing 5.1seconds after truing on my little machine. Its still 'under development' and this photo was taken partway through construction. Pictured are some NSR rubber tyres (absolutely love them) mounted on modified standard Carrera 1/32 917K wheels.

[Area 51 Raceway NC]

I was a bit low on funds, and knew I needed a proper tyre truer to get the best performance, so I built this gizmo, proudly from bits and pieces that were to be thrown out and didn't spend a cent on it. Once I tried it I was amazed at the difference, cars that were running at 6 seconds a lap were doing 5.1seconds after truing on my little machine. Its still 'under development' and this photo was taken partway through construction. Pictured are some NSR rubber tyres (absolutely love them) mounted on modified standard Carrera 1/32 917K wheels.

That looks good from bits and pieces. The NSR tires are great as I have them on some of my cars also.

[Slotspeed]

That looks good from bits and pieces. The NSR tires are great as I have them on some of my cars also.

Which cars did you put them on? I had to machine down the centre rib from 18mm down to 16mm on the 917K wheels to accomodate the NSR F1 tyres. I think I machined the rib down to 6.5mm width from about 7mm from memory. I do remember there wasn't much left to machine before getting into trouble.

[Area 51 Raceway NC]

Which cars did you put them on? I had to machine down the centre rib from 18mm down to 16mm on the 917K wheels to accomodate the NSR F1 tyres. I think I machined the rib down to 6.5mm width from about 7mm from memory. I do remember there wasn't much left to machine before getting into trouble.[/QUOTE]

I never trued the NSR ones. They are on my NSR 917’s, Moslers and Corvettes. They do well on the Carrera plastic track. The ones I true are the Silicone tires. I will try to true them later on. They handle very well without being trued.

[Slotspeed]

OK, got it! Yeah, agree the NSR rubber is great on Carrera plastic!