Carrera track best tires

[Old Dan]

What tires do you guys use to give the best lap times on a Carrera track ? I mostly use Quick Slicks but I’m always looking for something new to try on my NSR Mosley.

[chrisguyw]

What tires do you guys use to give the best lap times on a Carrera track ? I mostly use Quick Slicks but I’m always looking for something new to try on my NSR Mosley.

Hello, On stock (unpainted) Carrera track, you will find that Quick Slicks are hard to beat, regardless of whether you run with magnets or not. With magnets, tire choice (while it makes a difference) is less of a factor than when running without magnets

If your track is painted, and, you run without magnets.......treated rubber tires will offer the quickest lap times.

There is also lots to be gained (lap times) in the set-up of your chassis, no matter which tire you choose.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[dinglebery]

My Carrera track is painted with Rustoleum Aged Iron Textured paint - soft rubber is the most life-like (25-18 shore). Silicones provide ultimate grip but not realistic sliding in the turns.

[Old Dan]

Thanks Chris I have an unpainted track and I use magnets to tune the chassis so I guess I will continue to fine it.

[Old Dan]

I’m new to this forum and have never heard of painting a plastic track before but I guess you get closer to a wood track experience?

[dinglebery]

No, "wood track experience" is super smooth because it's very smooth MDF(mostly). Paint provides the grip level. Plastic track is like sections of concrete along the freeway. Textured paint (like mine) provides great grip.

[Rooster]

I’m new to this forum and have never heard of painting a plastic track before but I guess you get closer to a wood track experience?

Welcome to the forum, a ton of good people and knowledge here!

Painting the track helps with a more realistic tarmac look, better grip etc. Some even place braid over the rails. This helps get rid of the click clack between track pieces as the car travels. So yeah, these things help with producing more of a wood track feel.

I have plastic track, but I have never done any of the things I mentioned. Maybe one day as a retirement project........or I might just route a track.

[slothead]

Yeah, now you're heading in the right direction.

[Ragtopman]

I have found nothing better than quick slicks on my Carrera track so far....

[Fourshipp]

I’ve been running Paul Gage urathanes, both the regular and softer compounds on my unpainted Carrera track. 124 with no mags.

A quick look at the Quick Slick’s web sight shows all silicon tires. Are QS’s all silicon?

thanks,

Bruce

[Mikeinclover]

Yes they are all silicone.

[dinglebery]

Old Dan The best thing you can do is get one of each tire compound - a Quick Slick silicone, a Paul Gage urethane, and a SLot.it or NSR or BRM supersoft rubber - and put them on one car that you like seeing go around the track. The only way to answer your question is for you to drive the tires to see how they differ. We can tell you until we're blue in the face, but that doesn't mean you'll like how the car drives and behaves. Do yourself a favor and make your own conclusion.
I did what I'm suggesting to you - and found that I love soft rubber compounds for my track. I'm in the process of replacing the urethanes and silicones with a soft rubber on each of my cars.

[RichD]

Quick Slicks are all silicone except for the Zero Grip front tires, which I believe are urethane. Quick Slicks are also available in Firm and Extra Firm versions.
If you want to do comparative testing of the various types of tires be aware that one type may remove the conditioning from the track so that another type will have less grip, or possibly one type may leave a residue on the track that lowers the grip of another type. To do this sort of testing properly the track should be stripped down to remove any residue from the surface, then run perhaps a thousand laps with the tires that you are going to test before you go for any lap times.
For casual use you probably do not need to be so fussy. Shoreline Model raceways normally runs only on silicone tires, however we do host proxy races for cars with urethane or rubber tires. We condition the track for the type of tire that is called for and do not run silicone tires until the proxy racing is done. We have seen excellent grip with all three types of tire.

[War Eagle River]

Dan, sorry to say...but nobody can answer that question but you! We can all give suggestions, until you put rubber/urethane/silicone to the track...then and only then will you know!

[RichD]

For sure a question like that will often get you a lot of possibly conflicting answers. I race my cars so I tend to look for the lowest possible lap times, but other people are not necessarily coming from the same place, so there are other factors that might be considered. Obviously cost would be one factor, closely linked to that would be durability. Soft rubber tires tend to wear out more quickly, urethane tires last longer and some silicone tires will last a lot longer. If they are not formulated correctly rubber tires may get hard in a year or two and have to be replaced before they are worn out. In the case of some OEM tires those have been known to turn to slush and even damage a track section that the car was parked on. I have never head of that happening with aftermarket tires like Slot.it or NSR sells. I have had old urethane tires become brittle, those had been stored for more than five years however. If they had been in regular use they would have gotten worn out and been replaced before that. Silicone tires do not seem to have ageing problems, I have some left over from the '60s that are still as good as new.

[perrotoro]

Old Dan,

I'm not as experienced as all these vets here - I've been home racing only since 2017 on carrera. Until recently I ran only magnets with little focus on more sophisticated truing of tires - the magnets do a great job for maintaining good traction in this case. However, non-trued, Super Tires, Quick Slicks, and Slot.It tires seemed to perform best for me. The QS's are near half the cost of the ST's.

Now I've begun trying non magnet over the past two months. Gluing and truing with a razor truer is much more important for nonmagnet performance. Truing the wheels is important too. Truing for uniform OD of wheels and tires is key - concentric'ity. I like the PGT's and the XPG's for non-mag because these have small ID's and thick tire walls that do not necessarily require you to glue the tire to the wheel before truing.

Good luck. So many options and good opinions.

[ALS]

Quick slicks or Super Tires