Like the title says, what tires are you using and on what surface with what car?

What tires grip the best on prepared or unprepared surfaces(or both)?

Here's what I use and how they work:

My TA02FF(front motor, front wheel drive) has standard-width HPI X-pattern belted radials up front, and super-narrow Eagle belted slicks in back. On fresh, fairly rough pavement the the car is kinda tail happy with agressive oversteer unless you are super smooth on the throttle/brake(which results in a cool slide). Stock suspension.

My RS4(the original, with a rear gearbox, not dual belt) has HPI non-belted Super Radials(also original!) all around and its fairly neutral, with controllable tail-out slides just from lifting the throttle. The tail is promptly brought back with a little dab at the throttle. Also stock suspension.

I dont like the super-narrow slicks on the TA02. Could someone recommend a radial(belted preferrably, maybe even super-narrow) that works well on fairly rough surfaces?

i cant really help u on that since i dont have a touring car (personally i think they are two slow compared to pan cars), but go to this site:www.nascart.com (http://www.nascasrt.com)

Originally posted by Psman32@af
(personally i think they are two slow compared to pan cars)[/URL]
Well, they ARE slow compared to pan cars(well, most touring cars are anyway). I almost got one, but the ones I had my eye on were the same price or more than the RS4, and I just liked the AWD of the RS4 and it went from there. I really like the scale bodies too.

I got a ta03f which I converted into FWD only. :) If you are oversteering, look for swaybars to put in the front, or soften the rear and/or stiffen the front suspension. For a carpet track, always go with foams. For rough stuff (on the road), use something with a tread.

i would suggest treads only on dusty or not fry surfaces, otherwise id say slicks.

When I race my touring car or rally car on carpet(high grip) I use foams of varing grades depending on conditions. Plus I would normally use additive of one sort or another (TQ orange or Trinity ZIP-GRIP) for other surfaces I use mini pins and treaded or slick rubber again depending on conditions

personally i think they are two slow compared to pan cars
What's a pan car? Are they specific to america? (i live in england) And i bet my touring car would beat it, and if it didnt, i know one that definitely would.

A pan car is a VERY low car with a solid rear axle and massive foam tires. They are direct drive, have simple suspension systems. The chassis is usually just a flat piece of fiberglass or graphite. The cars are very simple and very light weight.

Originally posted by MBTN
A pan car is a VERY low car with a solid rear axle and massive foam tires. They are direct drive, have simple suspension systems. The chassis is usually just a flat piece of fiberglass or graphite. The cars are very simple and very light weight.

Yeah what he said. I'll post picutres of mine soon so you can see. Mine doesn't have any rear suspension, it relies on chasis flex for the rear. The front has 2 very small springs that it uses for suspenion. I wieghed myself on a scale then i weighed myself holding the car with all the electronics on it an a battery and the weight only increased by 2 pounds so it is very light. On a carpet track in wisconsin, on average I was doin laps 2-3 seconds faster than the average of the touring car that won the stock class and i was using a Reddy Rage Type R which is a rebuildable stock motor, and that when I was taking it easy. When I pushed my car on the track my best lap was roughly 7 seconds (yes im not exagerating) faster than the winning car's average. On a different pavement track in Wisconsin, I kept up with the HPI Super Nitro cars in the straight with a 7 cell battery (it was practice) and the Rage motor. Also on the carpet track, I passed a touring car in the corner as well as a few on teh concrete track so they are not just straight line machines. So with that being said, I'm very confident that it would beat ur pan car. No they are not specific to America, but they are not very popular. I think the reason that they are not very popular is because they are much harder to drive well then a touring car.

You said yourself, you only beat the winning stock class touring car, and when you had a stock motor, but if both cars were upgraded to thier full potential, the touring car would win easily, since it has better suspension and traction (4wd). The pan car would be very difficult to control with that much power, what with it being rear wheel drive and poor suspension. You're probably right, it would beat mine, but there's this one I regularly raced against that was so fast that even the top people in the club were amazed, and it was a touring car.

Not necessarily true. While the pan car is DEFINATELY harder to drive, a good driver can beat a top of the line TC with a good driver as well. All the suspension tuning in the world won't help you, unless you have a super modified motor and top of the line electronics while the pan car has an average stock motor and average electronics. Pan cars are VERY fast and VERY responsive. Even a powerful motor won't put you out of control either. The rear tires on pan cars are MASSIVE. I have one and the tires are wider than their diameter. :eek:

A good comparison here might be something like say a Ferrari F40 vs. a Porshe 959. The 959, being 4wd, would be much easier to drive and to drive to its limits then would a F40, but when both were in the hands of a good driver, the F40 would win quite easily. The same applies here, if the two has a similar motor, in the hands of an expierenced driver, teh pan car will always be faster. Remeber, I said i was able to pass people in the turns and it was my first day to see the track and run my car on that surface. The peopel that were there have been there for a while but yet I was able to pass tehm in the turn. To me that says that I have more traction than they do. Also their tires at the paved track were better suited to the track then mine were. Also, I don't knwo how I compared to the modified touring cars becuase they didn't have any times posted for modified touring cars. Touring cars have 4wd offeres easier driving and easier launching. They also have a more adjustable suspension. But all that comes at a price compared to a pan car design, while it is more adjustable and easier to drive, it also is heavier. Touring cars have heaiver chasis and also have more rotating weight. More weight with the same power means slower acceleration. I could go on further about that but I won't, it a matter of prefernce as to what you like to drive as to what you buy, but with relatively simialr motors, the pan car will be faster.

ok last thing. My pan car has been up to 60 9and beat my dad's minivan 0-60 in the process) with a speed gems 2 14 turn motor. The numbers on a Rage type R are better then the numbers for this motor was. I haven't seen anything like that on any touring car with that kind of motor.

Aso, if I seem to have rambled on in that last post.

I was just having a wind up. Someone I know has one of these pan cars in 1/12 and it goes like a rocket, and that was with a standard silver can 540. The only mod on it was a pair of ball races on the axle. Of course they are faster, when I used to race, someone brought in his Tamiya formula one car, which has a similar design to the pan cars you talk about - rear wheel drive, simple suspension, very light - and whooped the field of tourers no problem - which was a pain. :rolleyes:
Having said that, the pan car would have a hard time trying to beat the tc's on the other track at the club, because it was extremely bad quality tarmac, very bumpy and covered in gravel. The superior suspension of the touring car would see it home first every time. :D

And I suppose the parking lot I raced at wasn't bumpy even though it was old? The parking lot where i out-cornered the touring cars? Not quite, it was. An bynot good quality tarmac, do you mean that its not smooth and has ground in little rocks? Also is the track real curvy or is it more straight?

Ok , I'll describe fully the conditions of the track. It was a car park for a school near a building site where an extension for the school was being built. There was an unbelievable amount of dust and gravel on it from the aforementioned building site. The tarmac was old, and was full of cracks and patches of badly laid concrete where someone from the school had obviously tried to repair it. These sections stuck up several milimeters and would gouge out considerable chunks of the chassis on my car. The touring cars frequently bottomed out, even mine which had the ride height raised. Cars often flipped due to the ruts. It was not a set track, but was usually set out in a very curvy fasion. It was more suited to buggies than cars, but they had their own track laid out on the school field.

Luckily, when they had finished the building work, there was a new tennis court with brand new, ultra grippy tarmac, free from any imperfections whatsoever which we began to race on. By this time though I had grown bored of the racing, and bought a gas powered car.