Additive

what is the best additive to use? or is it not allowed for ardent? generally what is the best tyre combo to go with? at moment i have jap 48 front and jap medium rear, trying to get something that will work both on my dave and on the 2wd mini as well

Its hard to say but what ever club you run at check what they use because I have found out that if 90% people run jack the gripper and you us nosram the chances are the car will handle bad as I found out so I switched to what every one else used and was fine but othere may say a differant story but for Ardent I use CS high grip

Gazza is right - some additives don't mix well when used together. They produce a sort of emulsion on the carpet and whoever is using the least 'popular' brand is generally the one who suffers. Check what others use and follow their lead.

What I have found is that most Mardave flavours of tire don't really like additive that much though. If I use additive more than twice during a meeting on the same tire it gets over-soft and almost falls apart. At least, tire wear is much higher on the third and fourth applications of additive. Also, certain brands of additive seem to attack the EvoStick I use to bond the tire to the rim - multiple applications seems to increase the rate at which I have to re-glue tires back onto rims... The ones worst affected by additive are the JAP 52, 50, 48 flavours. These even pick up other cars' additive off the track and become a nightmare for me if I use them more than twice a meeting.

For me, I have found CS HiGrip is the most aggressive additive - lots of grip given but I can only use it once per tire per meeting. More than that and I have to re-glue tires and cope with massive wear. Nosram and LRP (basically the same stuff I think) are the 'weakest' and a middle-of-the-road one, one I use week in, week out is Jack The Gripper (silver can, purple/pink printing).

I also use several sets of tires each meeting. I have 5 pairs of UFRA Pink Mediums for the rear and 3 pairs of JAP Meduim and 2 pairs of JAP Mofts for the front. I use the softs on the front for practice and heat 1 (when grip at our track is low), then mediums for heats 2,3 and final when the grip on the carpet has come up. Rears are always UFRA Pink Medium. These get a full coating of additive about 15 mins before racing, the fronts get about 1/4 width on the inside 5 mins before racing.

I have found that having these multiple sets really lowers tire wear. Eash tire only gets used once per meeting and therefore has additive once per meeting. I also mark them left/right and alternate them from side to side each week to keep wear even. Once a month they all get a re-true on my lathe but I hardly need to take anything off (usually about 0.25mm?). The advantage of this is less change in ride height and droop frpm one week to the next and handling is more consistent. OK, so it is an expense and a faff to get them all glued and trued to start with but I find it is worth it - I have run the same sets of tires now for 18 meetings and I estimate they are about half way through their life.

Hope this helps,

James

holy moly lol, at the moment i buy them trued/glued for 2 reasons really, 1. i dont own a truer and 2. i dont know how to use one lol.

the question is though will jack the gripper work on slick tyres for a tamiya? as i am trying to save money by not having to buy 2 tins of additive, but that makes more sense in theory what you are doing anyway but once they all go man that is going to be an expensive shopping trip lol, usually go through a set of rear tyres every meetings without additive, and i am guessing there is no real way of getting through without it at ardent?

I'm not 100% sure that additives for foams will work all that well on rubber tires too. Sure, I guess they will do something at least but probably not as much as a rubber-specific additive will.

Foam additives (eg. Jack) tend to be a lighter, more watery liquid. This is so they can soak into the foams and therefore soften more than just the top layer. This is vital since wear on foams is relatively high. When I used to race 1/12 circuit cars we were very careful to use additives that soaked in well - during an 8 min race you could easilly wear off enough tire so you were running on fresh, but low grip, rubber at the end of the race!

Rubber additives, on the other hand, tend to be thicker, more oily liquids. This is so they don't evaporate so quickly, especially when used on outdoor tracks. Years ago I used some gunk calley Trinity Tire Tweak which was almost as thick as Golden Syrup!

CS HiGrip is a sort of half way house. I have seen people use it on both foams and rubbers but people on foams have been happier with it.

As for it being an expensive trip when my tires eventually run out then, yes, I guess it will be! Probably about £45 to £50. But, if my current wear rate is anything to go by then I'll only need to spend that amount every 4 months or so? This is with me racing 5 times in 2 weeks (my usual racing timetable). If you're blowing a set of rears every meeting (?!) that is roughly £6 per meeting (assuming £4 for the UFRA Pinks per pair and just under £2 for the rims. I don't know how much your glued and trued ones are though!). Race jusr once a week (or 4 times a month) and do that for the same 4 months as me and you'll be up to £96, or about twice what I'll be paying. And that is just for your rears. And I race more often too.

OK, so having enough spare cash to sort out several sets of wheels and tires is not always possible but you'll be able to get part way there even if you just get 2 sets. That will have a big effect on your tire wear!

James

at the moment i race once a month because we dont have an oval near us, however with all the crap that is going on in the section and me buying a tamiya Mchassis, i decided to move over to circuit and come play at the ardent winter series
A set of trued and glued cost me £17 with postage, again i am wearing out jap mediums on rear though and it could also be because at the time my car was not set up properly plus i had the wrong shell on, now i have sorted the car out hopefully i am trying the same tyre setup to see if it was that or not without additive though, and the correct shell for oval although it seems people have found a better shell lol
yea i remember the trinity syrup lol horrible stuff, yea i found the cs stuff for £10 so i might go with that although i dont want to wreck tyres in the process lol
when you work it out like that i guess £50 isnt to bad just the only prob as i said is i dont have a truer so i then have to find someone to that, which at ardent i think they have there own and i think they show you how to use 1 anyway.