Racing on a budget

[Rocking Donkey]

I'm trying to get back into indoor buggy racing after many years running touring cars. The buggys I have are still just about with it, although some would say the 2wd's motor is in the wrong place for running on carpet I'm looking to make "efficiency savings", and one of the biggest ongoing costs seems to be tyres. When I used to run buggys indoors regularly I was running Schumacher Blue or Green Mini Pins (and Micro Spikes occasionally). Now everyone seems to be running Yellows as standard. I used to only run Yellows at the big DMS indoor meets at Watford sport centre. Still the best fun I've ever had racing!

At the moment my driving, and especially jumping, is pretty rusty and it will take me a while to get back into things. My question is are Schumacher Blues just too hard to for the brushless torque, and if I try some am I going to spend all of my time powersliding out of corners? Are there any fairly good, long lasting tyres for a multi surface prima felt GT/Concrete track as the concrete especially seems to eat tyres. I'm really just looking for advice before I waste money on something unsuitable. Another option is to smooth everything out going back to my brushed setup?

I have a B4 and XX4 running lipo/brushless and am much happier spending money on higher quality permanent things like chargers and tuning options than consumables.

Cheers

Ben

[kaszal]

I was thinking the same. Would blue mini spikes last longer and be OK on a 1/10 buggy on astroturf?

[ch!3f]

i think for astro people tend to use yellow mini spikes and run them till there balled.for carpet yellow mini spikes aswell not too soft to wear down quick or hard to loose grip.

blues work great on tarmac last a while.best bet would be to put an add up for some used tyres in the wanted section try get some cheap to try out.

[Frecklychimp]

How many meetings are you getting from a set of tyres?

with 2WD i run yellow minipins on carpet and get 4 meetings before they are too bald to correct with driving, 4 rounds plus 10 mins practise at each meeting.. thats just rears, fronts last 2/3 meetings longer.

If you are on a budget then reusing wheels and inner foams is easily done, i race on a budget and at club level am as tight as can be...

roughly £2 a meeting for tyre wear is good value i think, considering the performance and costs of equipment and the car, there is no point having the tuning options or fast motors etc without required grip.

For astroturf i would use either Schuey green minispikes if dry or Ballistic green minispikes if damp on back depending on thickness of astro and yellow staggered ribs or green minispikes on front, staggers last a lifetime and you'll get a fair few meetings out of rears.

Fastrax do cheaper minispike tyres, maybe one of their range would be suitable for your surface?

Foam tyres could be an option, used to race buggies on tarmac years ago and they lasted quite well, great on carpet but fitting and trueing is a messy job!

Another tip... if you race at tracks that lap the track in same direction each meeting... swap tyres over side to side between heats, evens out the wear on spikes/pins.

[Stu]

Copy what the other guys at the club run, the experienced guys anyway.

You'll never save money getting tyres that are not right for the venue.

Save money by running sensible motors, this will conserve rubber.

The wrong tyre or compounds will slow you times drastically by making the car difficult to control, mild motors and the correct tyre will probably make you faster overall.

[chris brown]

The new dboots tyres are meant to have a simular feel to mini pins ( a softer feel though) but are said to last a little longer.

[reg]

Originally Posted by chris brown

The new dboots tyres are meant to have a simular feel to mini pins ( a softer feel though) but are said to last a little longer.

just make sure you run tubby inserts,std inserts are to soft and they let the tire move to much,there like running the car on blamonge.dont run them if there is any wood or slippy corners

[showtime]

you say the motor is in the wrong place for an indoor carpet track but a rear motored 2wd won on the high grip indoor track amongst a strong field at Ardent during the Petit race a few weeks ago!
so dont write your buggy off just yet