Where have the Black Dots gone???

[Sean Patterson]

Anyone remember the old black dot tires? I haven't seen those since I was last into r/c racing back in the early 90's. For those who don't know, they were the firmness of greens, but about 3 times as durable. The things we soft and lasted forever!!! Can you still get these anywhere?

[TEM]

They still make black dot foams for pan cars (10th and 12th) They are much harder than greens. Anyways, all the exotics are pretty good for wear. TRC has black on their list. Stormer carries them. What you going to do with them?

Anyone remember the old black dot tires? I haven't seen those since I was last into r/c racing back in the early 90's. For those who don't know, they were the firmness of greens, but about 3 times as durable. The things we soft and lasted forever!!! Can you still get these anywhere?

[Sean Patterson]

Are they the same as the old black dots? I notice all the coloring has changed since i was last into racing. I race indoor carpet roadcourse...are the blacks good for that?

[TEM]

Foams kind of did change somewhat over the years and they are certainly different between different brands. Jaco greys do not equal TRC greys for example. They will be similar in grade and price but not the same on the track. Everyone has difference bias and preferences as well, like everything else. In my opinion, I favor TRC yellow wheels because they are durable, but I like Jaco foams.

As for indoor carpet; I'm assuming it's 12th scale we are talking about? (pan cars anyways). Purple fronts and grey or pink rears is a good place to start. If your car is not handling around the track well, don't blame the tires, it has to be your car. And if you can confidently fly around the track with that setup, then you "might" want to try other compounds. I only ever use purple in the front, and greys or pinks in the rear. It always works. Use traction compound to control traction (ie. 1/2 inside of the fronts and full rears, etc). The only other tires you can play with are double pinks or black in the front. I believe these give you more front bite. Might even go jaco white rear, but thats about it for 12th scale foams (thank god!).

[Sean Patterson]

I'll try that, thanks

[papazilla]

I use to run blacks on my 10L. Only on ashphalt though. They were not too hard and had good wear. They were the hot setup back in the day. Smelled like dead fish if I remember right.

[highroller]

TEM is right, the firmness and traction changes a bit between the different brands. The major 1/12 and 1/10 foam manufacturers are JACO, TRC, BSR, TM Manufacturering while Cooper and (Bruce Tripplett) RC4Less are selling 1/10th foams. Years ago there were only 3 major compounds Yellow, Green and Blue but today you have the standard, long wear and exotic foams. Best bet to find which compound to purchase is visit the track beforehand and ask racers what they are using for compounds, brand, brand of traction compound and most importantly chassis setup.

The reason you see a big selection of different is how the ability to tune chassis for small amounts, cars are going faster even in 4cell, even though track may use an Ozite brand of carpet no two seem to be indentical and surface may change overtime where you switch to a slightly different compound or change the chassis some.