I am just getting started in dirt oval. I am running a AE T4. I was wondering why foams are used on clay instead of rubber tires. I would think rubber would be better for dirt/clay and easier to work with (no trueing). If foam is the big thing now, you could run your dirt classes on carpet couldnt you? What is the deal? Thanks, :thumbsup:

Because they are faster

It depends on the track. Back in the mid 80's dirt oval was really dirt oval pins in the rear & ribs up front. You had to drive around the corners and alot of loose stuff. Makes some good racing and sliding. Then tracks starting the "blue" groove hard pack dirt where foams are the only tires to use. It became faster and almost like racing concrete/asphault oval...I guess that's why dirt oval faded away. It seems dirt oval is making a come back well here in Fl anyways and some of my dirt cars are coming out of retirement LOL

Silicone coated foams were for even less dirty tracks, man those were a pain to make but they were faaaaast. I miss dirt oval.

Where in Florida do you run. I think they have a dirt oval series that I wanted to get started in, and I think Tampa has an indoor dirt track that I want to start hitting. Dirt oval looks like it would be a blast......... I cant wait.

Oh, and thanks for the info! :thumbsup:

I race oval and on road in Jacksonville, Orlando, Daytona etc. State on-road and oval series. Its mostly pan and touring. There is an indoor dirt oval track in Ocala Fl (Newredhobbies) and a couple of outdoor tracks near in the Tampa area. There are a couple from here that races at Ocala so I'll be trying to join them too.

Will the T3 rear wheels fit on my T4 ? all the dirt foams I find are for T3s and I really dont want to do the doughnut deal. RC4LESS shows truck foams on his site but it doesnt go into detail other than there green compounds.

See Ya! Lee :cool:

That is a good question. Sounds like I will need some foams also...........would like to know.

I'm not sure but I would think so if they don't fit that would surprise me!!

The T4 uses the same rims as the T3

Thanks Pat :thumbsup:

I never could understand why anyone would want to run a dirt oval car on a blue-grooved track! Kind of takes the fun out of dirt oval racing. Might as well run paved oval!

Its more similar to what full scale dirt oval cars race on...plus its a lot cleaner!

Its more similar to what full scale dirt oval cars race on...plus its a lot cleaner!

you nailed it.

foam tires dont grow like a rubber tire does at speed...... gear ratio doesnt change

if you plan on running at newred hobbies the tire compound of choice are:
touring: 35shore nitro shoes
sprint/edm: silver
truck: green or silver

1. I was wondering why foams are used on clay instead of rubber tires. I would think rubber would be better for dirt/clay and easier to work with (no trueing).

2. If foam is the big thing now, you could run your dirt classes on carpet couldnt you? What is the deal? Thanks, :thumbsup:



I'll take a stab at this since I've done both rubber(pinspikes and treaded) and foam tire racing on both types(hard packed and clean or loose and fluffy) of dirt/clay ovals on and off since about 1986.


1.Generally foam tires are lighter than their rubber counterparts which equates to lower rotating/rolling mass and lighter unsprung weight. Plus they have a more constant contact patch resulting in more consistant traction and they're available in several compounds which aid in tuning. Rubber tires on the other hand to keep from folding under or collapsing from the cornering forces usually require foam(theres that pesky foam again)inserts adding to their already higher weight and in most cases are only available in one compound. It either works or oh well?

2. I can assure you that foam tires on dirt ovals are not a new thing as anyone who has raced dirty ovals over the years has probably run more foam tires than anything else. Only in some areas are rubber(usually treaded not spikes)run with any regularity.

3. Now from the standpoint of someone like myself that maintained an outdoor dirt oval track(HobbyWorld from 87 to 91) I can tell you that there is a lot lot less maintenance required on the track itself when foam and or rubber(treaded or smooth)tires are run comapred to pinspike type tires.

4. I have run basically all the different types of tires runnable on dirt/clay ovals, Pinspikes, Rubber treaded, Foams, Silicone capped foam and Rubber capped foams(the same as run on concrete tracks but softer compounds) and the fastest if the track was in good condition and completely dry and hard(actual blue groove tracks)were the rubber caps. Next would be the Silicone caps and they require the track to be as smooth but it has to be wet and moist(kind of like Kurt Sanderson):eek:

The foams are more forgiving than the previous two without the added costs so they seem to be the prevalent choices at most tracks.

5. Formost on the question of why foams over spikes or rubber treaded tires? Given the track condition the foams will be faster in almost all cases. And one thing that is the common thread that binds all us r/c fanatics together is speed. Hmmm? we could all be running Pro-line strikers or road hawgs on our pan cars. They surely look more realistic but foams are faster.

6. Now there are vastly different types of dirt ovals. Some are made up of just dirt, Some of a sandy clay mixture commonly reffered to as baseball diamond clay and then there are the real hard packed and preferrably smooth real clay tracks. As in the commonly called Georgia red clay, The northeastern U.S. brown clay and the grayish color gumbo clay like NewReds in Ocala uses.

7. When smoothed to perfection and with just the right amount of moisture the traction in these tracks is amazing and if your'e not careful you may just step right out of your shoes on this stuff.

8. I can understand why some guys have a hard time getting foam tires to work on some tracks and rubber on others. It basically boils down to what is being run by other car/trucks and what the race director will allow. If pinspike tires are rooting up the surface, Foams will probably not work. Thats why some tracks have a tire rule and that gets right back into the track maintenance topic.

9. Finally, Yes dirt cars can be run on carpet but the extra weight has to be taken into account as far as damage to the carpet is concerned. On open wheel cars such as Sprint or Eastern Dirt Modifieds the shock towers would just love to tear a gaping hole in that expensive Ozite if they got the chance during a flip or rollover. Dirt cars are run on carpet in a large part of the country where indoor carpet is the mainstay of winter racing but us poor Floridians have almost nowhere to race on carpet indoors. We do however have NewReds in Ocala to race on clay indoors. Plug plug plug! Rain or shine thats a favorite track of mine.

I have run Both Foam and Mostly,.. Pro-line / Losi rubber ..buggy tires.
The buggy tire track was a loamy sort of dirt oval that had a high percentage of sand in the Mix. and would dry out several times during a round on a hot and windy day...foams seldom worked well there, and required the track to be soaked well before a run then tack up. in order for foams to work at all.....rubber was the way to go for easy track maint on a race day.

The Foam track. was an indoor (Ohio Black clay)...or pond bottom track that was kept moist and was some of the most fun I ever had racing regardless of the type car or track surface..bar none!

The nice thing about faoms is it is cheep once you know how to mount your own, and you can allways tune the tire by adding extra groves, or cross cuts to the tire. a set of greens or yellows last a long time untill you hit something and chunk them. but they still work chunked.

For traction aids, plain old GOJO Creamy hand cleaner, rubbed in liberaly then wiped back off about 10 mins before a run was all you needed. some prefered watter or alcohol, some used paragon..but gojo worked best for the buck.

I made my own truer for D/O foams from and old washer motor and a fixed paddel to attache 36 grit sand paper too.....I had a buddy turn me a couple adaptor arbors out of alluminumscrap for a few bucks and it was al I needed......but a used 12v cobra track side can be had for around 50 bones.

all you need to mount foams is some dap contact cement, ( wallmart) and a gallon can of laccer thiner. ///plus a truer either bought or borrowed.

cutting the ribs off regular buggy or truck rims worked but adaptors from RD enterprises or Barts parts, would allow you to run rear pan car rims on the front or rear, pan rims are a better fit for the donuts and the foam is less streatched Just works better, Plus you can narrow the wheel all the way down to just an inch if you liked,,,or used them differnt widths all around to tune the bite, I ran a 2" RR and a 1.5" wide LR on my outlaW SPRINT TO KEEP THING IGHT FOR ME, WITH AN 1/8" DROOP ON THE LR...other used the same but ran a bigger diametter RR...lot of things can be done easy and changed back for the coast of a set of faom donuts....best part was rear donuts make 2 pair of narrow front tires.....save bucks once you figgure things out...all in all my favorite way to run D/O

Rubber tire tracks seem to be slower as a rule, both due to the track gets losened through the day from different treads working it, and the tires are twice as heavy, especialy once they fill up in the insert foam.....another plus to foams, is once you master mounting them....and if you can adapt 96 pitch gears, then you can use tire diameter to play with roll out to get that perfect gear...do to lower rotating mas you'll find foams let you run a taller gear while still out accelerating the rubber tires..

but the track and it's director usually dictate what is used.

I'll take a stab at this since I've done both rubber(pinspikes and treaded) and foam tire racing on both types(hard packed and clean or loose and fluffy) of dirt/clay ovals on and off since about 1986.


1.Generally foam tires are lighter than their rubber counterparts which equates to lower rotating/rolling mass and lighter unsprung weight. Plus they have a more constant contact patch resulting in more consistant traction and they're available in several compounds which aid in tuning. Rubber tires on the other hand to keep from folding under or collapsing from the cornering forces usually require foam(theres that pesky foam again)inserts adding to their already higher weight and in most cases are only available in one compound. It either works or oh well?

2. I can assure you that foam tires on dirt ovals are not a new thing as anyone who has raced dirty ovals over the years has probably run more foam tires than anything else. Only in some areas are rubber(usually treaded not spikes)run with any regularity.

3. Now from the standpoint of someone like myself that maintained an outdoor dirt oval track(HobbyWorld from 87 to 91) I can tell you that there is a lot lot less maintenance required on the track itself when foam and or rubber(treaded or smooth)tires are run comapred to pinspike type tires.

4. I have run basically all the different types of tires runnable on dirt/clay ovals, Pinspikes, Rubber treaded, Foams, Silicone capped foam and Rubber capped foams(the same as run on concrete tracks but softer compounds) and the fastest if the track was in good condition and completely dry and hard(actual blue groove tracks)were the rubber caps. Next would be the Silicone caps and they require the track to be as smooth but it has to be wet and moist(kind of like Kurt Sanderson):eek:

The foams are more forgiving than the previous two without the added costs so they seem to be the prevalent choices at most tracks.

5. Formost on the question of why foams over spikes or rubber treaded tires? Given the track condition the foams will be faster in almost all cases. And one thing that is the common thread that binds all us r/c fanatics together is speed. Hmmm? we could all be running Pro-line strikers or road hawgs on our pan cars. They surely look more realistic but foams are faster.

6. Now there are vastly different types of dirt ovals. Some are made up of just dirt, Some of a sandy clay mixture commonly reffered to as baseball diamond clay and then there are the real hard packed and preferrably smooth real clay tracks. As in the commonly called Georgia red clay, The northeastern U.S. brown clay and the grayish color gumbo clay like NewReds in Ocala uses.

7. When smoothed to perfection and with just the right amount of moisture the traction in these tracks is amazing and if your'e not careful you may just step right out of your shoes on this stuff.

8. I can understand why some guys have a hard time getting foam tires to work on some tracks and rubber on others. It basically boils down to what is being run by other car/trucks and what the race director will allow. If pinspike tires are rooting up the surface, Foams will probably not work. Thats why some tracks have a tire rule and that gets right back into the track maintenance topic.

9. Finally, Yes dirt cars can be run on carpet but the extra weight has to be taken into account as far as damage to the carpet is concerned. On open wheel cars such as Sprint or Eastern Dirt Modifieds the shock towers would just love to tear a gaping hole in that expensive Ozite if they got the chance during a flip or rollover. Dirt cars are run on carpet in a large part of the country where indoor carpet is the mainstay of winter racing but us poor Floridians have almost nowhere to race on carpet indoors. We do however have NewReds in Ocala to race on clay indoors. Plug plug plug! Rain or shine thats a favorite track of mine.


Dave,
Great insight! Thanks for taking the time to write all that out. It really helps....... :thumbsup:

I have run Both Foam and Mostly,.. Pro-line / Losi rubber ..buggy tires.
The buggy tire track was a loamy sort of dirt oval that had a high percentage of sand in the Mix. and would dry out several times during a round on a hot and windy day...foams seldom worked well there, and required the track to be soaked well before a run then tack up. in order for foams to work at all.....rubber was the way to go for easy track maint on a race day.

The Foam track. was an indoor (Ohio Black clay)...or pond bottom track that was kept moist and was some of the most fun I ever had racing regardless of the type car or track surface..bar none!

The nice thing about faoms is it is cheep once you know how to mount your own, and you can allways tune the tire by adding extra groves, or cross cuts to the tire. a set of greens or yellows last a long time untill you hit something and chunk them. but they still work chunked.

For traction aids, plain old GOJO Creamy hand cleaner, rubbed in liberaly then wiped back off about 10 mins before a run was all you needed. some prefered watter or alcohol, some used paragon..but gojo worked best for the buck.

I made my own truer for D/O foams from and old washer motor and a fixed paddel to attache 36 grit sand paper too.....I had a buddy turn me a couple adaptor arbors out of alluminumscrap for a few bucks and it was al I needed......but a used 12v cobra track side can be had for around 50 bones.

all you need to mount foams is some dap contact cement, ( wallmart) and a gallon can of laccer thiner. ///plus a truer either bought or borrowed.

cutting the ribs off regular buggy or truck rims worked but adaptors from RD enterprises or Barts parts, would allow you to run rear pan car rims on the front or rear, pan rims are a better fit for the donuts and the foam is less streatched Just works better, Plus you can narrow the wheel all the way down to just an inch if you liked,,,or used them differnt widths all around to tune the bite, I ran a 2" RR and a 1.5" wide LR on my outlaW SPRINT TO KEEP THING IGHT FOR ME, WITH AN 1/8" DROOP ON THE LR...other used the same but ran a bigger diametter RR...lot of things can be done easy and changed back for the coast of a set of faom donuts....best part was rear donuts make 2 pair of narrow front tires.....save bucks once you figgure things out...all in all my favorite way to run D/O

Rubber tire tracks seem to be slower as a rule, both due to the track gets losened through the day from different treads working it, and the tires are twice as heavy, especialy once they fill up in the insert foam.....another plus to foams, is once you master mounting them....and if you can adapt 96 pitch gears, then you can use tire diameter to play with roll out to get that perfect gear...do to lower rotating mas you'll find foams let you run a taller gear while still out accelerating the rubber tires..

but the track and it's director usually dictate what is used.


Doug this is good stuff too! Thanks

Oval4ever, Can You Tell Me Where I Can Get Some Of Those 96 Pitch Gears. Cause The Only Thing I Can Find Is 32 / 48 / 64 Pitch. Thanks For The Help.

Oval4ever, Can You Tell Me Where I Can Get Some Of Those 96 Pitch Gears. Thanks For The Help.

Wow! Those teeth must be really small. :rolleyes: Just kidding. I'm sure it was just a typo.