WD-40 as a traction compound ?

Does anyone still use it ?

Years ago that was the cheapest and most effective on foam tires.

I know some use it on cap tires at the velo in Indy

I've have used breakfree oil on my foam tires outdoors. Works great when the oil is just barely there and the tires have a decent amount of natural rubber.

Seems like most products racers use have some sort of light oil base ,
either oil of wintergreen or suntan lotion , ect.

They seem to soften the foam tire fairly quick.

Gojo or Goop hand cleaner, the white version of both soften tires really well.

We at GMX in newmilford ct can only use WD-40 on our tires it works very well but you must run 3 to 5 laps prior to the start for the car to come in a little.

Any one ever try tire warmers and WD-40 on foams ??? Might cut out the pre-race laps

We at GMX in newmilford ct can only use WD-40 on our tires it works very well but you must run 3 to 5 laps prior to the start for the car to come in a little.


We're considering going to this as a track compound , we can't have any
smell in the office building we race in.

I'm going to use strickly that this weekend and see how it go's.


""since TQ seems to have gone by the wayside""

I would try suntan lotion instead, if your landlord can handle the smell of the beach!

I would be afraid of leaving an oily residue on the track with WD-40.

We ran Coppertone SPF 45 waterproof Suntan lotion indoors on carpet at the Rock last year and some of the fastest lap times were done with this. The tires stayed the same run after run and as soon as you wiped them down you had instant grip without having to do ANY hot laps. The car was consistant from beginning to end.

If you run regular traction compound now, (I mainly use Niftech) would you have to clean the tires before you could use suntan lotion? If so, what should I clean them with? We used to use suntan lotion and it worked well. But I've never used it on the same tire after traction compound.
Mike

I would try suntan lotion instead, if your landlord can handle the smell of the beach!

I would be afraid of leaving an oily residue on the track with WD-40.

We ran Coppertone SPF 45 waterproof Suntan lotion indoors on carpet at the Rock last year and some of the fastest lap times were done with this. The tires stayed the same run after run and as soon as you wiped them down you had instant grip without having to do ANY hot laps. The car was consistant from beginning to end.


How did you apply this ? I guess to keep it consistent around the tire.

And do you soak overnight or just 15-30 min. before the race.

Nothing too hard.

I sqwirt it around in a thin bead all around the tire, then massage the stuff into the foam, so the stuff is worked in through and through. Let it sit 5 minutes and wipe off the excess, that's pretty much it. And you can go back to tire tack afterwards without any problems, just wash and rinse them out with water and hand dish liquid soap like the orange Palmolive.

What I liked about the Suntan is you don't have to worry about letting the tire soak too long and getting soft on you.

But the stuff can almost be too tacky for high grip situations. That stuff grips as much as Paragon. St-Roch is a low to medium grip track so Suntan worked great for us at one time when everybody was using it at the same time.

I tryed some spf-30 we had and just applying here on the counter for a few minutes and wiping off you could feel how much less oily than wd-40.

What if everyone isn't running it , does it affect the handling ?

Do you apply before every run ?

Rodney, Keith Fortier ran suntan lotion last week at toy box, said it worked better than paragon.Do you realize without being able to run normal tire compound that your going to be limiting the amount of new drivers.

We're just experimenting with different things and as you know we can't have
a traction compound with any odor, absolutely NO paragon products.

You always bring up limiting drivers ?????? hmm We never think that :wave:

Rodney, Keith Fortier ran suntan lotion last week at toy box, said it worked better than paragon.Do you realize without being able to run normal tire compound that your going to be limiting the amount of new drivers.

...explain.

Suntan isn't more expensive than a bottle of Niftech or Paragon, plus you can get it in any common big name stores or pharmacys. Do you realize what a variable tire tractions add to the equation? They all add different degrees of grip. I think at times for a new racer it gets too much to handle.

Keith Fortier ran suntan lotion last week at toy box, said it worked better than paragon.Do you realize without being able to run normal tire compound that your going to be limiting the amount of new drivers.

...explain.

Suntan isn't more expensive than a bottle of Niftech or Paragon, plus you can get it in any common big name stores or pharmacys. Do you realize what a variable tire tractions add to the equation? They all add different degrees of grip. I think at times for a new racer it gets too much to handle.

Thankyou , back to some constructive comments.
pancar17something is just a pain in the _ _ _ !

Hank , you can terminate this thread if you'd like , going down hill in a hurry

back to the wd-40.....i remember we used wd40 at a couple tracks in the early 90's, and i distinctly remember that after a run you would have a crazy buildup of goo on your tires, like the rubber marbles would gum up and stick to your tires.

closed per request of the OP