In the days before drifting became mainstream, myself and a couple of my friends realized that because 1/10 scale radio controlled cars are in every respect exactly the same as real cars (apart from the weight that is) there wasn't anything a real car could do that a 1:10 RC car couldn't. Soon as we realized this is was only a matter of time before we tried to drift them. Initially this wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. We started off by taping the tires, which worked well on certain surfaces but with the major drawback that the tape unwound after only a couple of runs.

As RC drifting started to gain momentum people started to experiment with different types of materials for the drift tires. First we saw hard rubber, often with full tread and branding like the standard rubber tires available at the time, while there worked very well, much better than the original taped tires we used, they did suffer from "too much grip" syndrome. The other problem we found is that they didn't age well, which is important because radio controlled drift tires last for such a long time. As the hard rubber tires aged, the rubber seemed to soften and get more grip, to the point where you could race with them.

Next we saw several incarnations that used hard plastic, while these tires offered almost zero traction and their lifespan could be measured in years the problem is that you need at least a small amount of traction to be able to control the drift, with the hard plastic tires even the slightest breeze would get you off your line.

The status quo for RC drift tires is polyethylene, which while to the casual observer looks and feel exactly like any other hard plastic drift tire, these offer almost the perfect traction for drifting, they also work incredibly well on almost any surface, with the exception of very smooth slippery surfaces like underground packing lots and supermarket floors.

So you need a set of radio controlled drift tires?

The key to getting the perfect drift tire is to match the traction to your particular style of drifting, I for one love to use front one-way differentials, which give we the ability to control the rear slip angle of my RC car with my brakes, the down site to this is that you have no brakes, any serious braking action will pivot your car 180 degrees. Because of this I find I need a fair amount of traction to be able to catch the rear when I initiate a drift via the brakes.

The Tape Method.

The one thing I do like about using tape is that it lets you control exactly how much traction you get from each tire, while I only every modified the front and rear tires in sets, in theory you can customize every tire individually. The major drawback is that the tape unwinds and only lasts a couple of runs, if done correctly you can get these to last for as many as ten runs.

There are two preferred methods to wrap your tires, the first is to wrap only the outside of the tire, leaving the center strip tape free, by changing the amount of rubber that has contact with the road you can fine-tune your traction. The second is to tape the center and leave the edges tap free, this is the generally accepted methods that seems to work the best for most people. Personally I used to tape the entire rubber surface of the tire on the front and then used just a single strip of tape on the middle of the rear tire, this gave me enough traction a the back to catch a wayward drift. This was partly down to my drifting style and partly down to the way my RC car handled. I found that my RC car has a lot of natural grip in the front.

When taping your RC tires make sure that you tape it in the right direction, it needs to wrap the same way that tire rolls, if you don't then it will unravel within the first few minutes of your first run. A good trick to use it to lay the tape down on the ground and roll your RC car over it, this is the direction you need to use. Taping is a great way to see how a car will drift without changing anything apart from the tires.

The plastic spray paint top method.

Another way to create drift tires is to cut a section from the cap of an aerosol can, then glue this to the tire, while these do tend to outlast the taped tires, it's very difficult to get a smooth surface on the tire, there is almost always a small kink where the two halves connect, this is similar to driving with a deformed tire, while it will work for the most part you just won't be able to drift as smoothly as you can with tape or other types of drift tires.

The PVC Pipe method

This is something I haven't tried personally, although I have used a PVC tire before, I found it worked really well, the only problem with it was that it didn't have enough traction for my particular drifting style. But apart from that I can't fault it. the way to make these is to measure the diameter of your rim and get a section of PVC pipe that has the same inner diameter, for best results is should be a fraction smaller that your rims, cut the pipe into sections and then file down the outside edges so that they don't catch on anything when you drift. The way to apply these tires is the same as the way you apply the professionally made tires, cool the rim and heat up the tire, slip them on and as the tires cools and the rim heats up they will form a very tight fit, no need to use glue although I would always recommend it, as would anyone who was lost a tire during a competition. Put the rim in your freezer and the boil the tire, no need to use anything more industrial than that.

Polyethylene - Gods gift to drifters.

Polyethylene is amazing stuff, it is incredibly hard yet offered an amazing amount of traction, the lifespan of a polyethylene tire is between one and two years, depending how often you drift, I drift at least twice a month, and our sessions last an entire day. My last set of tires lasted at least 18 months. One of the main benefits of polyethylene tires is the consistency they offer, with all the other methods there are several things which will make them behave differently. Polyethylene seems to drift the same no matter what, the only problem I have ever had with polyethylene is when trying to drift in an underground parking lot, there was zero traction, which meant I couldn't even turn, any kind of acceleration made the car go straight, for these conditions tape is the idea medium for drift.

Drift Tire Images

Above we can see three different drift tires, showing the evolution that RC drifting has taken over the last few years, first on the left is a polyethylene plastic drift tire, next a taped tire using the outside edge method and finally a Tamiya Drift Tire which is made from a hard rubber. Click for a larger image.

The same again from a different perspective, take note that the rim on the left is not plastic, but metal, which is one of the coolest things this drifter has ever seen. Click for a larger image.s

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