17 replies to this topic

[Casey]

The only kit I can think of which includes LSR tires is the Revell Mickey Thompson Challenger I kit, which are too large for my needs. Did any other kits include LSR specific tires?

[John Pol]

Can always use O rings what they use on the taps in a bathroom for your tires.

John Pol

[Casey]

I don't think that would work for what I need, but you did spark an idea, so thank you, John.

[southpier]

there's a model T wrecker truck thread going and the builder used slices of PVC pipe for the back tires. profile could be shaped on the ubiquitious "drill-lathe"

[Crazy Ed]

Hey Casey, Check the Model R/C U-Control Airplane section of your local Hobby Shop or favorite online equivalent. There are turned Aluminum discs with narrow tires galore!

Edited by Crazy Ed, 27 November 2012 - 02:50 AM.

[Ace-Garageguy]

What diameter are you looking for? I'm pretty sure I've got some treadless tires that would be appropriate for some LSR vehicles.

[Casey]

What diameter are you looking for? I'm pretty sure I've got some treadless tires that would be appropriate for some LSR vehicles.

I'm not exactly sure yet. It will be somewhere between 24" and 18", but still I'm still undecided if the front tires will be shorter than the rear tires. I modify a M/T Challenger I tire, but they are almost too atypical to be believable.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

[Muncie]

just a couple of thoughts - it may work out for what you are building...
Many cars at Bonneville run funny car front tires on the front. When it's approriate for the class and speed, they may also be used as drive tires on the rear. The Monogram funny car tires are about 25" outside diameter. The large tires that the faster cars run are based on 1950's Indy car sizes - 18X8 wheel, 30" diameter, 8" tread, 10" across the width.

[grt222]

Found these if they will work.

http://earlyyearsres...om/lsrparts.htm

[Art Anderson]

Well, there are/were LSR tires and then there were/are LSR tires.  A lot depends on the era of dry lakes/salt flat car you want to build, as well as the class it would have run in.

 

I think I've posted about this before, if not here, then I'll do it again:

 

Up until the very end of the 1950's, just one US tire company built tires for high speed record runs, that being Firestone.  They based their tires on their long experience building speedway tires, from the 1911 Indianapolis 500, through the era of the "board tracks" (1 mile to 2 1/2 mile high banked ovals built entirely from wood, their shapes and banking very much a precursor to today's NASCAR superspeedways.  With their experience building high-pressure, high-rpm/high speed racing tires, it was a pretty easy transition for Firestone to simply vulcanize these casings with smooth, rounded tread surfaces, and they did just that through the 1960's, for smaller, lighter class-racing speed record cars.

 

Unfortunately, there really aren't any model car tires that exactly match what I am mentioning,but with a bit of work on your part, you can come up with both 6:00-16 and 8:00-18 Firestones--those two basic tires, with early Halibrand magnesium wheels are featured in the long-running, often reissued Monogram Kurtis-Kraft Indianapolis 500 Roadster kit--even though of course they have a rudimentary rendition of the Firestone Deluxe Champion Speedway tires.  It should be a fairly easy matter to assemble those wheel/tire units, chuck them into an electric drill, and shave down the tread shoulders with flat files, smooth with say, 400-grit sandpaper (they have FIRESTONE lettering on them, so care here would be the watchword if you want to preserve that sidewall detail.  A variation of that tire set was used in the Monogram '32 Ford Hot Rod (1/24 scale) that was reissued in their SSP Series about 15-16 years ago--should not be difficult to find (this kit had the tires molded separately from the wheels).

 

Early dry lakes "Lakesters" tended to use ordinary passenger car tires, with their tread and tread shoulders buffed or ground off to a smoother, rounded surface, given the rather low-bucks situation in the late 30's, and early post-WWII years.

 

When AMT Corporation produced a Salt Flats version of their '37 Chevy Coupe kit, about 1977 or so, they included, at a recommendation from myself and a couple other modelers, the two-piece hard plastic Firestone tires they had just tooled for a reissue of their 1963 Agajanian Willard Battery Special Indy 500 winning car.  Those tires fit 15" AMT rims, and even though of 2--piece construction, the fit of the two tire halves is very clean and precise, and they too, just like the Monogram styrene Firestones mentioned above, will need to be chucked into an electric drill or small lathe, then the shoulders of their Speedway tread filed and sanded down to the more correct profile for LSR cars.  The  version of this tire to use would probably be the roadster front tire--also came in the last reissues of the AMT 1963 Lotus Ford Indy car.

 

 

Art

[Ace-Garageguy]

For what it's worth, Goodyear got into the LSR supply game in the late '50s, specifically in response to Firestone's refusal to build tires for Thompson's Challenger 1. In the early '60s, there was a fairly wide line of LSR sizes available from Goodyear, some of them very short in diameter, and all looking like scaled versions of the Challenger tires. Recently (2008) they looked like this, more or less...

 

 

A good representation of 25 / 26 inchers (OD) can be made by removing the tread from Goodyear Frontrunner drag-racing tires (and the Frontrunner logo from the sidewalls). I believe the current size range from Goodyear in 1:1 LSR tires is 21" to 28" OD. As of 2011, many people in the 180-230 mph range were running the 1:1 Frontrunners under light cars on the salt. Heavier cars can run inner front tires from Nascar GN cars (28" diameter, 10" width).

 

I have some other no-name model tires that are approx. 23" OD and mount to 15" scale rims (in 1/25). They have about the right shape but also require minimal tread removal. You're welcome to 2 or 4 of these if they would work.

 

As Art mentioned, the right appearance will be determined by the era you're representing, with Indy-car tires being used for a while, shaved and not shaved. The fronts from the Monogram Kurtis he mentioned look like this  (on the rear)

 

 

Palmides (American) and Halibrand both made no-hole mags as shown as early as 1956 in 16 and (I think)18 inch sizes. The rear tires from the Indy cars are really too tall, in my opinion. I've found a good representation for the front tires to go with these rears is a shaved-tread AMT Firestone bias-ply that was ubiquitous in the '60s and '70s kits.

 

Many cars also ran other forms of racing tires, and one incorrect notion is that some ran implement tires because of the appearance. They didn't in fact...they were dirt-track tires, not really high-speed rated, but a lot of guys got lucky. I've found some excellent representations for these as well, if you're interested in the old stuff.

 

Under late '50s / early '60s heavy cars, a good representation is the soft-rubber Firestone stock-car tires that came in the AMT slot-car sets, and in vintage parts packs.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy, 01 December 2012 - 02:15 PM.

[Casey]

The tires will be used on my '63/4 Avanti build so the time period I'm aiming for is, well, '63-'64.    I have a few Goodyear Frontrunner tires and read a few things online with cars and bikes running them, but they would be too modern. The two-piece styrene tires are the option I like best, and I'm not too concerned with the sidewall lettering making it though the size adjusting stage, accurate or not.

 

I want to use larger diameter tires, so probably 18" up front in 1/25 scale, and 20-22" in the rear, for proportion reasons. I will have to look into the Kurtis Indy racer kit.  

 

Moon discs make wheel choices easy. 

[Art Anderson]

The tires will be used on my '63/4 Avanti build so the time period I'm aiming for is, well, '63-'64.    I have a few Goodyear Frontrunner tires and read a few things online with cars and bikes running them, but they would be too modern. The two-piece styrene tires are the option I like best, and I'm not too concerned with the sidewall lettering making it though the size adjusting stage, accurate or not.

 

I want to use larger diameter tires, so probably 18" up front in 1/25 scale, and 20-22" in the rear, for proportion reasons. I will have to look into the Kurtis Indy racer kit.  

 

Moon discs make wheel choices easy. 

In that era, Bonneville racers were using 15" wheels and tires on cars such as the Avanti though.  I've seen the Granitelli Avanti that was driven at Bonneville, and IIRC, the tires were 15" Firestone Champion racing tires as I have described.  

 

Art

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

 

Under late '50s / early '60s heavy cars, a good representation is the soft-rubber Firestone stock-car tires that came in the AMT slot-car sets, and in vintage AMT parts packs.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy, 02 December 2012 - 09:55 AM.

[Psychographic]

Seeing as there is very little detail in those tires, why not make them?

 

http://coffincorner....ay&thread=16508

[Casey]

In that era, Bonneville racers were using 15" wheels and tires on cars such as the Avanti though.  I've seen the Granitelli Avanti that was driven at Bonneville, and IIRC, the tires were 15" Firestone Champion racing tires as I have described.  

 

Art

 

 

I probably should've mentioned this sooner, but the tire/wheel diameter is one of the liberties I am taking with this build. The car doesn't replicate any real car, but rather what might've been in that time period, so I want the rolling stock to be proportionate to the body shell, and 15"/16" wheels and tires just won't work in this case.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I should be able to come up with something I like.

[torinobradley]

When working on mine, I got a set of wheels/tires from an old Green Hornet model. They are two piece plastic and look like this:

[Casey]

Forget all about those kits, Bradley, thanks.