O ring wheels

[Colibri]

Question. Do you think it would work if a grove was milled in the center of the tire pad and a rubber O ring was installed, would that prevent the wheel from skidding sideways and would it reduce the tire surface on the track and make the car go faster?

[ExtremePWD]

A friend of mine attempted this many years ago but he was not allowed to race with it so I don't know how well it would work. I am planning to do some analysis and testing someday to evaluate it. It's pretty far down the list right now. In theory I look at it as adding diameter to the wheel which will slow down the rotational velocity without adding a proportional amount of inertia (which is good). I would also attempt to lower the existing inertia of the base wheel as much as possible. I also theorize there could be a suspension effect that would isolate track anomalies from the body mass resulting in less energy transfer to move the body mass up and down. The downside is that the flexibility of the oring adds to the deformation component of friction. Has anyone actually run this as a controlled experiment or modelled it?

[MaxV]

The O-ring would have a higher coefficient of friction, so it would tend to slow down the car. To have any benefit, it would need to be made of a plastic comparable to the original wheel.

[Stan Pope]

The O-ring would have a higher coefficient of friction, so it would tend to slow down the car. To have any benefit, it would need to be made of a plastic comparable to the original wheel.

You are talking about "rolling friction"? ("Sliding friction" should not come into play.)

Colibri, since every local Cub Scout rule on wheels that I've seen prohibits such changes, I'd guess that this is a consideration for "open class" (adult) racing, where wheel rules allow much more creativity. And, there are much more creative solutions related to reducing bore diameter, wheel inertia, and tread width.

[Splinter Sprinter]

Question. Do you think it would work if a grove was milled in the center of the tire pad and a rubber O ring was installed, would that prevent the wheel from skidding sideways and would it reduce the tire surface on the track and make the car go faster?

If your rules allow altering the wheels you might want to consider trying the Speed V-cut wheels from Hodges Hobby House (link in Derby and Product Services). They might solve your design criteria. I used them in an adult open race and they worked well.

Caution-You will have to be dead-on with your wheel alignment, as they are not as forgiving as the regular unaltered BSA wheels. They ride on lathe cut V rail and any misalignment will cause them to steer left or right defeating the purpose. Good Luck.