I was contacted last week by a chap called Mike. Mike runs Slotzpartz, who you may have seen on ebay a thousand times. Mike is a big TCR fan and has dabbled enthusiastically with Powertrack.
He stocks lots of parts for Powertrack and holds stock of various HO/OO parts that may work for Powertrack too. Of these, the most sought after items are tyres. The tyres supplied with Powertrack are excellent. The performance is superb and they are more than just a rubber compound.
However, I think it is fair to assume Matchbox hadn't envisaged a thirty year life for these sets so it's no surprise many tyres degrade and perish, depending on where they have been stored.
I have a variety of tyres and find some have turned oily and 'melt' onto the wheel, while others dry out and crack, depending on the compound.
I tried a variety of solutions but Slotzpartz have come up trumps with these 'pre-trimmed' tyres. To put them to the test I used the worst performer in my collection, the humble yellow Escort. The video shows what happens when the tyres harden and lose traction, the car skips and stutters but ultimately doesn't go anywhere.
Fitting the Slotzpartz tyres immediately remedies the problem.
The catch? Well, only one and that depends whether you're a racer or a 'Shelf Queen' King..
The width? Not sure why it isn't possible to cut these tyre full width but I'm guessing they come in finite sizes. It means that the tyres are slimmer than the wheels which looks ok for racing, but looks rather sad for display.
Of course, common sense prevails and surely the best thing here is to race the car with the Slotz tyres and if you're really passionate about it - (and I'm not!), refit the originals for display...
