Tire questions

[JennyC6]

I've got an AE NTC3 that, for nearly 8 years now, has been a faithful...if perhaps not intended to be...rally car for me. What I've done to it so far:

* Lifted it as high as the stock suspension will allow(And as I type this I have a set of 4 GPM 70mm shocks in the mail to lift it further and soften its ride somewhat)

* Fitted Tamiya x-block rally tires on HPI NASCAR rims, 0mm offset

* Fitted a '78 El-Camino shell

* Fitted an OS 18 CV-RX in place of the anemic(And in my case cooked) AE 15. Still using the stock tuned pipe and 20%N16%O basher blend fuel. Sidewinder, to be precise.


I'm starting to get bored of the el-cam shell, and it's starting to fail besides, with a crack forming from the peaks of the front fenders and extending into the hood area. I'm already fairly certain on where I'll go with it(Probably a '78 Trans Am body from HPI if I can find one for sale somewhere, and I'll make some proper snowflake wheel facsimilies with some gold paint and white rims of a similar pattern), but the tires are hanging me up a bit.


I've got nothing against these X-block tires, and indeed, they bite into loose surfaces like no tomorrow. I can wail on the carb and it takes off like a damn shot, throwing rooster tails behind it(At least until the shell catches the dirt, haha), takes off like a rocketship on rails. Corners pretty good on dirt, too. Even snow poses no challenge to these tires, only stopping the car when it packs in beneath the chassis deep enough to lift them off the ground entirely. The ones I've got have plenty of tread and I'm not going to discard them. However, on dry pavement I can't even use half throttle without this thing spinning all four of its tires helplessly, and the only saving grace is the tractability of that engine allowing me to just use less throttle until they do bite in. Regardless of how careful I am, second gear is an instant four wheel burnout, and as such I can't even really max this thing out on flat ground.

These Tamiya rally tires have zero traction on pavement, and that's been my only gripe with them since day one.

I'm wondering what ya'll suggest that'll give me good all-around bite, that will still work well in the loose stuff but afford me enough grip on pavement that I can reliably hit second gear without skittering arse first into the ditch every time. I'm looking heavily at HPI Pirelli rally tires, they're also available in standard 26mm wide TC sizing, in two compounds no less.

If you're wondering, no, I don't actually race it. I built it because I wanted to have a rally car to bash around in my back yard and on my driveway. Competition legality is not a concern for me. Quality is, but not competition.