What Is The Best Surface For RC Drifting?
When you start RC drifting, one of the most important parts is WHAT surface you drift on.
THE RC DRIFT CAR
We started RC drifting because it’s a fun way to learn the fundamentals without breaking the bank on a real drift car. We’ll be covering the following different surfaces:
Concrete Surface
Polished Concrete Surface
We purchased an MST RMX RTR (ready-to-run) RC Drift car which is great for beginners looking to start RC drifting. As soon as we took the MST RMX out of the box we dropped it right onto our outdoor concrete pad and started drifting. The MST RMX drifts great, but we quickly discovered concrete wasn’t the best surface to drift on.
The outdoor concrete pad is very rough, like sandpaper. Unfortunately, the rear RC drift plastic slicks lasted about 25 minutes before they started to fall apart. So the first thing you’ll need to find when starting to RC drift is a good smooth surface.
MST RMX Drift Tires on Outdoor Concrete Pad
RC DRIFTING FLOOR OPTIONS
So we moved from outdoor drifting to inside the garage. Most garages have a smooth surface to resist soaking up liquids. The smoother surface also makes cleaning much easier. Drifting on the non sandpaper like garage floor worked much better and our drift tyres lasted much longer. One thing that’s even better than a regular garage floor is a polished concrete garage floor. Similar to what you see in some grocery stores.
If you don’t have a garage or if your garage floor has a rough surface don’t worry.
MST RMX RTR Drift Car On Garage Floor Surface
The next option for RC drifting would be purchasing a polyester indoor/outdoor rug. The rug is great because it can be laid on top of any type of solid flooring like concrete or even asphalt.
Once you’re done, just roll it up or leave it in place if its the outdoor type. We found some 6-foot by 10-foot rug from Amazon. You could get more than one and make your track even bigger.
The third option if you don’t have a nice flat surface for a rug then another great option are garage floor anti-fatigue foam tile mats. The slightly smoother side with the design seems to work better than the foamy side. The foamy side has too much grip, which won’t allow you to drift.
We bought a few packs of 25” by 25” Anti-Fatigue Foam Mat Sets from Harbor Freight and put together a 6 square by 8 square section. You can also find the foam mats on Amazon too. This made for the perfect size RC drift skid pad that we could take with us to any event too.
If you’re brave enough to RC drift on rough concrete or asphalt there is one more option, make your own 3d printed RC Drift tires. We made some solid 3d printed ABS drift tires which surprisingly worked pretty well. Check em out below:
And if you’re interested in the best RC drift car check out our top 3 RC drift cars here.
