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# Dirt fights back before you even slip
- URL: https://raw-rc.com/dirt-fights-back-before-you-even-slip/
- Published: 2026-09-20T06:27:36.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-20T06:50:45.000Z
- Author: Richard Sim

On tarmac, a tire that isn't slipping isn't generating force. That's the assumption underneath essentially every road-racing tire model, and it's a good one on tarmac.

On dirt it's false. A wheel rolling across loose ground is displacing material and packing it down the entire time, which means it's being resisted before any slip happens at all. And it's not symmetric; dirt under a driving wheel behaves differently from dirt under a braking one, so the car has genuinely different characteristics on the throttle and on the brakes.

Raw R/C's off-road tire model has both of those properties built in (and a lot more!), because it was designed for dirt rather than adapted from tarmac. It's why the car bogs in the loose stuff, why it doesn't coast the way a road car does, and why the throttle is a handling control on dirt rather than just a speed control.