DS Racing Competition III Slick Drift Tires (4) (LF-1)

As the person who actually convinced Amain to stock DS Racing products, it’s very special to be the first review for these tires, the official spec tire for USDC 2021 (specifically, this LF-5 compound).

First impressions are that they look and feel like the Yokomo DRC. The appearance is very similar to Tamiya’s Super Driftech tires but they drive WAAAY better! I will say though that based on DS Racing’s own chart, the LF-5T will work for driving on p-tile. However, it’s important to also consider what type of surface you’ll be racing on as the wrong compound will give you awful results and/or cause you to prematurely wear out your tires. PLEASE REFERENCE THE DS RACING TIRE COMPOUND CHART AND SPEC YOUR TIRES CAREFULLY ACCORDING TO THE SURFACE(S) YOU PLAN TO DRIVE ON!!!

While DS Racing says it’s a 25mm wide tire, it certainly looks a little smaller, almost 24mm like the aforementioned Tamiya tire. When fitting them to DS Racing’s own Drift Element wheels, these tires produced a “hellaflush” fitment due to the wheels being wider.

My driving impressions of these tires are that… they’ve really exceeded my expectations! I have various drift tires from various makes (MST, Yokomo, Rêve D, Tamiya, Amazon) and these are some of the most unique I’ve driven on so far! The tires don’t require any real sort of “break-in” period, if at all. The tires performed well right out of the bag and stayed consistent from first corner to the end of my session two hours later! Grip is MUCH higher than Yokomo’s DR-C and to some extent the DR-P and even Rêve D’s AS-01! My car handled well on the LF-5 and seemed to like it as much as the Yokomo DR-P. See my review for the Yokomo DR-P for more info.

While fitting these up, I did experience some hang-ups. See my review for the Drift Element “Triple Black with Silver Rivets” wheels for more info.

One tip for fitting them up is to use a tire installer like the MST Universal Drift Tire Remover/Installer tool and a wax candle to lubricate the wheel and installer. It makes installing these tires onto DS Racing’s own Drift Element wheels that much easier!

In closing, I was very excited to try these tires out on my next outing. Shout out to Brett and the rest of the team at Amain for taking the time to even consider reading my YouTube comment and helping to bring this brand to the US for all the RC drift enthusiasts here.

*EDIT: I have since run these tires and this review has been modified to reflect those changes.

I have a very smooth asphalt driveway which I drift with Rwd Yokomos. Compared to Yokomo's older asphalt and more recent DRC wheels, these DS Racing LF-5T tires are more hard and slick. With these tires, when the trailing front wheel breaks traction it does so much more slowly and softly. The result is that instead of a sudden increase in rotation that has to be counteracted, the trailing front wheel beginning to slide is now something that falls within my abilities to control. Focusing on the lead and trail front tires in a drift, it's like being able to drive a motorcycle drifting its rear tire. The car drives on smooth asphalt so slickly that it can sling around corners in ways I've only seen on polished floors. I tried several and this is the first set that has wowed me enough to leave a review. Hope they keep making these! And they included foam mounting tape which worked great!

Very good wheels thank you ??....................