[Mr Modifier]

The stiff braid that comes with Scalextric and Carrera cars is awful - too stiff and too thick and actually wears more as a result.

Softer braids seem to last better on our club track (technical Sport track with one long straight - 20 metres and 7-9 seconds to lap).

The make of the soft braids seems to be fairly irrelevant.

Tinned copper wears less than pure copper.  Tin is harder but stiffer.  For digital systems that carry the signal through the rails there is a theory that tinned braids carry a cleaner signal because high frequency tends to the outer edge of a wire and coated copper will pit (corrode) and create signal interference.

I can’t confirm or deny that the theory has a real-world impact but I do know that the tinned high thread count braid I ordered is very close to the legendary SCX rally braid and it works very well which is just as well because I bought a huge reel of it!

Those of us who do well at the club use tinned soft braids but then we do all the other tuning stuff that the slower guys don’t.  No way of telling the impact the braids have on their own but every little tweak adds a little margin and all the little margins add up to a tenth or two per lap.