How about a little walk into my world for a minute or two. Tires are the one thing that can make or break how a car handles. It has about five to six inches per corner that actually touch the ground. You hear of "beads" of the tire melting, that is the part of the tire that seats up to the wheel giving it a seal in which air won't escape. It is reinforced with steel bands. Once the rubber gets heated it causes the bead to get weak and BLAM! NASCAR tires on tracks a mile or more in length usually will have a "tire" within a tire. What it basically is , is a liner inflated with air(nitrogen in racing and some modern cars) to serve as a back up if a tire fails. Once the tire is flat, the inner liner allows the car to make it back to the pits with out damaging the car any further and helping to keep the driver from crashing. First developed in 1966 it is amazing it is the one thing NASCAR hasn't tried to change. That is a little insight to keep your rubber from rupturing.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Well Now
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4 comments:
What did you do exactly, TireDawg, to know all this stuff and become, well...TireDawg! Great post, by the way! I love learning new technical things about racing, because I admit I'm a bit stupid when it comes to mechanical stuff.
Oh that is really interesting...something I never knew...cool!
and who was brave enuff to go out and develop this?
I just bought 2 new tires yesterday. The threads were starting to show and I had a dead battery, so I finally got tires while I was at it.
I must say, it does feel better to drive now and should pass state inspection later this month now! And they look nice with all that tread! Yep, I'm such a girl sometimes.
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