Mistakes Not To Make #2
[ September 3rd, 2008 ] By: Charles Smith Posted in » Tips and Tricks
Mistakes in racing range from forgetting to secure a piece of paper in the cockpit which turns into an annoyance, to turning the wrong direction with the end result ending up in a tree. Consequences vary but some can be quite serious. One of which can end your race day is forgetting to properly inflate your tires. While this may seem like a no brainer to you, many people, who are not quite as vigilant as you, neglect their tires.
Tire pressure affects the only things that should be touching the ground on your car: the tires. Low pressure, while it may have increased traction it wears faster. High pressure might rob you of the traction you need and causes faster wear because there is a smaller contact patch. But there is a lot more that can go wrong:
- Debeading - Tire debeadings are a pretty bad event for your wheel. The tire’s bead becomes disconnected from the wheel and all the pressure is lost in one violent event. The tire then tends to get shredded up by the surface (especially at higher speeds) and comes off of the wheel. Steel/aluminum wheels don’t have so much traction on surfaces other than rails meant for them. Try to avoid this.
- Money Spent - As a privateer, spending money is on my mind when it comes to racing. Tires are expensive. But there are ways to make them last multiple events (especially in Rally), but improper inflation makes them wear way too fast for that.
- Crashes - While not separate from the money issue (cars cost even more than tires), expecting more traction than your over-inflated tires can offer will result in fighting the car. Fighting the car will fatigue you fast and increase your chances of making a silly mistake like understeering into a guardrail (or spectator! ONOES!)
So take some time to think about your tire pressures. If you know what you’re doing you might even run slightly lower or higher pressures than “ideal” side-to-side or front-to-back. If its a short enough race you might drop the pressure a tad to gain some traction but still last the race in tire wear. So dont forget to think about your tire pressures and the oh so important tire they’re related to. This even matters on your road car!
