Somehow it seems my car doesn't achieve its best performance until I've turned a few laps.
I was just running my Thunderslot -- which has its stock tires -- and dang if after ten or a dozen laps my lap time gets consistently better by a couple tenths of a second.
I've noticed this before, quite often, with different cars and tires, and I've wondered just what is going on. I've a few theories:
1) It's not the car, its me. I just need a few laps before my driving dials in.
2) It's the car, but not the tires. Something needs to warm up -- maybe the motor -- before the car reaches peak performance.
3) It's the tires. The surface of the tires gets warmer and more grippy, due to friction, after a minute or two of running.
4) It's the tires, but not their temperature. A bit of abrasion 'activates' the rubber, producing more grip.
I've actually tried measuring the temperature of the tires after some running, using a contact-less infrared thermometer. I've never seen good evidence that the tires have heated up. But physics tells us they must do. Maybe not enough to make a difference. Or maybe they cool off too fast for me to measure a difference.
That business about 'activating' the rubber may be more likely than it sounds. There is such a thing as the 'surface energy' of a material, which can be measured, and is important when it comes to adhesives and printing. To get ink to stick to some plastics, like polyethylene or polypropylene, you need to increase their surface energy. That can be done by briefly exposing the surface of the plastic to a flame, or an electrical corona discharge. Raising the surface energy of plastics only works for a while. A day or two later that added surface energy will be lost. But if you do it right on the printing machine it works really well.
Does something like that happen to rubber when you scuff it around a track? Magic 8-Ball says, "Reply hazy. Ask again later."
I have tried scuffing tires on an emery board to improve grip by exposing fresh rubber. Seems to maybe work, but don't quote me on that.
So what actually is happening during those first few laps? Enquiring minds want to know.
Ed Bianchi
I was just running my Thunderslot -- which has its stock tires -- and dang if after ten or a dozen laps my lap time gets consistently better by a couple tenths of a second.
I've noticed this before, quite often, with different cars and tires, and I've wondered just what is going on. I've a few theories:
1) It's not the car, its me. I just need a few laps before my driving dials in.
2) It's the car, but not the tires. Something needs to warm up -- maybe the motor -- before the car reaches peak performance.
3) It's the tires. The surface of the tires gets warmer and more grippy, due to friction, after a minute or two of running.
4) It's the tires, but not their temperature. A bit of abrasion 'activates' the rubber, producing more grip.
I've actually tried measuring the temperature of the tires after some running, using a contact-less infrared thermometer. I've never seen good evidence that the tires have heated up. But physics tells us they must do. Maybe not enough to make a difference. Or maybe they cool off too fast for me to measure a difference.
That business about 'activating' the rubber may be more likely than it sounds. There is such a thing as the 'surface energy' of a material, which can be measured, and is important when it comes to adhesives and printing. To get ink to stick to some plastics, like polyethylene or polypropylene, you need to increase their surface energy. That can be done by briefly exposing the surface of the plastic to a flame, or an electrical corona discharge. Raising the surface energy of plastics only works for a while. A day or two later that added surface energy will be lost. But if you do it right on the printing machine it works really well.
Does something like that happen to rubber when you scuff it around a track? Magic 8-Ball says, "Reply hazy. Ask again later."
I have tried scuffing tires on an emery board to improve grip by exposing fresh rubber. Seems to maybe work, but don't quote me on that.
So what actually is happening during those first few laps? Enquiring minds want to know.
Ed Bianchi
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