The racing car tyres companies involved in manufacturing products like Yokohama, Bridgestone, and Goodyear, invests thousands of dollars every year in the research and development for the crafting of highest standard products. Firestone first introduced the racing tyres and after that this premium car component has undergone immense evolution regarding design and performance. Here is a write-up exclusively for the car lovers dealing with the differences between the standard car tyres and the racing tyres.
Table of Contents
Materials
The material of standard car tyres is usually a durable form of rubber with heavy steel or Kevlar-plated radial plies. The racing tyres on the other hand are lightweight and made to withstand strong force. The material of racing tyres is mostly a blend of remarkably soft nylon and polyester rubber fortified in a complicated weave pattern which helps in negotiating the massive force of the car. There is also a dual layer of particulate carbon on the tyres. It provides the best possible grip on the racing track and can remain functional even at very high temperatures.
Force
Regular tyres cannot endure a lot of pressure. On the other hand, the racing tyres are specially constructed keeping in mind the ability to negotiate high air resistance and massive force.
Speed
The standard automobile tyre manufacturers are more concerned with the durability of the tyres, giving less significance to the speed of the cars. It is not the case of racing tyres. Here the automobile travels at a speed of up to 375 kilometres per hour, so aerodynamics play a significant role in designing these tyres.
Tread
The tread in automobile tyres helps to maintain contact with the road. In most of the cases, a typical car tyre starts its life with 8 millimetres of tread, and renowned tyres manufacturers recommend changing the tyres when the tread reduces to 2 millimetres. In the 1960s and 70s, the racing tyre manufacturers came up with a unique design or unthreaded or “slick tyres”. It increases the surface area in contact with the racing track and maximises traction. It helps in the steering and applying of breaks especially in oval and round tracks. However, curbing the cornering speeds became a problem with the slick tyres, so the companies reintroduced grooved tyres in the 1990s.
The new tyres had at least 2.55 millimetres deep grooves spaced 50 millimetres apart. It posed another problem of reintroduction of harder rubber compounds as it was difficult to construct the indentations using a soft synthetic rubber. In 2009 there were some changes in the aerodynamics rules in Formula One for keeping cornering speeds under control, and slick tyres again made a comeback in this period.
Inflation by Nitrogen
The racers usually fill their racing tyres with nitrogen instead of air as there is a lesser possibility of nitrogen migrating from the rubber surface and the pressure remain stable for a long duration. The pressure inside a nitrogen tyre remains intact even if the temperature increases.
Source: TyreCafe