Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight braking?

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g-force_addict
g-force_addict
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Joined: 18 May 2011, 00:56

Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight braking?

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Pretty much like dragster wrinkle wall tires do
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Would these lower tire pressures also work in the front tires for straight line braking?
Assuming suspension geometry allows minimal or no camber change during diving to retain its full contact patch size?

Jersey Tom
Jersey Tom
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Location: Huntersville, NC

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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Would these lower tire pressures also work in the front tires for straight line braking?
Ask yourself this first... when was the last time you saw an F1 car lock the wheels in straight line braking? There's so much downforce that you're limited by the size of the brakes - not longitudinal braking traction (at least that's my understanding for typical behavior).
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ubrben
ubrben
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Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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Montreal FP2, it was f***ing cold... ;-) But typically no...

Ben
Last edited by ubrben on 10 Jan 2014, 23:26, edited 1 time in total.

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Holm86
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Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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They help dragsters get grip by being elastic in the load direction. You definitely wouldn't want that when braking.

olefud
olefud
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Joined: 13 Mar 2011, 00:10
Location: Boulder, Colorado USA

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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The wrinkle wall tires also provide an effectively smaller OD off the line with the tire OD growing with RPM and accompanying centrifugal force -a rudimentary CV transmission.

riff_raff
riff_raff
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Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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Actually, low tire inflation pressures might improve braking performance. The lower inflation pressures would increase the elasticity of the structural load path between the brake rotor and the tire contact patch, which would increase the margin between traction and sliding at the tire contact under braking. On the other hand, acceleration would be worse due to increased rolling losses in the tire.
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Tommy Cookers
Tommy Cookers
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Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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olefud wrote:The wrinkle wall tires also provide an effectively smaller OD off the line with the tire OD growing with RPM and accompanying centrifugal force -a rudimentary CV transmission.
there has been a view that the tyre circumference is the same whatever the shape of the tyre (eg whether inflated or flat) ?
ie the revs/mile (hence 'gearing') is the same whatever the shape of the tyre

Jersey Tom
Jersey Tom
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Location: Huntersville, NC

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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riff_raff wrote:On the other hand, acceleration would be worse due to increased rolling losses in the tire.
I dunno about that. When you're talking about getting getting good power down and traction off the corner - how often is anyone talking about rolling resistance? Getting to throttle earlier is where it's at. (Whether or not "lower" inflation pressure gives that to you is debatable).
Grip is a four letter word. All opinions are my own and not those of current or previous employers.

Lycoming
Lycoming
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Joined: 25 Aug 2011, 22:58

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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I only ever hear rolling resistance discussed when the available power is very, very, very small, ie. supermilage vehicles (3.5 hp), solar cars (2-3 hp) and streamlined bicycles (.5 hp).

The magnitude of the forces involved with rolling resistance are quite small when you have as much power as a dragster or F1 car.

marcush.
marcush.
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Joined: 09 Mar 2004, 16:55

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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olefud wrote:The wrinkle wall tires also provide an effectively smaller OD off the line with the tire OD growing with RPM and accompanying centrifugal force -a rudimentary CV transmission.
maybe not a different od but surely a reduced distance from hub centre to road ...as the Diameter of the wheel cannot really decrease the result is an elongated footprint..combined with shorter finaldrive?

PhillipM
PhillipM
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Joined: 16 May 2011, 15:18
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Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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Lycoming wrote:I only ever hear rolling resistance discussed when the available power is very, very, very small, ie. supermilage vehicles (3.5 hp), solar cars (2-3 hp) and streamlined bicycles (.5 hp).

The magnitude of the forces involved with rolling resistance are quite small when you have as much power as a dragster or F1 car.
It's damned high for rally/dakar cars!

theTTshark
theTTshark
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Joined: 19 Jul 2013, 07:19

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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It depends on the tire, and the only way to see if it responds to lower pressures is to either stick it on a tire testing machine or do repeatable track testing. Do some tires like lower pressures? Yes. Do some tires like higher pressures? Yes. People will have examples of both.

PhillipM
PhillipM
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Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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The trend for F1 for quite some time has been to run them so low the manufacturers have had to try to stop them from doing it on some occasions...

Luke
Luke
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Joined: 07 Nov 2013, 07:32

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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Tommy Cookers wrote:
olefud wrote:The wrinkle wall tires also provide an effectively smaller OD off the line with the tire OD growing with RPM and accompanying centrifugal force -a rudimentary CV transmission.
there has been a view that the tyre circumference is the same whatever the shape of the tyre (eg whether inflated or flat) ?
ie the revs/mile (hence 'gearing') is the same whatever the shape of the tyre
unloaded maybe, but tyres don't stay round when vertical load is applied. the tread in contact with the ground flattens out and so the effective radius is reduced. The difference between the unloaded radius and the effective radius (which isn't the same as the loaded radius you can measure statically) is dependent on the tyre construction.

the tyre tread speed changes as it goes from the fastest at the top of the tyre (approx unloaded radius) to the slowest approx middle of contact patch. so actually neither top not bottom of the tyre is traveling at the same speed as the centre of the axle.

drag racing tyres on top fuel/doorslammer cars have hugely different effective radii from static to initial "hit" of the tyre to spinning at full speed.

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Pierce89
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Joined: 21 Oct 2009, 18:38

Re: Lower tire pressures improve acceleration/ straight brak

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But as TC said, the circumference doesn't change. Take a circle squash into an oval, the radius changes but the circumference doesn't. It's debatable whether a squashed actually effects gearing or not.
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