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Re: Tire warmup area.

To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Tire warmup area.
From: "Ed Koffeman" <edk@kinetric.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 08:42:46 -0500
> At the Pro Solo in Topeka, a 10 foot long area designated by cones was used
> to do a burn out prior to the run.  I think this type thing would also be a
> good idea in Solo II.  It would give a person without a 2 driver car at least
> some heat in the driven tires.  It would make the first part of the run
> relatively safer from cold tire spins.
> What does everyone else think?

I wouldn't like to see that.

a. Solo II already has an untimed portion of the run before the timing lights 
where people can theoretically already trade off
wheelspin for heat vs ultimate accelerative grip to some extent.

b. The Pro Solo events always need a portion of the course where a large amount 
of wheelspin can be expected and presumably the lot
owner will tolerate it or it is deemed strong enough to withstand the abuse.  
The launch is very important to the run times, so
there's a focus on clean warm tires. In Solo II because you typically don't 
need to launch as hard to get that last .001 the
pavement doesn't suffer the same abuse.

c. Cold tires at the start of a run are part of the challenge of Solo II.  
Increase the time between co-driven runs to 10 minutes if
you want to make it more even.

d. You might get into a situation where the really competitive people (there 
are always one or two of us who actually look at our
times and want to win<g>) will go to more extremes to warm the tires.  I think 
this will lead to noise and smoke problems, as well
as severe damage to any asphalt if anybody sits in one spot.  People will have 
to eventually weigh the cost of doing a burnout (lot
problems, tire cost, etc.) against faster runs, and I think that will take away 
from the sport.

Ed Koffeman

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