Slicks: The Sticky History of the World’s Fastest Racing Tires – There’s Way More To Them Than You Might Think
For some reason, people often underestimate the technology that goes into drag racing parts. I think it is because they think that going in a straight line is so simple. Of course these are the same people that zig zag down the dragstrip when given the chance to actually race their cars, and who never look at the data available with their EFI systems. With rare exception, nobody tunes their cars like drag racers. But let’s get back to some of that technology. In this case it is the tires, the only connection between the race car and the race track, that is up for discussion.
In the video below, Brian Lohnes is going to talk about the history and technology that has gone into drag slicks and has led to the incredible performances that drag cars are capable of today. And while slicks have changed dramatically over the years, so has all the other technology that helps make more power so it can use that tire technology. One doesn’t work without the other.
Check it out.
Video Description:
The story of drag racing is typically seen as one defined by insane horsepower. The super fuels, the massive blowers, the acceleration that is unmatched by any wheel driven vehicle on Earth. But that actually isn’t the root of the story. The real foundation of it all? Traction. And where did that come from?
It came from tire shops at first. Taking old passenger car tires and gluing more rubber on them than they were ever supposed to hold. Next it came from a genius of a man from a small town in Massacusetts who quite literally invented the scratch built drag slick. And it’s only gotten faster from there.
This is the story of the genesis of traction. Of the birth of the one thing that drag racing has relied on more than nitromethane, more than superchargers, and more than steel tubing. Slicks. The tires that make drag racing the incredible sport that it is today.
The post Slicks: The Sticky History of the World’s Fastest Racing Tires – There’s Way More To Them Than You Might Think appeared first on BangShift.com.
