Before Tire Companies Made Tires For Drag Racing, Drag Racers Had To Get Creative

In 1952, nan superb Rod & Custom mag writer Roger Huntington did immoderate mathematics to fig retired nan quickest imaginable quarter-mile time drag racers would ever achieve: Just 9.1 seconds astatine 166 mph. He has since been proved wrong, of course, but arsenic a personnel of nan Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), it's not arsenic if Huntington was incapable to understand nan capabilities of resistance cars and nan exertion involved. His prediction was based connected a thorough knowing of 1 of nan astir basal ingredients for maximizing acceleration: tires.

At nan time, assuming a traction coefficient of 1.0 G was perfectly logical, arsenic that's each nan tires were tin of. There was nary PJ1 Trackbite, nary Goodyear resistance slicks pinch sidewalls that wrinkled for illustration Shar Pei skin, and surely nary tires wide capable to shroud your mean home's h2o heater from apical to bottom. In that era, tires were skinny, hard, and came pinch zig-zag treads that wounded traction astatine nan strip.

The existent correction that Huntington made wasn't failing to relationship for then-non-existent stickier tires, but underestimating nan lengths group will spell for eventual speed. One celebrated maneuver successful nan early '50s was simply carving distant tyre treads to create a flat, moreover surface. This led to incredibly uneven thicknesses of difficult rubber astir nan cords, though, truthful past resistance racers turned to having tires retreaded, aliases "recapped." An early root for recapped tires was Arizona's Bite By Bruce aliases Inglewood Tire Sales, which would wrap tires successful much uniform, higher-quality slick rubber. But moreover without sipes aliases grooves successful nan road-grabbing part, location was still nan problem of unyielding tyre compounds.

According to resistance racing pioneer Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen, resistance racers tried wiping down tires pinch gasoline to soften nan rubber anterior to a launch. Everyone knew difficult tires were a hindrance, but racers were stuck pinch what was available. Worse, nan stiff "piecrust" shoulders that widened nan tread pursuing nan recapping process made nan tyre floor plan excessively square, and nether launch, nan shoulders were nan only parts of nan tyre that would bite. McEwen went to activity recontouring his tires to springiness them nan bulged-in-the-middle style slicks person today, making nan tires grip passim nan width of nan tread surface. But what resistance racers really needed were gooier rubber compounds. 

Then came Marvin Rifchin, a banal car racing enthusiast who figured poor-performing recapped tires should spell extinct. He was moving for Denman Rubber successful nan mid 1950s, and managed to person his leader to return a rider car tyre mold, portion disconnected its treads, and move successful soft oval way racing rubber. The consequence was truthful effective, Marvin collaborated pinch his father, Harry, to shape M&H tires. Starting successful 1957, nan M&H Racemaster was nan first bespoke resistance racing tyre pinch decently soft rubber.

There were still respective problems, though. The first was width. Even M&H's dedicated resistance racing tyre only had a tread width of 6.5 inches when they first appeared. Drag racers specified arsenic Top Gas' Eddie Hill and his twin-engined Double Dragon doubled up rear tires for added traction, truthful M&H and different manufacturers specified arsenic Firestone responded pinch 10-inch-plus tread widths. Hoosier moreover debuted a 12-incher. Second, tires were slipping connected nan wheels, truthful sandblasting nan soul rims and/or gluing tyre beads became common. Clamping tires to rims pinch beadlocks fixed that, too.

With bulging-middle slick-surfaced treads, sticky compounds, widened interaction patches, and firm-grabbing rims, resistance racing tires were coming into their own. But, location was still room for improvement. Possibly nan astir visually captivating advancement was Goodyear's "wrinkle wall" tires first offered successful 1964.

Upon introduction, nan Goodyear racing slicks were only 10 inches wide, but it's really they responded erstwhile nan powerfulness surged done them that was a revelation. By utilizing strategically placed nylon plies that numbered betwixt 2 and six, Goodyear's slicks could deform nan sidewalls to flatten nan tread and create a monolithic interaction patch, particularly astatine debased pressures (as debased arsenic six psi), yet beryllium beardown capable to withstand nan immense twisting forces for aggregate races.

Once tires became nan inflated gumballs they needed to be, racers turned their attraction to nan way itself. The first constituent they tried applying was rosin, meaning nan "who needs rosin?" circles of violinists, shot pitchers, and 1960s resistance racers comprises nan thinnest overlap of immoderate Venn sketch ever. By tossing rosin successful beforehand of nan tires, past doing a burnout aliases barren hop, nan rosin would power up and let nan tires to stick. Plus, dry-hopping looked perfectly sick:

The quest for stickiness wouldn't extremity pinch rosin, though. Somehow, personification recovered that NASA's precocious somesthesia coating manufactured by Sperex was cleanable for making resistance strips truthful viscous that they could propulsion your shoes off. So, successful 1972, Sperex's VHT explanation began producing PJ1 Track Bite, and nan acceleration puzzle was complete. With wide, soft, grippy tires and glue-coated tracks, nan acceleration warfare took off, and now Brittany Force tin deed 341.85 miles per hour astatine nan resistance strip. Roger Huntington would beryllium proud.