Physics of Racing - Part 2: Keeping Your Tires Stuck to the Ground

Part 2: Keeping Your Tires Stuck to the Ground

By: Brian Beckman

In last month's article, we explained the physics behind weight transfer. That is, we explained why braking shifts weight to the front of the car, accelerating shifts weight to the rear, and cornering shifts weight to the outside of a curve.

Weight transfer is a side-effect of the tires keeping the car from flipping over during maneuvers. We found out that a one "gee" braking maneuver in our 3200 pound example car causes 640 pounds to transfer from the rear tires to the front tires. The explanations were given directly in terms of Newton's fundamental laws of nature.

This month, we investigate what causes tires to stay stuck and what causes them to break away and slide. We will find out that you can make a tire slide either by pushing too hard on it or by causing weight to transfer off the tire by your control inputs of throttle, brakes, and steering. Conversely, you can cause a sliding tire to stick again by pushing less hard on it or by transferring weight to it. The rest of this article explains all this in term of (you guessed it) physics.

This knowledge, coupled with a good "instinct" for weight transfer, can help a driver predict the consequences of all his or her actions and develop good instincts for staying out of trouble, getting out of trouble when it comes, and driving consistently at ten tenths.

It is said of Tazio Nuvolari, one of the greatest racing drivers ever, that he knew at all times while driving the weight on each of the four tires to within a few pounds. He could think, while driving, how the loads would change if he lifted off the throttle or turned the wheel a little more, for example. His knowledge of the physics of racing enabled him to make tiny, accurate adjustments to suit every circumstance, and perhaps to make these adjustments better than his competitors. Of course, he had a very fast brain and phenomenal reflexes, too.

I am going to ask you to do a few physics "lab" experiments with me to investigate tire adhesion. You can actually do them, or you can just follow along in your imagination. First, get a tire and wheel off your car. If you are a serious autocrosser, you probably have a few loose sets in your garage. You can do the experiments with a heavy box or some object that is easier to handle than a tire, but the numbers you get won't apply directly to tires, although the principles we investigate will apply.

Weigh yourself both holding the wheel and not holding it on a bathroom scale. The difference is the weight of the tire and wheel assembly. In my case, it is 50 pounds (it would be a lot less if I had those $3000 Jongbloed wheels! Any sponsors reading?). Now put the wheel on the ground or on a table and push sideways with your hand against the tire until it slides. When you push it, push down low near the point where the tire touches the ground so it doesn't tip over.

The question is, how hard did you have to push to make the tire slide? You can find out by putting the bathroom scale between your hand and the tire when you push. This procedure doesn't give a very accurate reading of the force you need to make the tire slide, but it gives a rough estimate. In my case, on the concrete walkway in front of my house, I had to push with 85 pounds of force (my neighbors don't bother staring at me any more; they're used to my strange antics). On my linoleum kitchen floor, I only had to push with 60 pounds (but my wife does stare at me when I do this stuff in the house). What do these numbers mean?

They mean that, on concrete, my tire gave me 85/50 = 1.70 gees of sideways resistance before sliding. On a linoleum race course (ahem!), I would only be able to get 60/50 = 1.20G. We have directly experienced the physics of grip with our bare hands. The fact that the tire resists sliding, up to a point, is called the grip phenomenon. If you could view<

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