Electrathon of Tampa Bay held a race weekend at Buckingham Airport in Lee County Florida, July 23-25. Six races over three days.
I was there for the Sunday races. The track is long and a bit bumpy. It is summer in Florida which means it is hot!
The first race was not too bad. Here is a 360 in car video of my fastest and last lap. Most of the race, I was doing lift and coast-lifting at 42, coasting to 39 MPH. But here the battery is almost empty so the controller is in current limit.
By the second race, it was getting really hot. The stickem on the back of our Velcro pieces were turning into liquid and falling off. I normally run these tires tubeless at 105 psi. Last time we ran here, we were running the tires at 100 PSI. As a concession to the heat, we decided to run at 80 psi. Of course, the tires have a rated maximum of 60 psi. The first 35 minutes went fine. Then...
A rear tire swap got me back on the track. My pit crew put on the used rear tire from the first race. It did not have that much tread left. By the last couple of laps, I was down to the belt and the tire was going flat. I had to use the biggest arc to get around the corners to avoid unseating the tire and drive in the middle of the track to allow for my lurches right and left. Luckily, drivers trying to repass me, were alert and managed to avoid my wanderings (though I understand this required at least one off track excursion).
Of interest to anyone running Rant Squad tires in high heat, we had a second tire fail during the race. This was a spare front tire sitting in the sun in the back of the rescue truck. Both tires failed in the same way, at the same point. It looks to me like the wire bead is not attached to itself but held by the rubber of the bead. When it gets to hot and there is pressure, the wire comes loose from the tire and the side wall rips.
You were running a Rant on the rear too?
The Budget-Beater ran 14" Rant Squads on the front at 80 psi and got through all 3 days of racing on one set. They held up better than I anticipated.
ProEV said
Aug 5, 2021
Hi Steve,
Yes, the rear was a Rant Squad tire. The Rants on the front ran both races and still looked pretty good. This makes sense since so much of the time we were just going straight. Some of the wear on the Super Coupe's rear tire was from regenning into the slow 180 turn but the wear pattern indicates that I used up the tire accelerating and turning onto the corners leading to the straights. I had very nice 'power on' oversteer.
Hi Everyone,
Electrathon of Tampa Bay held a race weekend at Buckingham Airport in Lee County Florida, July 23-25. Six races over three days.
I was there for the Sunday races. The track is long and a bit bumpy. It is summer in Florida which means it is hot!
The first race was not too bad. Here is a 360 in car video of my fastest and last lap. Most of the race, I was doing lift and coast-lifting at 42, coasting to 39 MPH. But here the battery is almost empty so the controller is in current limit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAkmjMBGC-E&pp=sAQA
By the second race, it was getting really hot. The stickem on the back of our Velcro pieces were turning into liquid and falling off. I normally run these tires tubeless at 105 psi. Last time we ran here, we were running the tires at 100 PSI. As a concession to the heat, we decided to run at 80 psi. Of course, the tires have a rated maximum of 60 psi. The first 35 minutes went fine. Then...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWQ9BUuQLIs&pp=sAQA
A rear tire swap got me back on the track. My pit crew put on the used rear tire from the first race. It did not have that much tread left. By the last couple of laps, I was down to the belt and the tire was going flat. I had to use the biggest arc to get around the corners to avoid unseating the tire and drive in the middle of the track to allow for my lurches right and left. Luckily, drivers trying to repass me, were alert and managed to avoid my wanderings (though I understand this required at least one off track excursion
).
Of interest to anyone running Rant Squad tires in high heat, we had a second tire fail during the race. This was a spare front tire sitting in the sun in the back of the rescue truck. Both tires failed in the same way, at the same point. It looks to me like the wire bead is not attached to itself but held by the rubber of the bead. When it gets to hot and there is pressure, the wire comes loose from the tire and the side wall rips.
Race tire:
Spare tire :
Hi Steve,
Yes, the rear was a Rant Squad tire. The Rants on the front ran both races and still looked pretty good. This makes sense since so much of the time we were just going straight. Some of the wear on the Super Coupe's rear tire was from regenning into the slow 180 turn but the wear pattern indicates that I used up the tire accelerating and turning onto the corners leading to the straights. I had very nice 'power on' oversteer.