Re: GT40 spinner

[W S Potter <wester6935@attbi.com>]

Just guessing ... but Firestone started supplying tires for Ab Jenkins'
endurance runs on the salt in the mid 1930's. There was a one year break due
to some misunderstanding but he continued to run Firestone's until his death
in 1956.  At that time they had developed and built a tire specifically for
him with the land speed record in mind.  The Firestone Bonneville tires we
are familiar with had the benefit of all those years of experience when they
were first produced.

They also had been building tires for Indy cars for many years with little
competition.  Good test bed there for the narrower tires.

My thought is that they would have been the best source for technical
expertise on salt flats tires because of that long association.  Even on the
tires used for endurance track racing (10 mile or 12 1/2 mile circumference)
there was little tread because they had tested and found that tread wasn't
the factor on the salt.  They had seen what the British "tyre" makers used
on their land speed attempt cars.  They knew the failures on every tire and
probably some shared knowledge of the way they were constructed and the
reasons for failures in that gentleman racer era.

Like Dave says, they "figured this out a long time ago."

Wes


on 9/14/02 6:28 AM, Marge and/or Dave Thomssen at mdthom@radiks.net wrote:

> As an old salt guy (not an old dirt track guy) the point of the loose wet
> salt layer on top of hard salt is RIGHT ON.  That's one of the reasons we
> see ruts.  The slurry of water and salt is far to viscous and dense for
> normal rain tires to move out of the way, while a narrow treadless tire has
> more "squish".  Bonneville tire builders such as Firestone figured this out
> a long time ago.
> Dave the Hayseedifficult, folks.

///  unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net  or try
///  http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
///  Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/land-speed
///  what is needed.  It isn't that difficult, folks.