wheel size issues

[1212FBGS]

head first is hard... the sensation of speed is higher and it is hard to get a good line of sight with a helmet on. Jack, nick, and mike McCarty are the only racers that have been successful over 140mph. toes first is best but your shoulders "must" be above your butt or it really affects your balance.
kent

[hotrod]

Related to the "plowing salt" comment, what if any experience have folks had building the car such that it has a skid pad to take the load and slide smoothly on the salt if a tire completely comes apart of goes flat enough to risk serious chassis, body contact with the surface. I would think the hazard of tripping the car on a dragging suspension part would be a very bad thing at speed, much better to have a smooth pad to ride on the salt if you lost a wheel/tire assembly.

(granted losing pieces is not a good idea in the first place but just thinking about  planning for a safe build, such failures need to be in the "what if column". I would think such a skid pad could do double duty as a jack point etc. )

Larry

[JackD]

When diesel trucks started going so fast, they had a front tire problem and the safety measure they used was a ski type device.
It was mounted at a suitable height to take the load if a tire failed.
It was inside the track width and steered with the front tire.
I saw the aftermath of a blow out and the ski save his bacon.
 With a larger contact patch, it made less of a mark on the track than the tire did at normal inflation pressure. 

"Something old is new again if you never saw it before." (me)

[Sumner]

When diesel trucks started going so fast, they had a front tire problem and the safety measure they used was a ski type device.
It was mounted at a suitable height to take the load if a tire failed.
It was inside the track width and steered with the front tire.
I saw the aftermath of a blow out and the ski save his bacon.
 With a larger contact patch, it made less of a mark on the track than the tire did at normal inflation pressure. 

"Something old is new again if you never saw it before." (me)

Until Carl went to the plane tires I think the skids came into play on almost every run.  I use to try and figure out what it must of felt like knowing that as soon as you exceeded 200 you probably were going to blow a front tire and that was just a normal part of the run.  Carl was one of a small group that have gone were some of us will never venture.  Thanks for the memories Carl, Al, Don, Tom, Nolan and the rest of that small group  .

c ya,

Sum

[Dr Goggles]

Related to the "plowing salt" comment, what if any experience have folks had building the car such that it has a skid pad to take the load and slide smoothly on the salt if a tire completely comes apart of goes flat enough to risk serious chassis, body contact with the surface. I would think the hazard of tripping the car on a dragging suspension part would be a very bad thing at speed, much better to have a smooth pad to ride on the salt if you lost a wheel/tire assembly.

(granted losing pieces is not a good idea in the first place but just thinking about  planning for a safe build, such failures need to be in the "what if column". I would think such a skid pad could do double duty as a jack point etc. )

Larry

The bottom of our belly-tank is perfectly flat(5mm Steel) and this scenario was what I had in mind. Sometimes we're just too smart for our own good. When the former chief steward of our club who has a home built tank that's run over 200 in F/BL saw it and I explained about the bottom he looked at me in a curious way and said "without suspension and with such a rigid chassis you're gonna have to do two tyres on one side or one axle to bottom out otherwise this thing'll just carry a wheel"....he went on to say that he'd "done " a tyre at 200 with little discomfort and that we, in ours might barely notice hmmmmm