[thechat] Nitrogen Tires?

[Bob Davis]

On Jun 14, 2004, at 7:39 AM, Luther, Ron wrote:

> As scams go (if, indeed, this *is* a scam - and I'm not saying it is - 
> yet)
> this one seems fairly innocuous to me ... as it's not all that 
> expensive.

I remember some years ago reading about a couple guys getting a car put 
together for the Silver State Classic (a race in Nevada where they 
close off a couple state highways and let cars run flat out from point 
A to point B - it's over 100 miles).  They go one at a time, and it's 
pretty safe.
( http://www.silverstateclassic.com/ )

Anyway, in addition to using some goo to help prevent tire pressure 
loss in the event of a puncture (think better quality "fix-a-flat"), 
they had filled the tires with pure Nitrogen. This was done to prevent 
changes in the tire pressure over the course of the race. Considering 
they might start in the morning, and be running at over 150mph, the 
change in tire temperature, and therefore the temperature of the gas 
inside the tire, will be high. There's also brake heat to account for - 
which is considerable.  I think it's something to do with the moisture 
in normal air.  Mostly a racer thing.

They claimed then (this might be 1990 or so) that it worked.

http://realbig.com/detomaso/2001-01/431.html

It sounds like multiple purges and fills is needed to realize the full 
benefit.  Also, forget checking your pressure and topping up at the 
filling station - the little junky pump most filling stations have now 
won't get enough pressure to eliminate the moisture from the air 
(3600psi quoted in the site above).  You'd have to carry around a 
nitrogen bottle to top your tires up. Nowhere near as cool as carrying 
around bottles of N2O to *light* your tires up!
( http://www.holley.com/nosnitrous/ )

I kind of think the car in the article DNF'd ... but not a tire problem!

bob