What
are Tire Insulators?
During
development of our Tire Blankets we learned that between runs not only
do we loose heat from our tires to the air, the tires also loose heat
to the cold hard concrete or asphalt.
Since there
is no way to completely wrap the entire tire with our Tire Blankets
(without putting the car on jack stands) we had to find another way.
We needed to find a material which met the following three
criteria:
1.
The
material had to provide enough insulation so that tires would still be
warm after 15 mins. on a 50° day
2.
It
needed to be durable, after all cars were going to drive over
it.
3.
It has
to be cost effective. (NASA
Space Shuttle Tiles were a little
too pricey.)
We were able to meet all
three of our design goals. Our material
actually reduces the rate of which heat is transferred from the tires
to
the concrete by over 95%. We tested the Tire
Insulators on a 50° F day with tires that started out
at 130°F. After
15 minutes the tire that was sitting on the Tire Insulators was 20°F
warmer than the tire that was sitting on the concrete.
Our
material is also very durable. Not only could it easily
support
the load of our Camaro, but could also handle repeated abuse from our
2.5 ton truck. The price for 4 Tire Insulators is definitely
within reach of the
average autocrosser.
How
do the Tire Insulators Work?
We've all touched cold metal and cold concrete with our bare hands or
feet and
we've felt how these materials just suck the heat right out of our
bodies. The same thing happens to our tires when we sit in
grid.
Why is that? Well it due to the thermal resistance
of the materials.
Materials like metal and concrete have low thermal
resistance. They are very good at absorbing the heat energy
from the air and from the sun, or from our tires. The MLS
Motor Racing Tire Insulators have a high thermal resistance which slows
heat
transfer.
Other
Material Results:
Phenolic
materials are commonly used as carburetor spacers to
isolate the carburetor from the hot intake manifold. They are
the material of choice for this job due to their very high melt
temperatures. Because of this, Phenolics were the
first materials we tested. We learned that these materials
are
very brittle.
The first time we drove our Camaro onto a Phenolic plate, it
just
cracked in half. Second, we found that even though pehenolics
have a very high melt temperature, there were materials with better
insulating properties.
Why not just use wood? First
off, our material provides better insulation than kiln dried
wood. Second as soon as wood absorbs any moisture from the
atmosphere, its thermal resistance decreases. Water does a
really good job of absorbing heat. Therefore if you use wood
you could actually be accelerating the cooling process of your tires.
We
tested over 25 different materials to arrive at our final choice.
It meets all of our design goals which will insure that you
will
be very happy with its durability, its effectiveness and its price. MLS Motor Racing
Tire
Insulators keeps the heat where it belongs, in the tires.
Sizes
and Price
Each Insulator is 12
inches long by 12 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick
Each Insulator Set includes 4 insulators.
which is big enough to accommodate 325/30ZR18 Hoosier A6's
Larger
sizes can be special
ordered, just contact us for pricing and
timing
| Tire Insulators (P/N MLSTI001A) |
$39.99 |
|
|
