Heating up street tires

[hemihead]

After seeing what happened to WANTED and having the same thing happen to me on cold tires it seems you are most at risk when you first start out on your trip. We all know on the drag strip you warm up tires with a big smoky burnout and at the track it's done by swerving back and forth during warm up laps. Typically neither of these methods make much sense for street driving. How much street driving time does it take to consider your tires properly warmed to do a little spirited driving or in case you are forced into an evasive maneuver? Does anybody have any good tips for warming up street tires for street driving?

 

[Paul Hawker]

It is mostly track tires that need to be up to temp before sticking well. Huge difference between cold and hot performance.

For street tires the difference is much smaller. You can do a little wig wag staying in your lane to give them a little heat, and yourself a bit of confidence.

Unless road is really tight and curvey, they will not pick up a lot of heat anyways.

Biggest danger is when the temp is below 50º. Even street tires get slippery at those temps.

 

[Red Shift]

The wig wag warmup is garbage. Looks cool though.

Hard acceleration and braking deforms the tire to warm it up.

 

[SkyBob]

The wig wag warmup is garbage. Looks cool though.

Hard acceleration and braking deforms the tire to warm it up.

It is deformation that warms up the tire and not friction between the tire and ground, which would happen with the "wig wag warmup"?

When I rub my hands together I don't think they get deformed but they do warm up.

Bob

 

[alpine7822]

The "wig wag" during pace laps of racing is mainly to "scrubb off" any debris that may have stuck to a warm tire. The best way to heat up a tire is to drive it (the faster you drive, the faster it heats up). If you ever watch a TPMS while driving, you'll see the pressures rise more quickly on the highway than on surface streets. Also, sustained driving will heat them up faster as well. Stop and go gives them a chance to cool, but not much.

 

[Nyoka]

My experience with my '08 Coupe with PS2s is that one needs both warm asphalt and warm tires; one without the other is a recipe for disaster. Hawker is right: any outside temp below 50F warrants careful attention - my car will skate in third, even when not accelerating forcefully. I took the car out 3 weeks ago to shake the dust off in a Toronto/Montreal round trip. Weather was overcast, temps in the low 40's. After 2 hours on the road, I assumed tires were up to temp but a casual passing maneuver and a little too much gas had the rear end dancing: road itself was obviously still too cold.

This past weekend - bright sun, temp just over 50F - after an hour the car would bite enough to drive reasonably hard (gradual gas, 5,000 RPM shifts) as roads were warming up throughout the day. First gear is always a challenge (hot or cold). However, two attempts to WOT 2nd, then third, resulted in excessive tail wagging. (I'm happy to report that I had no problem WOT in 4th.)

WOT runs will have to wait for first track day of the year (April 11).

 

[Blazeone]

The "wig wag" during pace laps of racing is mainly to "scrubb off" any debris that may have stuck to a warm tire. The best way to heat up a tire is to drive it (the faster you drive, the faster it heats up). If you ever watch a TPMS while driving, you'll see the pressures rise more quickly on the highway than on surface streets. Also, sustained driving will heat them up faster as well. Stop and go gives them a chance to cool, but not much.

We have a winner weaving is only done to scrubb off balls of rubber aka marbles that accumulate off the racing line.

 

[alpine7822]

We have a winner weaving is only done to scrubb off balls of rubber aka marbles that accumulate off the racing line.

Oh boy! What's my prize?

 

[JonB]

The wig wag warmup is garbage. Looks cool though.

Hard acceleration and braking deforms the tire to warm it up.

RedShift is 100% correct. Tread squirm, (deformation) while friction loading/unloading tread and sidewalls creates the heat. Wig-Wagging (scrubbing) cool tires on public roads in a misguided effort to warm tires has higher risk than the cool tires alone !

Just read Alpine Mike as well... all good factual advice.

Scrubbing: If you dont have marbles built up, or cleaned em by scrubbing, and cannot accel/decel to build heat, (becasue you are in a restart-line for example) SCRUBBING will help maintain existing heat, but not develop much additional heat...

FORMULA ONE: Those guys scrub like maniacs, slipping and sliding on the verge of loss of control. They are almost 'drifting' and so the wheel slip maintains good heat of their PRE-HEATED tires, but its CRAZY!

 

[RTTTTed]

If it worries you buy a Tire Pressure Monitor System for $180-220. My Hella gives trie pressures and temps of all incividual tires as well as warning if I lose air pressure.

Ted

 

[alpine7822]

Just read Alpine Mike as well... all good factual advice.

Thank you, sir, for the validation! Always welcome!

 

[ROCKET62]

You mean you guys dont start the day like this to warm up the tires? (I tried to find a picture of Nadine's burnout, and this one was pretty good as well.)