Thought Experiment, Hypothetical Tire Rule

Dusterbd13 wrote:

petegossett wrote: Build 2-piece wheels that work like a centrifugal clutch of sorts. Static and at low-speed, they would be narrow - so you'd have a wide tire pinched onto the narrow rim. Then at speed the halves of each wheel would spread apart, allowing the full contact patch of the tire to meet the pavement, while also lowering the ride height.

I'm not sure of the required engineering to make an air tight seal, but this is freaking genius!!!

No need to be air tight. Run an onboard compressor to constantly refil them. The volume inside is changing anyway.

Robbie wrote:

Dusterbd13 wrote:

petegossett wrote: Build 2-piece wheels that work like a centrifugal clutch of sorts. Static and at low-speed, they would be narrow - so you'd have a wide tire pinched onto the narrow rim. Then at speed the halves of each wheel would spread apart, allowing the full contact patch of the tire to meet the pavement, while also lowering the ride height.

I'm not sure of the required engineering to make an air tight seal, but this is freaking genius!!!

No need to be air tight. Run an onboard compressor to constantly refil them. The volume inside is changing anyway.

That adds unneeded mechanical systems that can fail. The easy button is to run a tube.

How about a tread section two or three inches thick that wears super fast?

In reply to DaewooOfDeath:

would the outer couple inches be soft, with a longer wearing tread down near 'bald'?

I see all of these nifty tricks being quickly destroyed by rules changes, or just have people run a spec tire- you tell them the width, they give you the tires.

Maybe this is finally a practical use for stretched tires with some sort of custom wheel/bead lock:

In reply to jstand:

I don't know what horrifies me more, the hyperstretched tire or the Nyloc sitting over an inch of exposed thread because the assembler (not "builder" or "fabricator") was too cheap/lazy to get bolts of the correct length.

Mike wrote: Not exactly what I had in mind, but, yeah, that'll do it.

if this doesnt happen then i will be disappointed

you could even add flares and its almost like you cant even see the extra rear tires

Progressive springs or helper springs.

How about taking a page from the Class 8 trucks, and having air ride bodies?

Suspension could still be tuned for handling and the body could be pushed down onto the frame by down force or lowered by adjusting the pressure on the fly.