Wow, just watched an Indy car do donuts at work.

Chris Landi · **Joined:** Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:31 pm **Posts:** 579

The Cheever Red Bull race team came to my work place to do some live demos for us. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did LIVE pit stop exhibitions as well as a few small laps, complete with celebritory donuts at the end....the wheel smoking kind. Lots of their specs are secret but the car weighs somewhere around 1554 lbs and has somewhere around 700-800 HP.
14.5 Inch Firestone tires with an incredibly sticky compound (we were able to touch the car). Firestone is secretive about the compound..the team gives them wheels on race day and Firestone returns them with tires mounted. Process is reversed at the end of they day and the team leaves with just the wheels. Each tire is barcoded and kept track of. Cool industrial espionage must run rampant within this sport! They sported Alcon brakes with build in temp guages. All neat stuff. Cool demo. Extremely loud...we were about 20 feet away from the 'lap' area.

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

When a tire blows, do they have a rep in the safety truck picking up the rubber?

Chris Landi · **Joined:** Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:31 pm **Posts:** 579

I asked the same question. What they can salvage, they do. The pit guy stated that the sidewalls WILL NOT break bead so they must attempt to design in some level of salvage.

I has asked about sidewall stiffness because they run anywhere from 20psi to 44psi or so. He could not, or would not, divulge details on the sidewall strength or design.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:47 pm

That is awesome Chris. Where do you work? And most importantly, did anyone get any video or pics that you can post?

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:25 pm

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/te ... 1988c.html

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Wow, just watched an Indy car do donuts at work.

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