Thursday, September 22, 2016

Firestone tires in the 1960 Indy 500 had a cool design safety feature

Firestone tires were built with a little orange strip molded into the rubber such that when it showed up during use, it meant the tire had about two or three laps of full-speed racing before: “There would be two loud noises. First one, tire blowing and the inner tube couldn’t stand the weight and the second noise was the car banging the wall and all the crap that goes with it, which was usually fire."

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/smokey-stories-jim-rathman-60-indy-500/?wc_mid=4035:3488&wc_rid=4035:162670&_wcsid=E78D1541CFA240A17A4D1D44B7A99FB88B9AC234CCDAB80A

Do any tires have something this simple to indicate the end of useful tire life?
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7 comments:

  1. Unknown11:29 PM

    That is why now a days we had this wear indicators on tires....telling us to change tires.

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    1. Jesse7:34 AM

      right, but I was meaning something that could be spotted at a distance, and is a clear visual aid that shows that the tire is done... on a race car. A typical commuter can drive on bald, or even steel belts, for petes sake. But a race car has good rubber right up to the moment it's going to blow, and this orange stripe was a brilliant invention... and I doubt there are any tire made that way anymore.... now it's all about depth of tread indicators, and depth gauges. Even slicks have holes in the wear area, and when the rubber wears off, the bottom of the hole comes closer to the surface of the tire. When the hole is gone, so is the rubber. And there is no steel belts in a wrinkle wall slick

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  2. Burkey1:33 AM

    Yeah,
    When the steel belts are coming through.
    Its time to start saving up for new ones.

    They all do that.

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    Replies
    1. Jesse7:26 AM

      yes, the belts are a bit of an Expired indication... I meant more of a race car tire visual indication that perfectly appears when that tire is done, and a new one must go on.

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  3. Burkey4:15 PM

    Flat on the bottom?

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  4. Anonymous1:44 PM

    I was at the Unser museum in Albuquerque over the summer. They had special tires used at the Indy 500 during the 70's. The outside rim of the front tires had two small rows of treads cut at speci.fic depths. When the driver could only see one row of tread left, it was time to change tires. If he saw no tread left, he was on the cord

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