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Old 05-18-2009, 09:24 AM   #11 (permalink)
CapriRacer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeroFuel View Post
capriracer you are wrong if you don't think nitrogen makes a difference in tire pressure & the effect it can have on a race car.

With the sensitive setups on today's race cars a .5lb is huge on the handling characteristics.

........
Perhaps you misunderstood my comment. The issue was if nitrogen resulted in a DIFFERENTpressure buildup than ordinary air - or more precisely, a significantly different pressure build up.

I agree that 1/2 psi will make a difference in handling that a highly skilled driver will not only be able to detect, but also exploit.

However, data that I have seen says that the differences in pressure buildup are so small that they are almost undetectable. I'll have to do a little digging, but Walter Waddell of ExxonMobil did a presentation to the California Air Resouces Board that had a temperature vs pressure graph of air filled vs nitrogen filled tires. The lines lay almost 100% on top of one another.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeroFuel View Post
........

The point of this thread is how can you get the tires to their max without a failure, nitrogen will help.
And that is where we disagree. I don't think there is any data that supports the contention that nitrogen has any significant effect on tire durability, rolling resistance, pressure buildup, etc.

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