What's the best way to end the life of a set of tires? If you have the mind of a fully grown child, a good burnout is the way to go.
We all know that you're going to heat up the brakes and tires when you're playing these foolish games. But do you know just how much heat you're creating? Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained does because he's still playing with that $55,000 FLIR thermal camera.
Luckily for us, Jason's engineering brain also has a bit of a childish streak and he's putting that thermal camera to use to watch a set of tires expire.
Using his Honda S2000 as a test subject, Jason points the FLIR camera at the rear tires of his yellow sports car. In just five seconds, the temperature goes from 19 degrees Celsius up to over 160 degrees Celsius. That's a massive jump in temperature and the contract patches of the tires are burning white hot through the imagery captured by that camera.
Jason experiments with different air pressures to see if that has an effect and notes that on one side at least the tire heats up more quickly on the inside due to misalignment.
The camera shows that the brakes heat up as well. This isn't surprising given that you have to modulate the brakes when you're doing a brake stand. Well, unless you've gone ahead and installed a line lock, but that would be a bit weird for a Honda S2000 unless you plan to use it as a drag car (and who would?).
Another interesting part of the video is the split screen showing the actual action with the FLIR footage. Smoke from the burnout blocks normal vision, but the FLIR camera sees right through that and captures the thermal radiation. It's a great example of how useful a FLIR camera can be for finding sources of heat.
Science and childishness. A great combination. Now Jason can get some better tires for his S2000.
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