Didn't quite understand Mr Andersons analysis of the alleged sharp kerb issue, surely on a right hand bend the right hand side of the car would be over the kerb with the car sliding towards the left and the right hand tyres could contact the sharp kerb, with the left hand tyres still on the tarmac track, from what I saw it was the left hand tyres that exploded.
I believe he was referring to kerbing on the left, Ernie. If, in apexing a left-hander, a driver takes too much kerb, a left tyre may go too far left! Before the tyre comes back to the track, it has to go over this kerb again (unless a driver chooses to delay his return until there is no kerb). The 'returning' tyre will be moving back to the track in a rightward direction, first contacting the kerb again with its right edge. The height of the 'saw-tooth' shaped kerbs â which are used at virtually all circuits, although not necessarily every corner â is low but it is also vertical, meaning that any tyre crossing back to the track must first negotiate a square edge. (Imagine running across the sharp corner of an inverted capital ' L ') If, at the point of contact, a tyre is too weak to cope with this violent and localised loading*, it will tend to be cut in the manner witnessed this weekend because that part of the tyre is suddenly exposed to massive frictional forces to its sidewall as it rotates. *Bear in mind that cornering at racing speed makes a lateral demand upon the tyres, requires it to cope with slipping sideways to some extent, and that this side-slip is greater on the low friction surface which sits outside the track boundary.
Cosi, yes, I've figured it out following the my previous post, cheers mate. I blaming the mid-day Pimm's of course.
