Tire Shake

Scotty Mac, good start, but I think the helmet-to-head distance would not be very much so the foam would not be very thick.

Maybe enclosing the helmet area in the cage with the foam which would dampen the forces exerted to the head area might be better. The encloser would be of varying stiffness from hard at the cage mount area to very soft at the helmet area, sort of like a cocoon for the helmet.

This cocoon would severely restrict head movement in all directions so adjustment to driver controls would be probably needed.

 

Gee, I thought the discussion was about tire shake, not the wall, the chutes or whatever else.

Drivers injuries during tire shake is normally a blunt head trauma from the helmet hitting the sides of the cage during the tire shake cycle.

Tire shake can cause head injuries and how can it be avoided, I think that is the discussion.

 

My memory might be a little screwed up on this, but didn't Jim Plumber (sp) die of a brain hemorrhage or aneurysm after severe shake at OCIR back in the early 70's? I seem to remember he just coasted off the track and was already gone when they got to him.

Several years ago Kenny Moores had a terrible crash in his TA/FC at Bakersfield where he went through the Armco guardrailing and then hit the I beam that holds up the scoreboard up in the right lane. A few years later he died of a brain aneurysm. There was some spectulation that the crash either caused the aneurysm or he was "lucky" that hemorrhaging in his brain didn't happen when he crashed. He was on a ladder washing his mototrhome when he died.

RIP, Kenny.

RG

 

From Competition Plus.com

Severe tire vibration, and not the impact of the low angle crash against a retaining wall, is being blamed in the death of Funny Car driver Eric Medlen, according to the Houston Chronicle. The report says that is what was told to NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series drivers and crew chiefs in a meeting Friday morning. The report also claimed that the accident was blamed initially on a tire blowout, but investigative findings point to the extreme tire vibration caused by an unknown source or sources led to Medlen's head trauma and the tire blowout.

"It was some type of harmonics; the tire didn't fail," Funny Car driver Ron Capps told the Houston Chronicle. "It was a a big deal to hear from John (Force). It gave closure to a lot of us, knowing exactly what happened."

 

My 1 ½ cents worth. This is actually something I know about. Your brain is like an egg yoke inside an egg shell. It doesn’t matter how much you pad the egg inside the carton, when you shake the hell out of it the yoke still bangs around inside against the shell. The helmet padding isn’t going to protect your brain or stem. The only way to keep your yoke from slamming against the inside of your pumpkin is to prevent the head from shaking. But don’t forget your kidneys, heart, and liver don’t like the crap shook out of them either. Its just they aren’t confined to a hard shell and can move more. In deceleration injuries many people die from the separation of the ligament which attaches to your aortic arch being ripped from the aorta leaving a hole that lets you bleed out internally (especially us older folk.) Ultimately, no matter what caused it, we all die from lack of perfusion to the organs. I hope this makes sense as it is written in non-medical terms!

 

Are the bead-locks responsible for this?
Tire pops but doesn’t come free from rim-
Wheel is still turning extremely fast RPM’s.
Result = severe vibration
I have been wondering this since day one.

 

I remember in the late 70's and early 80's it was common for a period of time that fuel drivers would pass out due to tire shake. I can't remember now who went into the sand trap passed out. Maybe more that one.
I remember many melted pistons in those days which I am sure also contributed to tire shake running on less cylinders.
Different times in those days. No blower restraints. Clutch's pitched in the stands at Seattle. Amazing the sport survived.

 

Randy,
Since your memory is good enough to be screwed up in the right direction...( it was Jim Plummer from Oregon) yes he did die of an anurism, hemmorage or what ever the term of the day was. Had a memorial award @ Bakersfield for years afterwards...The lay down cars were very hard on many in top fuel.
Now help me with my "screwed" up memory, wasn't there a national dragster article in the early '80's on goodyear tires and at that time, they didn't feel they could do a tire for much over 300 mph???? and we started talking about speed limits,
I swear, I read that years ago,
I could be dreaming, Halucinating or something
See you down the path,
Hal

 

since we have a lot of tire shake experience going on here - i have a question from a driver's perspective - is their a difference of tire shake between a dragster and a funny car? in other words which type of vehicle has worse tire shake? i can only speak from a dragster point of view and know what tire shake can do to both the driver and the dragster. how about some who has driven both vehicles throwing in their .02 worth.

 

If a wheel stud broke at the hub and came out of the wheel and ended up inside the rim,what kind of vibration would occur at 300 mph?

 

I can only tell you from a previous experience back when I used to drive my TA/FC. I was racing at the Texas Motorplex back in 1996 which was the first year I ran a screw blower. We were trying some stuff to see if we could take it to the shift light in low year (no one was able to back then). Anyway, it was a night time qualifying session. I experienced tire shake a thousand times before, but this was incredible. It shook so hard it broke the rear end, screwed up the transmission, broke a bunch of dzus tab brackets off the frame, almost knocked the steering box off the frame, bent the driveshaft, screwed up the clutch stands, and the list goes on. I don't even remember driving it off the track and the guys thought I was mumbling more than I normally do for about 15 minutes after I got out of the car. My helmet had marks all over it from every direction which was amazing to me.

I think as far as driver experience goes, funny car tireshake is much more extreme because you have your butt parked between the rear tires verses a dragster where you have 6-10 feet of chassis to eat up the sin waves. Sort of like being closer to the epicenter of an earthquake.

RG

 

Dragster vs. Funnycar Shake

Also I believe that a funnycar chassis is a lot stiffer. In a dragster, the shake fells more like waves and seems to blow off the tires faster. The funnycar ether fuel or alcohol seen to go farther before spinning the tires. I have been in both a dragster and a funnycar, the funnycar was worse.

 

well i will give you a little secret, i have the tire. but they only made one so i am going to race my uni-cycle...............

 

anyone reading this i am not being negative so please don't remove this or yell at me... but i think it is time we ask "ELI" to s**t or get off the pot. just answer me this one question and don't lie......
"WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE EITHER A DRIVER OR ON A FULL TIME TEAM"? AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT PART TIME CRAP YOU DID WITH YOUR BROTHER... I MEAN WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME SOMEONE RELIED ON YOU AS A FULL TIME CREW MEMEBER? YOU ALONG WITH AFRO'S STAYED IN THE 70'S BUDDY.ONCE THEY CAME OUT WITH THE COMPUTER YOUR WHEELS FELL OFF.. YOU DO A LOT OF TALKING ON HERE,BUT NEVER AT THE STARTING LINE ARE YOU?

 

AFTER ALL THIS TIME YOU STILL THINK I AM YOUR KID? YOU REALLY ARE A WEIRDO.. YOU WILL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH WHO I AM,, AND BY THE WAY YOU NEVER ANSWERED THE QUESTION AT HAND!!!!!!. WHEN IS THE LAST TIME SOMEONE NEEDED YOU ON THEIR TEAM????
AND ONE LAST THING HOW CAN YOU SAY YOUR KID "EMBARRASS" YOU, IS IT BECAUSE HE WAS ABLE TO DO WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO DO.....WITH OUT YOUR HELP,, I THINK IT IS TIME YOU READ THE BOARD INSTEAD OF LEAVING "FAKE WORDS OF WISDOM" AND TO EVERYONE ELSE THIS IS MY LAST POST. JUST HATE FAKE PEOPLE.. EVERYONE ELSE HAVE A GREAT RACE SEASON.... ELI HAVE FUN WATCHING LIKE USUAL

 

wow, that is a low blow, anyways i am done with this subject. but the door comming off the car was due to tire shake... please don't even respond to this cause i will not answer, it is over........................

 

Randy:
I was there at OCIR, standing behind the water box when Plummer took his last pass. The car shook, about an average type of shake, less than 100 feet off the line, and then idled downtrack. It seemed strange at the time that Plummer slowly crossed the centerline and ran over the lights then off the end of the track, still idling. He was taken to a hospital in a coma and two weeks later died from a brain anuerism. I doubt he ever went over 50 MPH during that run.
Over on Frank Oglesbys' board, there was a discussion as to the severity of shake, Funny Car versus Dragster. Some thought the FC deal was more severe due to the fact the driver is right in the epicenter of the shake, while the dragster guys were somewhat isolated, due to the distance from the epicenter. I can't speak of a FC shake, but the several alcohol dragsters I drove would mix it up pretty well. I never got knocked out, but buckled wings, broke motor plates and the like. Not news to most of you here....
Henry

 

henry i have been behind some cars that had tire shake so bad, my head hurt. after reading that the guy went into a coma and died 2 weeks later is really sad to hear. we are all out there just trying to have some fun.