The guys from Oversteer Garage posted this video of their C-Prepared Camaro attacking the autocross course at Texas A&M back in April. There are several cool aspects to the video. The first is the angle that it is shot from, which is under the car looking at the lower control arm, the anti-roll bar, and the big meaty slick tire. These look like they may be a NASCAR style tire but we’re not 100% for sure on that. Anyway, these guys really get after it and you’ll be amazed at how much lateral deflection the tires exhibit on the run. Often it seems we take for granted the incredible strain put on the things that anchor our cars to the ground in situations like this. The looser sidewall on this tire provides an exaggerated example but if you have a hard handling car or even a crummy handling car you’ll be entertained by this video.
At rest and when moving in a straight line there is plenty of clearance between the tire and all of the suspension components under the car but when things get hardcore in the turning department, that big rubber is nearly touching the springs and lower control arm. We talk about tires a lot around here when we look at drag racing videos of tire shake or other such things. This is an example of the side loads placed on these babies. Isn’t it crazy that it even stays on the rim?!
