[Major_Lee_Slow]

Well to date I've sold over 28 sets of Tire Blankets in both large and small sizes. The blankets have been purchased by people all over the US and even Canada, but I've only sold 1 set to a fellow FRRAX member/ESP competitor/friend. Well, what are the rest of you waiting for? (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/whip.gif) Maybe you'd like to hear what a few satisfied customers have had to say about them:

I got to use my MLS blankets (my wife calls them tire cozies) for the first time at the Houston Tour and they worked better than expected. When we first pulled into our grid spot after a run the tires would be around 120 degrees and after 10-15 minutes of waiting with the blankets on, they would still be 110 degrees. I won my class and the blankets helped (and no, I'm not sponsored by MLS). - Mark Sawatsky 4/6/09, SCCAfourms.com
2008 Nationals Rookie-CS Trophy winner
2009 Houston Tour-CS winner

I don't normally give away speed secrets, but I'm damn impressed with the MLS blankets I bought from Eric, and he deserves credit for a great product. Believe it or not, but I had warm rear tires between runs on Sunday and HOT fronts! There's no way my old foil over bubble wrap blankets would have done that. Plus, they didn't blow away and I could stuff all four in the Z06 without worryng about damaging them. - Steve Wynveen 4/21/09, ChicagoAutox Yahoo Group
2008 Nationals Super Stock Trophy Winner

The weather on the day Steve was referring to was 40°F and windy!


I was very impressed with the blankets. I was most worried that they would blow off of the car but they stayed put, even with a decent breeze. - Eric Tucker 4/21/09, ChicagoAutox Yahoo Group

You can order you set of tire blankets directly thru my website: www.MLSMotorRacing.com

Thanks in advance,

Eric Thompson

This post has been edited by Major_Lee_Slow: Apr 23 2009, 03:42 PM

[Major_Lee_Slow]

I've only made one set for an open wheel car and he is out in New York, and those where a custom size because the tires are too small on a CM car for the small tire blankets. However when I did my "wind test" I tested with the blankets on the car in winds up to 25 mph and I tested with blankets on the tires which were not on the car in winds up to 15 mph and the blankets stayed put.

I did another wind test yesterday at our local autocross. We had a steady 25 mph wind with gusts that were even higher and the blankets stayed in place on my car even though the wind direction relative to grid was probably the worst case scenario that a closed wheel car would see. The wind was blowing from the right rear of the car at an angle that funneled the air directly to the left rear wheel. While the blanket did "balloon" quite a bit, it never did blow off the car. I think if the wind speed had increased another 5 to 10 mph I would have had to put my air tank in front of this blanket. Note at these wind speeds I am pretty sure I'd turn into a human kite and cones tend to have a hard time staying in place.

Note between runs I just wadded up my blankets and put them in a big plastic tote (I didn't even put the lid on) and they were still there when I came back in. It would take more than 25 mph to blow them away once they are off the car. The weight of each blanket is 3-4 lbs.

I have considered doing a light colored Non-insulated tire blanket to keep the sun load off of the tires, but a quick google search showed that there were plenty of options out there already for a tire "Sun shade" Apparently Sun load is a real issue for the drag racers. However, my tire blankets will block 100% of the sun due to the fact that there are two layers of material which are coated on the inside to make them water proof and then of course there is the insulation layer. Yes the color black will cause the external layer to heat up, the heat will not transfer to the inside layer, so it will keep an already cool tire cool. In this "mode" it works just like a soft beverage cooler.

Also, I saw a couple articles in Grassroots where they were measuring tire temperature relative to lateral grip on a skid pad as well as tire temp vs. run time. They managed to get a set of A6's up to the 180'ish range and didn't see a significant reduction in lateral grip. If i remember correctly their best runs were when the tires were in the 160'ish range. Note tire temps were taken at the end of the run with a prob type pyrometer. I found this to be very interesting so I spoke with Hoosier about tire temps on the A6's. Apparently Hoosier's testing also is in alignment with these findings and they are flat out flabbergasted that some folks use water on their tires. However, one has to make the appropriate tire pressure adjustments as the tire temp goes up or else the side wall is too soft. (hence the reason for hot vs cold tire temps (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )

Here's another fun data point. Yesterday we had 82°F with 25 mph winds. It rained in the morning, but by the afternoon we basically had a dry track. I used tire blankets between runs, Brian and Bea Regannie did not. While I did not beat Brian or Bea, I was 0.02 within beating Bea and with 1.0 second of Brian on a 52.XXX second course. Now on the surface that doesn't sound too impressive, but if you know how well Brian and Bea both drive (Both former National Champs) and if you knew how much more I have to learn/improve, you would be impressed. Typically I'm 2.0 seconds off Brian, so this is an all time best for me. I attribute it to the fact that I could attack the first turn and slalom faster because my tires will still warm, vs. Brian and Bea (and yes they are a 2 driver car but we run split heats). Brian's best time was his re-run where he only had to wait 5 mins between runs so he got to go out on nice hot tires.

The best data point of them all (at least for me). At the two day evo school we typically did 7 to 9 back to back runs with no more than 2 to 3 mins between runs on a 75 degree day. Note once did I feel like the tires were getting greasy. Even after Danny Pop ran my car! There was also no evidence of any heat blistering on my tires.

So in summary, I think Hoosier can take alot more heat than we give them credit for, and I'll probably use my blankets all summer long. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)


Sorry for the long post, but when I start yapping about my blankets I just can't shut up sometimes. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/lmao.gif)