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? 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

I'm waiting for the next two rounds of layoffs to pass

yep...i still have mine =)

Have you had a chance to try them out yet/

Have you tested the blankets in hot sun, and have you thought about making a batch with lighter/reflective fabric for summer use? I'm asking because of a local novice with a Miata-based "Locost" Seven who spent yesterday rolling his car back and forth a foot or so to keep the tires from frying. Our weather just snapped form 50's and low 60's to sunny mid 80's overnight. Have you tested the blankets on an open-wheel car in wind?

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 )

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.


Sorry for the long post, but when I start yapping about my blankets I just can't shut up sometimes.

Well, Eric, you can add me to the list of ESP guys with your blankets. I just ordered mine a few minutes ago. Hopefully they can get here before my next event on Monday (Mem Day)!

I'm not sure ifyou can tell by my posts, but we did meet and talk once at last year's Milwaukee Tour. I belive I was checking out your harness bar. My wife and I run a red '99 Z28.

Does it count that it was my car Mark was using his tire cozies on?

Applejack I know/knew exactly who you are when I received your order last night and it's pretty cool that you figured out who I am LOL! Were you able to duplicate the harness bar? I gotta say I love mine and I wouldn't trade it for the world... well maybe the world.

poSSum, ok we'll count you in too.

So that makes 3 very cool, oops I mean hot, FRRAX members

Eric, thanks for the quick shipping. I'm really a bit shocked!

I ordered at 9:30 Monday night and you dropped them off at FedEx an hour later. I just got an e-mail (Wed at noon) that they're delivered! And here I was worried about not having them for our Solo on Monday!

The harness bar is getting closer to the top of my list. I need to collect some spare parts to try and make a slight modification to how yours is layed out.

I recognized your car from the banner on your webpage.

It's all about the customer service and applying Lean principles to everything I do. I bet you can't wait to get home from work to check them out.

I did a small test of this yesterday. It wasn't really hot (mid-60's), but one side of my car was in the sun while I went to do my course walks. I put an MLS cover on the front and left the rear tire exposed. When I returned from the course walk the outer edge of the rear tire (in the sun) was 15 degrees hotter than the outer edge of the covered front tire (as measured with a probe type pyrometer). FWIW, I did the same on the side in shade (from the car body) and there was no difference in tire temp.

My conclusion: The layer of insulation dominates and keeps the heat form the sun off the tires. I don't think they would significantly benefit from having the outer material a different color.

Jason, thanks for independently verifying the insulating properties of the Tire Blankets and posting it up here. The tire blanket's material does not care if the heat source is on the outside or the inside of the blanket, they will reduce the convection rate of heat in either direction.

So what did you think of the performance of the Tire Blankets ability to keep your tires warm between runs?

I am attempting to collect data on heat cycles vs. durometer. I theorize that by using the tire blankets after every run (even the last run of the morning) I am slowing the cooling rate of the tire which may reduce the effects of heat cycling. My control data is not ideal so it will be difficult to come to any to solid conclusions.

Anther use for Tire blankets, UV Protection: I always keep my tire blankets over the tires even at home per Hoosier's recommendation to minimize the tires' exposure to UV.

Unfortunately I couldn't use them due to the grid format at our site (Belle Isle, Detroit). I'd only driven there as a two driver and I could normally do it, but my co-driver couldn't make it out yesterday. We had kind of a rolling grid, so I had to move every 3-5 minutes. I was pretty bummed. Maybe this weekend in Oscoda.

Here's our site:
The course area is obvious. The smaller block is paddock. The thin strip is grid which is actually two cars wide.


It might be small, but the view is pretty incredible!

From my experience with motorcycles, your theory is sound. Guys who have been doing track day events (where there can be ~45 minutes-1 hour between runs) for a long time say that their tires last a good bit longer (as in - numbers of heats before they get too heat cycled) when using tire warmers, to where the $$ break even point happened quite quickly..

So it sounds like I'm on the right track, I'm just not sure how I can prove it with unquestionable data in a cost effective manner.

So Jason, did you get a chance to use Tire Blankets this last weekend?

They work on more than just tires!!

Awesome! ROFL!

Yes I did. Overall I was happy with them and on a 60 degree day I had temps around 110 by my last run as a single driver. When I would pull the bag back to set my pressures a nice wave of heat (probably mostly from the brakes) hits you. It's nice that the wind isn't taking all of that away.

Oh I forget to mention, you may only use them when were not directly competing at the same event. Same goes for you Crouse.

I'm glad you are happy with them. I know that it's made me dread taking first runs on a cold day because the added level of grip available after the tires are warm is totally better.

I'll be at Peru Tour this weekend so if your there come by say "Hi" and if you want I can show you the tire blankets. But please note I can't sell them at Peru (Damn Tax laws), if you want to buy them on site please visit Solotime. however if you order them ahead of time via my website I can deliver them.