TIRE SHAKE

[BillyShope]

Dragracers often complain about what they call "tire shake." Personally, I've attributed this to a resonance between a couple of the tire vibration modes, specifically: torsional and translation in "Z."

Would others concur and has anyone attempted to help a dragracer with this problem?

 

[PTwizz]

Billy,

I would certainly agree that tyre resonance is an element. From my personal observations (i.e. watching drag racers) I would suggest that virtually every part of the rear end of the car gets involved, making it difficult to calculate natural frequency of the complex system. I imagine the issue is easier to control if the vehicle has relatively small wheels attached to a heavy car, as opposed to a rail or funny car with huge tyres.
(Further conjecture): The relatively low frequencies at which tyre shake is observed suggest perhaps the mode of the tyre is eliptical distortion.
My only direct experience with a similar issue was a drag bike, with a rigid rear end, controlling tyre shake by adjusting pressure.

Pete.