NASCAR has millions of fans and has been captivating its fans for decades. Cars drive bumper to bumper at 200 miles an hour around a track, taunting death with nerves of steel. Evidently, that was too boring for some race fans. They got tired of watching cars drive 500 miles by making left turns or something. Their response? Drifting. A whole new and more dangerous breed of racing was born. In a nutshell, a car races by spinning its tires around a jigsaw puzzle of a track, never going in a straight line. It takes a special kind of nut to race like this. How does drifting affect a car’s tires? Read on to find out.

What is Drifting?

Drifting is a kind of driving, or racing, where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing the car’s tires, usually the rear, to lose their grip on the road. The driver is still able to maintain control of the car while entering and exiting a turn by counter steering. Counter steering is turning the wheel in the direction you want it to go, but as the car responds, you turn the wheel back the other direction. This counter steer is in anticipation of the car coming back to the other direction. Think of it as being one move ahead of the car to keep it on the track. When you drift you are making a turn at too high a speed, resulting in the rear tires losing their grip. It results in the over-rotation of the tires in the direction of the turn, sending them into a spin. You can compensate for the over-rotation of the rear tires by turning the front wheels in the opposite direction. The driver has limited control of the car in this state, but it’s enough to keep the car on a path.

What Does Drifting Do to Tires?

Specialized drifting tires exist, and they are designed with this kind of driving in mind. They have shallow, almost bald tread patterns with wide grooves, strong midribs, and hard vulcanized rubber the gives durability and strength. Normal street tires are driftable, but they can fail and don’t offer the performance needed to drift competitively. When drifting, the tires are constantly spinning and leaving rubber on every inch of the track. With every rotation, the tire gets smaller and weaker. If you want to know how drifting affects a car’s tires, all you have to do is look at the track –it’s coated in rubber. Drifting destroys tires and shortens the life span of tires to an afternoon. If it’s a hobby you want to pursue, then find a good place to buy tires for cheap, like RNR Tire Express. After you burn yours up, replace your tires with some cheap tires in Spartanburg, SC from RNR Tire Express. We have quality tires that won’t blow out after laying a patch.