by HO RacePro » Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:50 am
The takeaway here is that temperature is a factor. Enough of a factor that it can affect lap times by tenths of a second. Which I find a bit surprising because, though almost all physics is affected by temperature, a few degrees difference should have rather small effects.
Things that could contribute to temperature effects, however small:
- Resistance of armature windings
- Heat dissipation of motor
- Heat dissipation of tires
- Traction of tires
- Swelling/Shrinkage of tires
- Balance of tires
- Viscosity of lubricants
- Resistance of power conductors
- Contact resistance of wiring/power conductors
- Surface moisture of track and tires
- Swelling/Shrinkage of track
- Performance of controllers
- Performance of power supply
- Performance of pickup systems
- Accuracy of timing
I said could contribute, and many of these effects should be tiny to the point of being negligable. Which, again, I find hard to reconcile with tenths-of-a-second impacts on lap times. But you start with the data and work your way back to the physics.
My guess is it all comes down to tires. Just which factors make measurable impacts is open to question. It would probably not be easy to tease out which tire factors are in play, but it would be very interesting to find that out.
Ed Bianchi