I was wondering what the purpose is for shaving your tires down at the track? Ive heard of people doing this but I havent an idea why someone would do this. Dont you get better traction with having tires that are not almost bald and have lots of tread?

 

It only applies for special tires designed for racing and designed to allow for shaving. The traction compound will go down below the tread level on these tires. The main reason that normal bald tires suck is that below the tread depth the carcass compound is no good for traction.



You will get the best traction on dry asphalt with a full slick tire with no tread whatsoever.



There are a few reasons to shave a tire designed for it, lightness and to prevent overheating are two important reasons. Sometimes the same tire would work well as a rain tire without being shaved, but best on dry surfaces shaved.



Usually the reason the tire doesn't come pre-shaved, or without the tread molded on in the first place has to do with getting DOT approval for the tire while there is tread (to make it legal for certain types of competition), but the true purpose of the tire would be as a slick or semi slick racing tire.

 

If there was a teeny flat spot or out of round funkiness would they also potentially salvage a tire by shaving it round?



The opposite of shaving tires is also amazing: Cutting treads into a slick. See if you can find a video of it, it's worth seeing. Siping with a razor or slicing machine is also pretty crazy to watch the first few times.

 

I suppose you could save a tire with a flat spot.

 

I do that a night, alone in the dark naked in the garage. Sometimes I open the garage door....

 

The best way to save a flat spotted tyre is to keep doing handbrake turns until all the flat spots average out into something resembling a circle again.

 

I tried that with my bicycle when I was a boy. It wore down to the threads all the way around, then my dad switched the tires front-to-back and the second one also wore down to the threads. I really don't think that's the right thing to do for race tires on a car.