Had to post this, too cool!

Duck tape?

Why, big secret Tire Rack wheels?

tire warming / cooling..stabilize

Heating the tires between runs to keep them at operating temp.

pre-warm the tires and maybe the whole chassis.

914 hovercraft

If for keeping the tires warm then the surround should be black to catch the sun! Silver would reflect any heating gain from the outside?.

Tire warming when you can't use warmers.

The car new to it is awesome too! Especially the engine controls. Very advanced. (I know the tuner.)

Thats pretty creative. Check out that transparent rear spoiler though.

Silver/black- depends on the day. If its super warm and sunny, guys will face silver out to try to control the existing tire temps and not have a gain from the sun. In cloudy or colder temps they will put black side out to try to raise temps.

Or maybe this material only came in silver, and they are doing the best they can with the insulating material at hand.

I think the great Jim Hall from Texas is at it again with a 914 sucker car. The "Chaparrals", if your to young to know Jim Hall and the Chaparrals, Google him, great read. I saw him drive many times at Road American in the sixties.

@Jamie
There is probably a heating element inside the enclosure, either individual blankets for each tire or something to heat the whole underside and you want the outside to reflect sunlight so you can better control the inside temperature.

Found this from F1 started back in 1974
Seems a better way to go!

http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/tire_warmers.html

Almost looks like it is disappearing into the ground.

Tire heating is illegal in Solo2. So no electric blankets, etc. under there. Keeping them at operating temperature is legal. There is a possibility he went with a foil sided cover vs. flat black so no one could protest that he was adding energy into the tires.

It's only there to keep the heat in the tires.
Easier and faster to string this thing around the entire car than to put individual gizmos on each tire to keep the warmth in.
Also the entire round the car thing will help keep the engine heat under the car as well (helping to keep the tires warm).

It's not illegal with PCA. or at least, it wasn't when i was still running AX on a regular basis.

There was one guy who shall remain nameless who always showed up with electric heating blankets for his car.

IMHO, that's a bit overkill.

Forgot about PCA. I should have written SCCA.

Yeahhhh, that does seem a bit much. Perhaps if you're the top of the pack?

Common practice to keep heat in.

This is just standard AC/Heating ducting insulation. We use that in my commercial build

Bob B

I found the best way to get the tires hot is make sure you roll them on all sides, maybe even get one in the air to cool it down a bit.

go faster