[robains]

Contact probe for real time data acquisition of tire temps?? Not sure I follow you?

The problem with using contact probes is the car has to be stationary and in the pits, the tires will cool too much and will not be representative of what the tire is actually doing on track. This IMHO is far less accurate that using real time infrared probes.

I agree that infrared sensors are not as accurate, but they are not so far off - and there benefit of real time data logging can show you the range of across the tire while driving on track -- the actual accuracy of the temp is not as meaningful as being able to monitor/log the relative change in temps across the tire during cornering.

The biggest challenge is mounting the sensors (at least for front).