Veloce Raptor

http://www.automobilemag.com/feature...res/index.html

Potomac-Greg

Didn't BFG do this with track tires in the 1970s? (80s?). Except BFG had the reverse idea. This guy is building positive camber tires to run on negative camber suspensions.

AudiOn19s

I don't understand them touting them as track/ performance tires?

Street tires yes. I'd be a perfect customer as my daily driver is "In da weeds" and eats tires from camber.

Larry Herman

Very interesting idea, but I do not see how it could possibly provide any kind of tread life. Going straight down the road, it is constantly scrubbing due to the different inner & outer diameters.

Veloce Raptor

That's how you sell more tires!









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

C.J. Ichiban

if you read the full article, it's pretty convincing in regards to performance improvements but they neglect to mention that there wasn't a "regular" R compound tire to compare it to.

you have to appreciate the effort to be at least slightly innovative

Bryan Watts

According to a guy I know who worked as a BFG tire test engineer, BFG used different sidewall construction to "build-in" negative camber to it's original R1 tires in the mid to late 90's by using a stiffer spring rate on the inside sidewall than on the outside. At that time, I was just getting into track events, but they were the dominate R-compound. The "added camber" made them especially good on Showroom Stock classed cars that were camber limited due to rules restrictions.

Bryan Watts

Edit: Found an article detailing what I was explaining above about the R1's.

http://www.porschenet.com/bfgtires.html

MJR911

Shaving camber into a tire is something that has been around for awhile.

Bryan Watts

Yup, another showroom stock trick.

Potomac-Greg

Methinks we might be able to crater that guy's patent with all of this "prior art."

Seth Thomas

Yup that was the trick back in the late 90s until BFG quit making the R1 and Hoosier R2 (can't remember what it was exactly but close enough) became the fast tire. The R1 had a small amount of tread on it that was just enough to make it a DOT legal tire.

333pg333

When looking at the bottom diagram in the link I can't help but think there is a lot of stress going to be passed onto something here? Just doesn't look right. Something is under some unnatural pressure from what I can see.

bobt993

The test results really are not conclusive. The Yoks are much harder according to the wear rating and still grip close to that of the camber street tires. A better comparison and actual durability test would be needed. I would also be interested in pyrometer readings after 45min runs.

2BWise

When I was still doing FSAE Goodyear had developed an asymmetrical tire. The car always had to be setup with extra static camber to account for the asymmetry of the tire. I don't know exactly had the tire deforms compared to a symmetric tire, but it did allow us to run more static negative camber that we wanted for cornering performance without compromising as much straight line performance. The setup could be more aggressive towards cornering.

They do suck if you're trying to roll them down the hall. They steer themselves into the wall.