"CamberTire could increase MPGs, improve handling"

[z_three_two]

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/12/cambertire-could-increase-mpgs-improve-handling/

by Zach Bowman (RSS feed) on Aug 12th 2010 at 5:30PM
If you have even a passing interest in sportscars, you may have noticed something suspicious about your favorite speed machine's tires. Typically, manufactures build a certain amount of negative camber (tipping the top of a wheel inward) into the suspensions of their sportscars. This allows the tires' contact patches to grow larger under hard cornering, thereby giving the vehicle more grip at the same time. Grip is good, but negative camber has plenty of, well, negative side effects as well. For starters, the vehicle's ride is compromised and the tires are more likely to exhibit uneven wear.

An inventor by the name of John Scott may have come up with a solution that allows most of the benefits of negative camber while maintaining treadwear and safety. Scott designed a tire with a slightly larger circumference on the outer sidewall than the inner sidewall. This allows the suspension to be adjusted with plenty of negative camber while maintaining the contact patch of the tire.

Chances are that the new rubber will be a hit in the aftermarket world where getting a vehicle as low as possible often means building in plenty of camber, but Scott claims that the new tires can benefit nearly every car on the road today by offering up better handling, shorter braking and better grip compared to OE tires.

[Source: The New York Times]

Thoughts?

 

[JiujitsuDrift]

Weird, but cool. Hope it actually works. I wonder if a new sizing number would have to be introduced, how much camber the tire is SUPPOSED to have?

 

[FlyinFINN]

Fuck! That was my idea... well, throw that out the window.

 

[Piner]

I don't think it will help with handling since the tire is still going to roll over on its sidewall but it will help people get their cars hella flushed out

 

[Tonymac]

Seems like it would be counter productive as far has handling is concerned.

 

[kwkouki]

props to whoever gets that tire to balance correctly

 

[SKINNY D]

i just don't see it working in any direction for handling or for life of tires..

like how long is the inside of the tire going to last, and the handling part seems counter productive as tony said, x2 on piner... so i have thought about this before and i just don't think that it will work... definitely dis-functional for those hard parking hella fags tho!

 

[87redz13]

to me that would have the same effect as running less negative camber dont see any real benefits

 

[Choku_Dorian]

That is not going to do anything wtf...

better handling? How, lol?

Seems completely unnecesary from a 'performance' perspective, just run the right amount of camber.

illest crowd won't even be hyped since its a taller outside sidewall, which is counter-productive to wheel fitment. Only people this will help is people who drop their cars on stock sunk wheels without adjustable links.

shorter braking is the only possibility on cars with excessive dive.

Most of the people who would buy this tire wouldn't understand anything about how suspension load and contact patch actually work so this guy will probably end up a millionaire.

 

[alibaba]

i wonder how its going to work with each car running different degrees of camber,

and just like every one else says, the tires is just going to roll over
which pretty much defeats the purpose of running any negative camber

 

[IThaJokaI]

It actually has nothing to do with tire roll.

on cars with front suspension like s13s, there is no camber gain under compression. Thus you need to run a decent camber setting to help with tire planting under hard cornering. If you took away the affect of the camber, you would just cause less contact on the ground again.

Ill stick to running some camber, and dealing with uneven tire wear. Because all in all, my tires still last 20k+ miles while running 4.1* of camber to clear my wheels.

 

[Nealio]

This tire seems to be made for those who like to run an unnecessary amount of negative camber (VIP, hardparkers, etc) that get no benefit from all the negative camber, and quickly cord the inside edge of the tire. The distributed load will mean longer tire life and better handling.

 

[xs042]

if the tire has a larger outer circumference when you run negative camber wouldnt it be the same as just using a normal tire with no camber at all? correct me if im wrong but this is how i understand that

 

[s0loWkooPi]

fuck this thread other people with real problems need their shit bumped so quit bumping this shit. Want better MPG? Sell your fucking 20 year old car and get a hybrid mother fucker.