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53 How can I tell the characteristics of a tire by just looking at it?




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This article is from the VW Performance FAQ, by with numerous contributions by Jan Vandenbrande others.

53 How can I tell the characteristics of a tire by just looking at it?

A:This is not easy, but there are a few things you can tell
just by looking at the tread pattern. Most performance
dry street tires will have lots of big solid blocks (or
almost no pattern at all, such as in slick racing tires,
see A008). On some tires these blocks vary in size and
that's mostly done to reduce certain noise harmonics.
Directional or assymetric tires will have block patterns
that are oriented in a particular way and that differ
accross the width of the tire (typically you can infer
the tire's direction of rotation on these tires, e.g.,
the new line of P0, RE71).

To make these tires more drivable on wet roads, you will
see one or more big channels along the circumference to
funnel water away. Goodyear now markets this technology
heavily, though Continental now claims they invented it
first.

To make tires behave under slippery conditions (snow,
mud, ice), they will have small squigly cuts called
"brushes" within the major tire blocks. (Obviously I am
neglecting the tire compound here that is probably more
important than the tread pattern).

Most quality tires are made from a "segmented mold" which
means that you will see mold marks running accross the
width of the tread (othogonal to the direction of
rotation). "Budget" tires still use old style molds where
you have the whole tire made in two halves and you will
see a mold line running along in the center of the tread.

The shape of tires also differs between manufacturers.
Some tires have a square cross section: |__| (e.g.,
Pirelli P600) while others use more rounding towards the
tread: (__) (e.g., Michelin MXV). It's unclear which is
better. The square profiles assumes that the tire is
stiff enough not to flex too much, while the rounder
profile assume that the tire will roll sideways under
hard cornering and therefore these tires often have tread
patterns on the side of the tires. It's unclear which
works better in reality (though the above two examples
should be used for comparison).


 

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