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- Aug 18, 2008
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I have been doing some reading into the subject of tyres, as I was interested in why the Bridgestones are better on Honda's than the likes of Toyos, Goodyears etc.
Soft sidewalled tyres such as the Toyo T1R, Goodyear Eagle F1 etc, allow the tyre to distribute load across the entire contact patch evenly, even at unfavourable camber angles, at the expense of transient response. This makes them ideal for use on cars equipped with McPhearson strut systems, which have crap camber compensation under compression by virtue of design. This means the wheel gains no negative camber as the outside suspension compresses in a turn, and as the car rolls outward the tyre is pushed into positive camber. Running positive camber, the outside of the tyre becomes more loaded than the inside, resulting in a net loss in grip, much the same as having one heavily loaded and one lightly loaded tyre on a given axle will produce less net grip than two equally loaded tyres. A soft sidewall tyre allows the load to be evenly distributed over the contact patch despite this positive camber, meaning better lateral grip than a hardwall tyre, which will suffer as detailed above.
Honda's however, have superior double wishbone suspension, which does have camber compensation under compression, and so the above situation is not an issue as the wheel gains negative camber in a turn to negate the positive camber gained by the outward roll. As such, the benefit of softwalled tyres even load distribution is not realised, and only the reduced transient response is noticeable. This is where the Bridgestones shine, having the hard sidewalls they can provide the same lateral grip as a softwall tyred, McPhearson equipped car thanks to the maintained camber angle, but the transient response is far improved.
So there you have it, Bridgestones rock on Hondas, and I shall be forking out the premium for some RE01Rs when my next change is due...
Soft sidewalled tyres such as the Toyo T1R, Goodyear Eagle F1 etc, allow the tyre to distribute load across the entire contact patch evenly, even at unfavourable camber angles, at the expense of transient response. This makes them ideal for use on cars equipped with McPhearson strut systems, which have crap camber compensation under compression by virtue of design. This means the wheel gains no negative camber as the outside suspension compresses in a turn, and as the car rolls outward the tyre is pushed into positive camber. Running positive camber, the outside of the tyre becomes more loaded than the inside, resulting in a net loss in grip, much the same as having one heavily loaded and one lightly loaded tyre on a given axle will produce less net grip than two equally loaded tyres. A soft sidewall tyre allows the load to be evenly distributed over the contact patch despite this positive camber, meaning better lateral grip than a hardwall tyre, which will suffer as detailed above.
Honda's however, have superior double wishbone suspension, which does have camber compensation under compression, and so the above situation is not an issue as the wheel gains negative camber in a turn to negate the positive camber gained by the outward roll. As such, the benefit of softwalled tyres even load distribution is not realised, and only the reduced transient response is noticeable. This is where the Bridgestones shine, having the hard sidewalls they can provide the same lateral grip as a softwall tyred, McPhearson equipped car thanks to the maintained camber angle, but the transient response is far improved.
So there you have it, Bridgestones rock on Hondas, and I shall be forking out the premium for some RE01Rs when my next change is due...
