GM High-Tech Performance Blogs
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Just when you thought there was nothing new or interesting in tire technology
It is no secret that negative camber will help your car handle like a go-kart. However, unless you are in a Corvette it can often be difficult to put in more than one degree, and even if you can it is not necessarily street friendly as it decreases tire life. Enter the SCOTT Cambertire: Camber tire technology is based on a simple concept. Vehicle suspensions operate in way that during cornering the geometry changes so that a tire no longer sits flat on the surface of the road. The Camber tire concept is that during cornering and maneuvering the vehicles suspension is allowed to act in a normal way, but the tire remains in complete contact with the tarmac. Having a greater tire contact patch allows for more grip. In result, vehicles are
able to corner faster, safer, while experiencing less uneven tire wear.
Camber tire technology is able to be applied to every day applications as well as sport and track use. Vehicles equipped with more camber from the factory often experience inner tire wear. Using a Camber tire on vehicles like this will increase tire life as well as handling.
On the track, Camber tire technology really shows it brute. Using a 3 or 4 degree tire allows for the suspension to have an aggressive camber stance which is normally done for cornering and handling stability, however, tires without camber built in lose much of there contact patch with this procedure. The Camber tire corrects for this! Racers can camber amounts safely up to 5 degrees without sacrificing tire life, the benefits on the track are nearly endless!
Our innovation didn't stop with just adding camber, we looked deeper into cornering and discovered that tire "roll" also caused a loss of handling ability. To compensate for this, we added in what we call a "rocker" on both the inner and outer corners of the tire tread pattern. As a tire "rolls" side to side from cornering g-forces, the shelf offers extra contact on the rolling edge resulting in skid pad results exceeding 1G on a street legal tire!
Such incredible claims can be difficult to believe, we encourage our guests to visit our "In the media" page to see what professionals around the world think of our tires through road tests! You'll never look at tires the same again. For those of you drag race fans out there, I have it on good authority that we may soon be seeing a similar concept in drag radials for independent rear suspension cars. SOURCE: Cambertire, LLC; 62 W Main St, Wales, WI 53183; 262/434-7000
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