10 Things You Need to Know About Tires

We've made mention of how important tires are before, but it seems that some people out there still haven't really gotten the message, so we got on the phone with two engineers from Bridgestone. The men we spoke to are Kurt Berger, a summer and all-season tire engineer, and Anant Gandhi, a winter tire engineer.

Your tires are the only part of your car that actually interacts with the road (in the most literal sense), so shouldn't they be first priority? There's a reason that F1 cars don't just go to that shady shop that sells mis-matched sets of used tires across from the Check-Into-Cash. Let us explain the multiple reasons why with 10 Things You Need to Know About Tires.

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A friend of mine uncle's likes to say that he's willing to buy the cheap version of everything but tires and brakes, because he wouldn't feel comforted by the fact that he saved $85 when running somebody's grandmother over.

"When we talk about a good set of summer or all-season tires, there's a much broader range of design attributes we can change to optimize the tire. Right now one of the biggest differentiatiators between 'value' and premium tires is in compounding, where a lot of where your most advanced tire tech is happening right now. Compound establishes the wear-rating, wet grip, dry grip, snow traction, etc.

One technology we're utilizing to really push the performance envelope is called NanoPro-Tech. Carbon black is one of the major components of rubber and it enhances wearability. Under a microscope, historically the carbon is clumped together, rubbing up against itself. This rubbing creates heat, which is the enemy of wearability and creates a lot of rolling resistance. NanoPro-Tech evenly distributes the carbon so that this doesn't happen. What we're also attempting to do with compounding is to be environmentally friendly, and that means lowering rolling resistance for improved fuel economy." - Berger

High performance tires are soft tires. The tires on F1 cars and IndyCars are so soft that big-ass chunks of them fall off during the race near tough corners; said chunks are known to the racers as marbles, and they're not fun to drive on. Of course, this kind of softness has a down-side for road users.

"Wear vs. performance is the essense of our challenge: attempting to achieve the balance of performance for each individual product. Wear is at the bottom of a summer performance tire, and ultimate grip is at the top. We try to balance that performance for each tire type. All seasons on a Camry or Accord will have a balance much more geared towards long life. I think there's quite a bit of confusion in the market; as you move up to premium tires particularly in the performance category. With their higher speed rating and higher price, you're usually going down in mileage warranty. Summer tires usually have about a 30,000 mile warranty, Ultra high perf all season might have a 40,000 mile warranty." - Berger

Your tires greatly affect how well your car accelerates, corners, and brakes, which are the only things your car can do. So many people seem to think that crash ratings are the only measurement of safety, but if your steering, brakes, and tires do their job, you never have to use your crumple zones, air bags, or insurance.

"The essense is getting the right tire for your driving needs and car. Every car comes fitted with a specific kind of tire with a specific speed rating and load capacity. Once those requirements are met, you can talk about what are your preferences as the driver of the car, and making sure you get a tire that meets those needs." - Berger

"Here's a misconception I'd like to address: the common conception is that winter tires should shed more snow. However, the more snow a tire holds onto, the better it grips in snowy conditions. Snow likes to stick to itself. You actually get a lot of grip walking on snow, and it's the same for tires. Ice is very different. For this we not only have the siping, but also microscopic biting edges that act like microscopic studs.

Also, when pressure is applied to ice, it turns to water, so we have a porous Multi-Cell compound that soaks up this water. Ice skaters actually skate on a film of water, and this prevents your car from doing the same thing." - Gandhi

When we bring up winter tires, people usually seems to think that buying a set will bankrupt them. We even once heard "how much will that cost per year?" Aside from the fact that you're spending a couple hundred bucks to massively increase your safety during the most dangerous time of year to drive, it won't cost that much.

"On average, a set of winter tires is going to last three to four seasons. Obviously this depends on how many miles the consumer drives and how heavy his right foot is." - Gandhi

Because they're often referred to as "snow tires" many people don't think they should put their winter tires on their car until they wake up one morning and said car is covered in snow. Since winter tires are designed to work better than all-season or summer tires in cold temperatures, it really has more to do with the mercury than the precipitation. While each tire has its own ideal temperature range, Gandhi did give us a good rule of thumb.

"If you can see your breath, it's time to switch."

When I was in Las Vegas for the Bridgestone product launch even, we tried a lot of tires side-by-side with the competition. On dry pavement, I was back and forth between whether or not I liked the Bridgestones or the competition best, but I found that once the track was wet I found myself preferring the Bridgestones significantly more. Needless to say, I had to ask about this.

"As a corporation, we've focused in on wet performance. When it comes to wet performance, you're talking about two things: the traction level of the tire and hydroplaning resistance. As odd as it sounds, these things aren't related at all. Traction is driven largely by the rubber compound. Essentially what you want is for the rubber to conform to the texture of the road surface. If the tire can do that, what you're creating is thousands of tiny biting edges which can push against the road. Generally, a softer compound will have better grip.

"Pattern design has a larger effect on hydroplaning. The grooves in the tires need to displace the water underneath them so that the rubber can make contact with the road. If we lived in a world with no precipitation, all tires would be racing slicks. The pattern is strictly for inclement weather." - Berger

Moral of this Story: The Toyo Proxes R888s pictured above are awesome on a dry track, but they are probably very suceptible to hydroplaning when rain starts to fall. That said, Berger did mention that Bridgestone is considering production of a similar DOT competition tire.

There's a reason that cars that advertise their fuel economy ship out on low rolling resistance tires; those are the ones that will help a car save gas. It's best illustrated by the above picture. The tires have less resistance to rolling (thus the name) and as a result when at speed the engine doesn't have to work as hard to keep the car moving forward.

"We try to be environmentally friendly not just by lowering the rolling resistence of our tires, which helps save gas, but also by using renewable components in the tires and the way we operate the plants that make the tires." - Berger

We've said it before, but if you didn't believe our expert opinions, perhaps you'll believe an engineer's even more expert opinion:

"I've owned over 150 cars (right now some of his favorites are a Golf TDI and a BMW 740i) and the first thing I do when I get a new car is hand pick a set of tires for it. There has never been a car that hasn't stunned me with how much more rewarding the driving experience is with the right tire on it. It doesn't matter if it's an Aveo or a Porsche, there's no component that can improve performance as much as a set of tires for $500." - Berger