Cambertire (one word, as in the product)

I thought I had a revolutionary idea today; someone's already got three patents pending on it... anyone seen/heard of these before? would be neat on a camber-challenged car in a stock class racing series?

http://www.cambertire.com/gallery/Default.aspx

kinda lame I didn't think of this and patent it earlier.

I think the idea's been around a few years now. I figure if was a REALLY good idea these would have taken off by now.

I was thinking it would be good if someone (say hankook, hoosier, etc) offered their tread compounds/patterns in this style for camber challenged cars (obviously licensing of the product since it's patented would be an issue)

Doesn't it defeat the purpose of having camber? Unless it's just to drive around town... But then I wouldn't get my practice in... Lol

Say, anybody else remember BFG's offset stiffness R-compounds?

Trackmouse wrote: Doesn't it defeat the purpose of having camber? Unless it's just to drive around town... But then I wouldn't get my practice in... Lol

Yeah, that's what I was thinking...As the tire rolls over under cornering forces wouldn't it lift the inside edge and be even worse on the outer shoulder? The way I see it, a car that was good before with 3 deg camber may now need 6...or am I missing something...

Didn't BFG make a competition tire a while ago with a softer sidewall on the OUTSIDE? So that as the tire rolls over under cornering and body roll, the outside would "squish" in to allow the inner edge to maintain contact?

And wouldn't the tire have a huge rolling resistance because the inner edge is shorter? Like it would shred itself just rolling down the road. I'm obviously missing something...

doc_speeder wrote: And wouldn't the tire have a huge rolling resistance because the inner edge is shorter? Like it would shred itself just rolling down the road. I'm obviously missing something...

oh. haha. yeah there's that. the tires wont want to roll straight at all.

Wouldn't a car with front driven wheels develop more toe in with this kind of setup?

There was a time when they'd do a double tire setup. I'm wondering if you double tired and did more pressure on the outside one if you could get the same net effect? Edit: You could then adjust camber with a change in air pressure.

It's an interesting idea, that I have also seen more basically accomplished by shaving camber directly into the tread. From what I can tell, yes there are some net gains to be had for specific applications. But their web site is little more than a bunch of marketing fluff that totally neglects any of the physics based contradictions...And I'm guessing the 'patents' are not much better.

Ok. So the OP should try them since he brought this up. If we don't here back in a week, we know the tires killed him and we will never speak of this again. Lol.

Yeah, I remember this guy. IIRC the concept was take something like the Mazda5 that has really high camber rates and install these tires to get them closer to 0 so you get better tire wear. For performance cars you could do the opposite and add more camber

My only thought at the time was "isn't that what the alignment was for?"

So do you dial in a ton of toe out to account for the fact you're driving around on cones?

I agree with the above thay these are not consistent with the idea of camber for performance because the tire will still deflect, and then you will need more camber.

I guess it might make sense for the stance crowd for wear reasons, but there is still the cone issue...

doc_speeder wrote: Didn't BFG make a competition tire a while ago with a softer sidewall on the OUTSIDE? So that as the tire rolls over under cornering and body roll, the outside would "squish" in to allow the inner edge to maintain contact?

i think the idea was, when you mounted the tire on a too-narrow rim, the outside would pooch out but the inside would still be fairly straight, which would camber the tire.

IIRC these were also the tires that would get more grip with lower tire pressures, and then they'd wear out the center very rapidly because of the carcass shenanigans. Groove of Doom?

I remember someone selling recaps like that for circle track tires when I was a kid and they had to run a regular street tire. They had to run a pretty high sidewall that was going to roll over and when it did you had all the tread on the track.

wasn't there a tire company a few years ago that made tires like this that were aimed directly at the stance crowd and pretty much said that their tires were to never be driven in anger?

sachilles wrote: Wouldn't a car with front driven wheels develop more toe in with this kind of setup?

Nope.

Towel city retreads has been doing it for a very long time. so long as I can recall its been outlawed at one track over 18 years....