Assymetrical Tyres

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Fri 26 Sep 2003 11:10
Assymetrical Tyres - Vagelis
Hi all!

Looking at a Peugeot 307 the other day, I noticed that it was "wearing" a set of ContiPremiumContacts. These tyres have an assymetrical tread pattern in the transverse axis.

What surprised me is that this assymetry is in an "in-out" way, rather than a "left-right" way. I mean, if you put a tyre on the left side of the car with its "out" side facing out, you just rotate it around the vertical axis (so that "out" faces out) and put the tyre on the right side of the car.

This results in the tread pattern "looking" at the road from the opposite directions, doesn't it? I wonder, doesn't this result in different behaviour of the tyres on the two sides of the car, especially in wet conditions?

Vagelis.
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Sat 27 Sep 2003 10:21
Assymetrical Tyres - Flat in Fifth
The only comment I would add is that from personal experience with these tyres on two cars, and ContiSpeedContact (IIRC) on another is that they stick like "ahem" to a blanket.

P6000's & PZero's performance in comparison is very inferior in both wet & dry.
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Sat 27 Sep 2003 19:47
Assymetrical Tyres - Mike H
You're getting confused between directional and asymetrical tyres.

Directional tyres must be fitted so that they rotate in the direction for which they were designed.

Asymetric tyres are not symetrical across left-right) the tread, and must always be fitted with the corrrect side out.

If you moved a directional tyre from offside front to nearside front, thats fine as long as it is fitted so that it turns the correct way - which means that the original outside must become the new inside.

Tyres that are asymetrical AND directional can only be moved front to back, so that they are on the same side & turning the correct way.

Hope this helps!
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