Goodyear imports its sticky German Assymetric

JOHN MAHLER FOR THE TORONTO STAR

In testing on dry pavement, John Mahler found that Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Assymetric was tenacious on the skidpad, braking was equally stellar.

John Mahler

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

In the high-end car market, more electronics, more expensive luxury touches and bigger, wider tires are still the order of the day.

Goodyear continues to exploit this tire niche with yet another model in its ultra-performance Eagle F1 lineup, the Asymmetric.

Or perhaps it should have been called the Double Asymmetric, since it features an asymmetrically-built carcass topped by an asymmetric tread pattern. I'm not sure if usually adding two asymmetries equals symmetry but in this case, it does not.

Goodyear started favouring the asymmetric tire carcass with the Eagle ResponsEdge. In that tire, the outer sidewall was reinforced with carbon fibre for better stability under cornering and the inner sidewall was left softer for better ride when the car ran straight.

After that came the Eagle F1 All Season (symmetrical tread): another winner in their high-tech deck of tires.

Now, the F1 Asymmetric comes to North America; it was introduced late last summer in Europe.

It features Aramid in the inside sidewall for stiffness and strength. Aramid is used in body armour by police and military. It is both stronger and lighter than steel.

This tire carcass is topped by an asymmetric tread pattern with huge blocks on the outer shoulder to handle abuse by heavy cars scrambling for grip. The centre part of the tire is all very wide and deep circumferential grooves for water evacuation.

However, it does not split the tread area into two compounds, wet and dry, a la Michelin PS2. The tire uses Goodyear's Racing Compound Technology to combine carbon black for dry traction, silica for wet traction, Aramid reinforcement and a new generation of polymers to create what they call "Active CornerGrip Technology."

"As a vehicle travels through a corner, a high amount of force is exerted through the tire's footprint," says Bob Toth, Goodyear's general manager of auto tires. "Due to the load transfer characteristics of the vehicle, an increased amount of force moves to the outside shoulder of the tire, and the grip on the outside of the tread is enhanced, while the grip on the inside decreases in comparison.

"With Active CornerGrip Technology, the tire-to-road contact is increased on the inside of the contact area. This technology in the inside sidewall of the tire helps compress the tread evenly on the road for enhanced traction while cornering."

With this tire, Goodyear has come up with a sure winner in the performance categories, according to my testing.

On dry pavement, it was tenacious on the skidpad, making me give up because of body roll before the tire broke its grip. Braking in the dry was equally stellar, with short, sharp chirps as the ABS cycled on and off.

In rapid direction changes like slalom, this F1 felt a bit heavy and not as light on its feet as I might have wanted. However, it did grip strongly and post a good time – just a little more effort was required by the driver.

In the wet, the asymmetric tread pattern really made the sun shine. The deep grooves worked and there was no sign of aquaplaning at any legal highway speeds in heavy spring rain. Stopping distances were very short, with water given no opportunity to build up ahead of the tread blocks.

On the highway, this made-in-Germany tire was firm. Even lowering pressures did not significantly make Ontario road cracks and potholes feel much better. Road noise was average for an ultra high-performance tire.

In North America, the Eagle F1 Asymmetric will be offered in 22 sizes, in 17-, 18-, 19- and 20-inch wheel diameters. These tire sizes will fit cars such as the BMW 550, Porsche 911 Carrera and Mercedes CLK55 AMG.

But what is interesting about sizing is that the Goodyear is not available for the Porsche 911S models, and those cars are now in the majority.

Goodyear is not alone in this sizing issue as the sports car/sports sedan manufacturers are upsizing faster than the tire companies can keep up. Right now, only three companies are staying ahead of the curve on making their best products available in the latest sizes: Michelin, Pirelli and Continental.

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