I am headed to Mid-Ohio for a 2-day driver's event next Monday/Tuesday. My last event was very hard on the driver's- side front tire(mostly right hand turns). I know the Advans are uni-directional. However, I am tempted to mount the passenger-side rear on the driver's-side front to balance the wear. Will running the tires in the opposite direction they were designed for affect handling, or the tires, adversely?

My impression is the tread pattern is designed to efficiently shed water. So, if the track is dry (and I switch back after the event) is there any harm?

 

Its not the best thing to do for tire wear or handling. It would be a very bad idea in wet weather because you would push water under the tire instead of away from the tire. Best thing is to dismount the tire and install it the correct way.

 

Thanks, I will.

Mike

 

why do some ppl on race tracks mount the tires differently anyway just like CincyEvo was going to do?

 

Drag tires get this treatment quite often. Its the "dog hair" theory. When soft tires get some wear and use, the outter part of the tread will start to, so to speak, lay down in the direction of the tread. And, like when you pet a dog, if you go with the flow of the hair, its nice and smooth with no interference. But, go against the grain, and its rough. With some soft tires, this is the case. Reversing them puts you back against the grain, and gets some good grip. Now, I'm no expert on this procedure, but I've heard of it before, and the description I just gave is short form of what I heard. I could be way off, so if so, don't anyone be afraid to correct me. But, it makes sense when you think about it.

Hilg

 

i had my wheels accidentally mounted on the wrong sides once. It happened after I lowered the car and put them back on without paying attention. I noticed alot of road noise and vibration. I drove with it for about 200 miles until I realized what the problem was.

 

My daughter had new tires put on her 02 eclipse this week, and the installer somehow managed to install one tire backwards with the "in" side "out". Not long after leaving the tire store her tire went flat. No apparent reason for the deflation other than it was on backwards!

 

well the tread is also designed to push out small gravel and other small particles out of the tire. So you may sacrifice a little dry traction but it should be fine..of course, it's not recommended

 

i have run my evo tires and my s2000 tires all backwards several times at the track and on the road......i don't drive like a retard in the rain, so everything is fine.

I have not had any problems.....several s2000 people have done it with the unidirection S0-2's with no problems..

 

Scot:

Interesting. My theory was that the tread is really just along for the ride in the dry; it only serves a purpose in the wet, i.e., to prevent hydroplaning.

Racing "slicks" exist to maximize traction in the dry by putting 100% of available flat tire surface on the road. Typically autocrossers, etc., will even shave what little tread exists on race tires to maximize this effect. So, again in theory, dry racing should not be affected by the direction of the tread.

On the other hand Neal @ Tire Rack is a knowledgable source of information.

 

Yeah, where is Neal when you need him? I remember hearing from the owner/operator of WERKS II in Burbank (They race prep a lot of Club and GT2 Porsches and some Corvettes) that the tread can have an effect on how the car reacts on track. He explained how certain tires with certain tread affect things like braking and turn-in. Dang! I wish I could remember everything he told me.

Neal: Please enlighten us. Thanks.

 

Installing a directional tire backwards will not cause it to go flat.

 

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, the cable internet guys didn't have me hooked up at my new house till today.

For all performance and saftey reasons, its best not to mount a directional tire backwards, or an asymmetric tire wrong side out. However, there have been people who will mount their directional tires backwards to help wear the tire more evenly and prolong life. People will ususally only do this in summer months with little or no chance of rain. Usually, they will only run them for a couple hundred miles the turn them correctly back.

There has been isolated reports of people having handling issues, and some accidents have occured. Since we cannot predict the weather and driving styles of every individual, we do not recommend people do this. For the amount of wear you will gain its not worth the risk. You cant predict when that truck of watermelons will pull out in front of you with the handling compromised because the tires are backwards

 

You hear that with slick tires. I change tires on rims with my formula car as we run a decent amout of camber on the front and rear. The inside of the tire is used more then the outside.

 

Grassroots Motorsports, Sept. 2003 issue, pages 170 and 171, cover almost this exact issue.

They mounted Eagle F1 GS-D3 275/40R17 tires correctly and incorrectly (backward) on a 390HP SVT Mustang Cobra, and tested them in dry and wet conditions.

Their wet conditions did not include driving through standing water, and their speeds didn't exceed about 55 MPH.

In summary, they found no significant performance difference in either wet or dry, regardless of the mounting direction of the tires, but they warned that the test was not a complete test of a rain tire:

The "article" (actually an answer to a reader's question) was apparently written by John Rastetter, from none other than... The Tire Rack.