AUTOMOTION

LOSING YOUR grip, that
feeling of panic when you
drive through a puddie and
your car loses traction and
steering conirol, is an unset-
tling experience.

It's callec hydroplaning, and the
problem has become exacerbated in
recent years because many new cars
and trucks are fitted with low-pro-
file performance tires as standard
equipment.

These wider tires offer improved
dry-weather handling and appear-
ance, but their wide, short ‘foot-
print” makes them more likely to
“skim” on rain-slick roads.

“The fact is, their wide stance on
the roadway makes them more sus-
ceptible to  hydroplaning.”
explained Bill Howard, Goodyear
Canada’s western region marketing
manager. “To maintain manoeuver-
ability, wide, low-profile high-per-
formance tires must evacuate more
water from the roadway than nar-
rower family-car tires.”

This is of particular concern
here on the West coast where rain-
soaked roads are a fact of life for
much of the year.

Tire manufacturers have devised
some ingenious tread patterns to
disperse water from undemeath the
tire, including wider, longitudinal
grooves and unidirectional tread
patterns. Many of these tire designs
were originally developed for
Formula One racing cars where
high-speed, wet-weather traction is
crucial.

One of the aore innovative wel-
weather tires was introduced in
1991 by Goodyear. The Aquatred
all-season family-car tire has a
large, central groove that mithes the
lire look like (wo narrow tires stuck
logetier. This big channel provides
a conduit for water allowing the
tread to maintain contact with the
road.

General Tire introduced a simi-
lar-looking all-season tite soon
after called the Hydro 2000 which
uses the same principie.

Consumer Reports magazine
recently compared these two tires to
eight all-season radials with more
conventional (read patterns. The
Aquatred came in first overall and
the Hydro was fourth.

Now Goodyear has applied simi-
lar technology to a high-perfor-
mance all-season radial tire
designed for performance automo-
biles. Called the Eagle Aquatred, it
has two large channels running the
circumference of the tire and a uni-
directional tread pattern. It comes
in low-profile 55 and 65-aspect
sizes and is speed-rated for speeds
up to 210 km-h (130 mph).

“On wider tires such as the
Eagle Aquatred, two aqua channels
are more effective than one.”
claimed Beale Robinson,
Goodyear’s chief engineer of high
performance tires. “They work well
on tain-slickened roads, particularly
in deep-standing water.”

Beale added that the Eagle
Aquatred has a 50% improvement
in deep water hydroplaning over the
Goodyear Eagle GT+4 performance

‘tire. Its directional tread, angled

cross grooves. and dual channels
actually pump water from the froit
of the tire out the tire’s sides and
rear.

“Each tire displaces more than
6.5-litres of water per second at 105
km-h (65 mph) and can stop up to
14% sooner on rain-siick roads than
the company’s other all-season high
performance tires,” he said.

I tested these claims under con-
trolled conditions in a very large
puddle set up by Goodyear’s repre-
sentatives. I deliberately threw the
car into a corner at 80 km-h (50
mph), tumed left and right quickly.
slammed on the brakes, and accel-
erated out of the puddle.

The tire’s best attributes seem
to be in deep water. | found it diffi-
cult to make the tire lose its grip.

Our

36th Year

1.C.B.C. - B.C.A.A, - A.R.A.

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Sport — utility:
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frorn $23,700 ieue He

wet cone

and lurn-in response wits surpris-
ingly quick. Some loss of traction
occurred, but recovery was quick.
Qn rain-stick pavement. the
Fagle Aquatred demonstrated gad
cornering grip with high limits;

however, onee that limit is reached,
traction is lost, just like other tires,
On a dry test course, the
Aquateed appeared to offer equiva:
lent performance to other high per-
formance all-season tires (though |

@ | 6
had bo other brands to compare it
with directly. There was some tire

squeal at its limits. T liked the fict
that it didn’t suddenly break loose

See Goadvear Tire page 32

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