Ok, so I have been into off-roading for years and when we got to trails and we had unidirectional tires we would turn them around to get a more aggressive grip. I was wondering if that could also be applied to street tires for the track. Just thinking of things.

 

I think tirerack did a test on this. No difference with tread direction unless it was wet out. Then the directional grooves made a difference.

 

You just lost all your wet traction performance advantages.


-Ted

 

I know not to do it then the road is wet. I was just wondering if there was an advantage (when dry).

 

Nope, not for tarmac. The more rubber you have on the ground is what makes better traction. i.e. why racing slicks are just that, slicks. No tread pattern as the tread patterns remove rubber from the road, thus decreasing dry grip.

 

Depends on the tire.

There are directional tires, and there are directional tires

The majority of street tires merely have directional tread molded onto them so they are directional in rubber only. Flipping them won't make any difference except in standing water.

Some tires (most often racing tires) have directional carcass structures. The tread (if any) may or may not be directional as well. Radial tires can be built in such a manner as to make the amount of longitudinal stress deformation between the contact patch and the wheel bead different between braking and accelerating. This is accomplished by altering the angles ("bias") between the plies of the carcass. If the bias is not symmetrical the sidewall will be rotational stiffer in one direction over the other. You'd never find this on the street except in the absolutely most expensive tires (think supercar).