A new generation of LRR tires coming soon (plus: video of coastdown comparison)

[orange4boy]

Found this interesting promotional video of a coastdown test of three tires at the Nokian factory.

Nokian Tyres - Summer tyres - Winter tyres - Friction tyres - Studded tyres

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk865xIYn9w

This is the promo article in Tire Review

Nokian Tyres’ new prototype “tire of the future” rolled 64% farther than an eco-oriented summer tire in a recent rolling resistance test conducted at the tiremaker’s logistics center in Nokia, Finland.

In the test, conducted with Finnish motor journalists present, a car fitted with three different set of tires – The prototype tire, an eco-oriented summer tire, and the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R friction tire – rolled in neutral off a ramp in windless conditions. The eco-oriented tire rolled 78.9 meters, the Hakkapeliitta R 99.5 meters and the “tire of the future” 129 meters, according to Nokian.

“Our tire of the future nearly reaches the best EU fuel efficiency class A and consumes considerably less than the best passenger car tires of today, which are two classes worse and only get class C,” said Teppo Huovila, vice president of R&D with Nokian Tyres. “Nevertheless, the prototype offers a normal level with all other features.”

[RobertSmalls]

Well, their low-speed coastdown test is pretty representative of CRR, and it looks like they've achieved somewhere around a 30% improvement over the already-good Hakkapeliittas, which are in turn 30% more efficient than the stickiest "LRR" tire Nokian could find.

It's crazy that a tire that came out over ten years ago (the original Insight tire) is still the most efficient passenger car tire out there. I hope the new Nokians have lower RR than it, and that they come out soon in a narrow, 14" size.

[MetroMPG]

Good video find, Marcus. And Nokian! Way to go.

(Found a YouTube version, so posted in your first post.)

Screen grabs:




Did you notice the "wow" in the sidewall of their prototype LRR summer tire?

I just swapped tires on the ForkenSwift this week, and was trying to imagine how I could do the most controlled coastdown test possible to compare to the winter tires. Inside a giant warehouse is definitely a good idea!

Remember Allert Jacobs, who built the 200 mpg+ streamlined Honda motorbike? When I saw the Nokian vid, I remembered he came up with a home brew version of a test in his own workshop with a ramp and weighted cart designed to find the most efficient motorbike tire available:



link to Allert's page (scroll to the bottom for tire tests): De ligmotor

[Sulfuric]

I wonder what PSI they were running . . .

[MetroMPG]

Good point - that wasn't mentioned in the video.

[orange4boy]

I thought about the psi as well. They showed the tech guy checking the pressure with the supposed journalists present but without a clear statement who knows. Was the prototype running higher pressure as part of the new technologies?

Did you notice the "wow" in the sidewall of their prototype LRR summer tire?

I think that they used some video editing to simulate the side view during the tests. At the end you don't see a camera on the side so it's hard to say if the tires were the same as the run they showed from the side.

[sallen]

Just my £0.02p, but I hope they grip better than Nokian's mountain bike tyres, which offer absolutely no grip whatsoever. I had one on the rear for a month or so and every time I went riding I hit a tree and died.

Seriously though, they used to give them away as prizes at races and when the event packed up the "new, super sticky" tyres were left behind in the mud / bin.

All of this small rant brings me to my basic point... safety. LRR must mean low grip... and for me, with no ABS to save me, that is a scary thought.

I was up for a set of the conti eco 3's myself, until I read reviews about how much less grip people got with them. Perhaps I will leave the LRR tyes to the ABS boys!

Time for a newer car I think!

[orange4boy]

All of this small rant brings me to my basic point... safety. LRR must mean low grip... and for me, with no ABS to save me, that is a scary thought.

This myth is often trotted out but has no basis in fact. Look at the original Green seal report and you will find that the grip is all over the map between LRR and standard tires. Look at a tire review and you will find the same thing.

As far as I have seen there is no direct correlation between RR and traction. There are LRR tires with great traction and regular tires with poor traction and vice versa. The only way to tell is by direct comparison.

[gone-ot]

...hm-m-m-m, let's look at those numbers:

99.5m / 78.9m = 26% improvement

129.0m / 78.9m = 63% improvement

...and:

129.0m / 99.5m = 30% improvement

...those are great numbers!

[mtgeekman]

I would love to be able to set up a test like that and run some tests of my own. Just put on some brand new RE92s on my Insight. I noticed a difference immediately with how far I can coast Vs. my blizzak winter tires.

Would like to test how much of a difference PSI makes as far as RR goes...