[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer

Jim,

Don't bother. The testing that will prove this is going to trash the tires under braking. The only other way would be to do skid pad testing of lateral G's - but that's going to trash the tires, too!

Not to mention that heat in the tread compound is going to affect the test results, so the only way to get a good test is to have many tires already mounted up and a guy standing by to do the changeover.

Bummer! Yeah, that makes sense. Well, anything that trashes my tires is a no-go fer sure. I'll fall back on my tire contacts and see if I can get some test info on the tires they trashed. That study that was linked to from Goodyear was interesting but it really didn't answer the question of if, or whether, braking performance degraded at the high end of the pressure range, above the 35 psi listed (which I took to be the max pressure rated for the tire). They were looking at the low end pressure... which, truth be told, is the scary end they should be looking at from the safety standpoint related to neglectful car owners.

I think it was you that talked about a "sweet spot." I'll bet there's one that offers the best of all worlds, performance, safety AND fuel economy, and I'll bet it different for every tire/car combination.