If someone has old issues of Hot Rod from the late fifties, there was quite
a detailed description of the Firestone Bonneville tire and the reasons for
building them the way they did in at least one article.
Perhaps someone from the Hot Rod staff on this list could research that and
post it ... Freiburg, are you reading this? Anyone else?
As memory serves, they made the tires with a very strong bead and the cord
at very close to 90 degree angles to the bead in the way it was wrapped to
eliminate stretch. The high number of plies gave stability in all
directions to the tire. They must have been right in their construction
because the tires have survived this long. I remember the reasoning for so
little tread was to prevent chunking, as Russ has described, and because of
the cooling effect of the salt that is beneficial to tire life. Their long
association with Ab Jenkins and his endurance racing tires gave them a very
solid test bed data for the Bonneville tires. Anything that would hold up
at 200 mph for 24 hour stretches would have to be good. I wonder what the
tires they developed for his proposed land speed attempt car were like? He
received four of the tires just days before his death in 1956.
Now this was before the popularity of radial tires that require the wrapping
around the exterior that is just that much more rotation weight and they
also require a rather flexible sidewall for passenger car use. Both of
these seem to be at odds with the needs of an ultra-high speed racing tire.
I have a photo of Al Teague's "front" tire showing the diagonal 1/32" break
in the surface rubber. I had thought they used just a "dipping" of rubber
but perhaps this is the thin outer layer that is required by construction
techniques to prevent lifting of tread and maintain concentricity. I'm not
familiar with the way balancing weights are attached ... are they stuck on
under the edge of the rim so the centrifugal force keeps them in place?
Those tires must require very little in balancing because of the design and
intended use.
Lots of questions still ... wish there were usable answers and available
tires. Damn liability problems!
Of course Frank Lockhart would have lived longer if he had had better tires
for his "Blackhawk" too.
Wes
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