Tim Lovell, Goodyear’s technical project manager for consumer tires, has a lot to say about the performance characteristics of the Eagle F1 Asymmetric All-Season. The tire was recently launched by Goodyear at a ride-and-drive event in Seattle, Wash.
Lovell said that when Goodyear develops a new tire, the tire technology team comes up with performance targets. In the case of the Eagle F1 Asymmetric, those targets included strength in the areas of treadwear, dry handling, wet handling, wet traction, dry traction, snow traction, ice stopping, ride comfort and noise.
“We aggressively started this project about a year ago,” Lovell explained. “Since it’s an all-season tire, we wanted to test its snow performance. I was able to leverage a lot of different resources across the globe.”
Lovell said his team went to Goodyear’s San Angelo, Texas, proving grounds for wet and dry handling and ride traction testing. At the company’s Akron, Ohio, proving grounds the team did a significant amount of snow testing.
“Tires are complicated. There are many degrees of freedom in a tire, and when you throw a vehicle in on top of that, it gets even more difficult,” said Lovell. “I put our modelers to a test. I said, ‘You’re going to model, and I’m going to test it at the track. You’re going to predict how the tire should perform, and we’re going to see if you’re right.” They were right.
Lovell said to achieve balanced performance with treadwear, his team came up with the asymmetric pattern. To maintain the handling, they looked at the profile of a racing slick. There’s actually a little higher tire stiffness in the shoulder than there is in the sidewall of a racing tire.
“We said we need all-season performance so we can’t have that level of stiffness but we can capture that profile. That puts in the sweet spot for handling and steering response.”
Lovell’s team also developed a specialized tread compound with functionalized polymers for enhanced performance. To balance handling with all-season capabilities, the team designed dry handling and all-season tread zones.
Available in July, the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric carries a 45,000-mile tread life limited warranty, is tunable for original equipment applications, carries W- and Y-speed ratings, and will be offered in 36 different size combinations.
For more information on Goodyear Eagle F1, check out the June issue of Modern Tire Dealer.
