Tire needs, help is coming soon
From the first time Mike Cook introduced into our minds that we may have a solution to our sport for high speed tires there finally has been good news reported from a company which lives in Oregan, Alaskan Bushwell Tires.
Owner Bill Dunkin bought out this Alaskan based company about 5 years ago and build a brand new manufacturing plant and based it in Joseph, Oregan. This plant was visited by a representitive from our community of LSR racers and described the operation as sugically clean. He was very impressed with the state of the art equipment as well as the knowlede that Dunkin has. An aircraft tire that was made by Dunkin was put on a machine to measure lateral and radial runout and NO runout was seen, and that was an aircraft tire. The attention to detail to design us a tire is only going to be top-notch. Dunkin also was very supportive in our needs for high speed tires and has agreed to take on the task of building us high speed tires for the future of land speed racing. We can just refer him as an Angle from the skies because our cars or bikes are only as good as the tires they sit on. And right now some of the vehicles are sitting on 30 year tires, and the set of four could be the only ones they have. It was stated that his process will be able to manufacture 4 tires a day. Doesn't sound like much does it. Consider this, 4 tires a day isn't much because the attention to detail and the ability to give us a high speed tire with almost zero runout is the outcome. Earlier tires made by various companies gave us a high speed tire but with runout with as much as 1/16 of an inch.
Where we sit at this moment in time is Dunkin has purchased a block of aluminum reported to cost in excess of $10,000 and is in the process of building our first mold for tires to come. Now the question is which tires will be made? When will they be available? How much? The answer is this. One mold will be the baseline for the following tires 30x18, 26.5x18, 26x16, 5.50x15. How can one mold be used for these tires, he will be using liners in the mold for the additional sizes. Newer technology will be used to give a Kevlar tire instead of nylon and will be a true radial. This will give us a 17% less drag by going with Kevlar over nylon. Another postive result using his technology is a lighter tire with no growth. Previous reported said they would be a bias ply tire but new information says they will be a true radial. Availability is scheduled to be June 2005. The price has not been established yet. First the mold has to be made then a tire made and then tested. Who wil be testing the tires. Dunkin has the ability to put these tires on a true tire dyno. He can spin them up to 350 mph with a controlled load on the tire and can determine rolling resistance. I am sure that Burklands and Joe Law will be able to test some of these also. Right now everything is being done to get the first tire off the production line and test it and the results from that will go into the production of the tires.
Motorcycle tires will be in the process for the future but right now it was stated that he will design and test the car tires, get some data then start on the motorcycle tires.
As new information gets to me I will publish for your entertainment.
Jonathan Amo
<small>[ November 05, 2004, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: JonAmo ]</small>
