Goodyear Continues Track-To-Street Technology Transfer

AKRON, Ohio, July 11 -- Not everybody involved in auto racing does it for the trophies, the lottery-sized checks and the opportunity to play on weekends.

Some -- like Goodyear's tire engineers -- do it for "geeky" reasons. They just like to gain more knowledge from the extreme limits of the racing world that they can then apply to the everyday tires used in the "regular world."

And from the millions of consumers who enjoy watching the action on the racetracks, but who drive their personal cars on public highways, thank goodness for that.

The latest street tire from Goodyear, the new Eagle GT-HR, is another product that benefits from unique race-inspired design elements. Those benefits learned at the track have resulted in an H-speed rated tire designed for the auto enthusiast who demands high performance in a value package.

"Our involvement in racing helps us develop new technology primarily in three areas of tire design: mold shapes, tire construction and tire materials," said Randy Brayer, team leader for advanced engineering. "Much of that information applies directly to our high-performance Eagle street tires because the basic construction of a race tire is similar to a consumer auto tire. Some of the subtle improvements we make in tire performance on the track transfer readily to high-performance auto tires."

A leading feature of the Eagle GT-HR is RaceWrap(TM) construction technology, which was developed by Goodyear for Eagle race tires used in NASCAR. Similar to Eagle race tires, the Eagle GT-HR is built with a robust envelope ply construction.

In the RaceWrap(TM) design, the ply wraps from the center of the tread, down around the bead, up the sidewall and back up under the steel belts. It is a technology that promotes exceptional durability, essential for optimum high-performance driving.

"This is technology that evolved from the way we developed tires for NASCAR racing, where tire durability is definitely a goal," Brayer said.

"Transferring that kind of technology over to our street tires is a unique advantage for Goodyear, and for Goodyear customers. All of our tire lines and our customers benefit in one way or another from the technology we gain from racing."

Since the early days of auto racing, Goodyear has been pushing the envelope of tire technology. Starting in 1901, Goodyear supplied the racing team from Ford Motor Company with tires. In less than 20 years, Goodyear tires were on every winning car at every major race.

In 1980, to help race enthusiasts better relate track performance to street performance, Goodyear's Blue Streak race tires were renamed "Eagle." At the 1981 Daytona 500, Goodyear debuted a new family of high-performance tires for street use, also carrying the Eagle name.

Currently, Goodyear Eagles are the exclusive tires used in NASCAR's Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck racing series.