A query for those using American Racer Tyres -
Are there left and right handed tyres ? A fellow Mini competitor at a round of the State Hillclimb Championship was using these tyres for the first time on his Historic Group Nc Cooper S. The car was pulling to the left and when we examined the tyres we noticed that the diagonal cuts across the tread surface run in the same direction on both the left and right hand side.
On the driver's side tyres the diagonal tread grooves first contact the road on the inner part of the tyre, while on the passenger side the groove first contacts the road on the outer part of the tyre. Just like in this picture:
Changing tyres around on the rim won't alter the situation - nor will switching wheels from one side to the other. We presumed that this design was for specifically for speedway racing, but would like some clarification of the situation from others using these tyres.
The 'pulling-to-the-left' characteristic wasn't evident when the American Racer tyres were replaced with a set of Hoosiers, so the tyres were definately linked to the problem - although it could be a problem with differing tyre circumferences too.
I'd also like to know how GR managed to fit these tyres under the non-flared guards of an Nb Cooper S without them fouling shockers or trailing arms as well as keeping them under the guards. They are considerably wider than either the 165/70/10 Yokies or Hoosiers.
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Curly
'64 Cooper 'S' (Group Nb spec)
'67 Mini Marcos GT
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