South Korean tires.

[RollingCamel]

While Goodyear, Hoosier and Avon is dominating FSAE tires world did any team try Hankook F200 or Kumho whatever their model is..?

[RollingCamel]

While Goodyear, Hoosier and Avon is dominating FSAE tires world did any team try Hankook F200 or Kumho whatever their model is..?

[The AFX Master]

I think that's because these brands are already on the TTC. Teams simply don't go ahead and test tires at glance like we do with our street cars. Since suspension/chassis design relies on tire interaction with the road, only the models that have full data are taken to Formula SAE cars.

Sophia from Japan used Brigestone this year at MIS, And Darmstadt from Germany uses custom made Pirelli's.. I think in both cases was about a joint effort between the manufacturer and the team.

I did saw a car with Kumho Tires on this forum, I think is Korean. See the topic "progress for 2009" and search for the white "slab sided" style formula car.

Regards

[Pennyman]

We used Kumho V710 radials for testing, and then swapped to hoosiers a few weeks before comp.

They are definitely different feeling than the hoosiers, much more like riding a knife edge. Part of that was because they were so heavy we could never heat them up to operating temp. Great for shakedown testing though.

[Zac]

My best guess is that those Hankook and Kumho tires are designed for road races and cars that weigh a lot more than a typical FSAE car.

In general I would say that the best FSAE tires are those that are either designed specifically for the series (Goodyear, Dunlop, Michelin, and the odd one-off effort from a tire company) or designed for something similar like a hillclimb or autocross car (Avon and Hoosier respectively).

[mumbles]

I know I have definitely seen some teams running them. I believe Kookmin? had a set mounted up at California last year but also had Goodyears mounted as well. I'm pretty sure I asked about the Kumhos and they said the Goodyears were much much better for their car. I would guess that they probably had similar issues to what Pennyman described. I would be very interested to test some though! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Pennyman]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by mumbles:
I know I have definitely seen some teams running them. I believe Kookmin? had a set mounted up at California last year but also had Goodyears mounted as well. I'm pretty sure I asked about the Kumhos and they said the Goodyears were much much better for their car. I would guess that they probably had similar issues to what Pennyman described. I would be very interested to test some though! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I recall correctly, Kookmin went to Hoosiers like us, and both of us were sponsored by Kumho as well...whoops!

[mumbles]

Yes, after reviewing some of my competition pictures, Pennyman is correct. My bad. Either way, the same point still applies.

[RollingCamel]

Pat's column on FSGermany website he referred that Hankook has special FSAE tires for South Korean teams. Anyone knows anything about it?

[Kemper]

I should be able to answer these questions better, but as all the negotiation with Kumho was in Korean I don't know if it was an FSAE test model, a special model or a model designed for other categories.

Our team was the "slab-sided" white car (KAIST University). We were first year thou, we ran onto some problems and ended up without testing time. The best info I can provide is that Hoosiers are damn sticky tires (for a hand to touch) while the Kumhos felt like plastic. Info like on TTC were far from available...

[Smasheart]

Maybe early in 2000, Kookmin, Kumoh sponsored F3 front tire from Kumho. And, every Korean FSAE teams are sponsored by Knumho tire since 2005. Moreover, Kumho and FSAE teams have some connection to develop better FSAE comp tire, so every year Korean FSAE teams test tires and give some comments to Kumho. But, unfortunately, Kumho doensn't have enough time, money and sth so Kumho doesn’t have some FSAE tire facilities. Also, I think Kumho has never experienced any FSAE comp... So, the performance is not totally fit FSAE car in some categories, weigh, compound, sidewall stiffness and sth.

Moreover, impossible to get specific tire performance characteristics, such as side slip angle vs CF. It makes difficult to choose Kumho tire for FSAE comp in initial design process.

I’m not sure but Ulsan, Kumoh, Kunsan teams use Kumho for comp every year.