Goodyear gobblers?

[phat46]

I replaced a ruptured rear brakeline on my daughters car this morning, when I was replacing her rear tire i noticed it said "Make in Turkey" on it; it's a Goodyear tire, does that seem weird, or is it just me?

[tomslik]

I replaced a ruptured rear brakeline on my daughters car this morning, when I was replacing her rear tire i noticed it said "Make in Turkey" on it; it's a Goodyear tire, does that seem weird, or is it just me?

made for recycled turkish prison rubbers?

[Bob Paulin]

I replaced a ruptured rear brakeline on my daughters car this morning, when I was replacing her rear tire i noticed it said "Make in Turkey" on it; it's a Goodyear tire, does that seem weird, or is it just me?

Tires are still built, mostly, by hand - so they are quite labor-intensive. Goodyear, being a worldwide company, has the luxury of building tires in countries where the labor isn't so expensive.

Because theye are still built by hand, many knowledgeable race tire specialists on regional touring and Saturday night race teams actually look at tire serial numbers in addition to checking out the size of the tire.

The serial number indicates the builder, and tire specialists found fewer problems when using four tires from the same builder - since there are ever-so-slight differences in the way each individual does things.

It got so bad with NASCAR at one point that they now have a NASCAR official handing out tires from the trailer. The tire specialists can no longer go into the trailer and peruse numbers.

They've just recently brought the production back into the USA, but for years Goodyear built an inexpensive, oval-track. specification race tire in Chile.

People in the oval-track community referred to it as "The Chile Tire", and it was quite popular as a specification tire at many race tracks - including tracks here in Maine and in the Canadian Maritimes.

The Maine tracks ran a slightly softer compound, so some of the teams I dealt with in the Maritimes would ask me to go to my local track and pick up some tires for them to pick up on their next trip down to my shop.

Hard to believe, but the tech guys at the Canadian tracks seemed to just assume that they were running the harder tire because they all looked the same with the tread grooves and all.

The Canadian tracks have moved over to a Hoosier tire, while the Maine tracks now mostly run American Racer tires.

I can't say there were any quality problems with Goodyear's Chile tire, but they would sometimes act a bit strange as they heated.

Most race tires grow as they are run on the track and heated, but these tires would shrink from the time they went out onto the track and returned all heated.

I believe MOST of the problem came from stacking the tires all week long - which would "grow" the bottom tire in the stack from the weight on the sidewalls - only to have rotational and weight forces return the tire to its normal shape during the first or second practice.

The first measurement would, apparently, be incorrect - especially for the tire that sat at the bottom of the stack.

I had Danny start storing the tires differently during the week, and the problem seemed to go away.

B.P.

[1FATGMC]

They've just recently brought the production back into the USA, but for years Goodyear built an inexpensive, oval-track. specification race tire in Chile.

That is where the b'ville landspeed tires were also made and maybe the drag frontrunners that look like the landspeed tires, but are suppose to have more plies in them.  Like you said Bob these particular tires are being made here again.

c ya, Sum