Dunlop pioneer new tyre technology

Dunlop tested new pioneering race tyre technology in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship during the last round at Thruxton.
A new device for reading a chip that has been built into the race tyres was constructed and used at the exit of the pit-lane during the practice and qualifying sessions on the Saturday.

An archway was constructed to detect a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip built into every Dunlop tyre used on every BTCC car. All the information is then logged into computers for easy access for the technical staff to see.

Goodyear-Dunlop principle engineer Robert Lionetti told BTCC.net: “For Thruxton, Dunlop produces a one-off tyre – so building the RFIDs into the construction of this tyre was part of the thought process from the beginning.

“NASCAR in America uses a similar system but with spot checks of tyres using hand-held scanners – this is certainly the first time in the world that a championship has used an automatic process to monitor the use of race tyres.

“Today is a trial for us and at Croft in two weeks the previously used system of scanning tyres’ barcodes will be back in place.

“But we’re very satisfied with what we’ve seen so far. Everything has run smoothly and not only can we ensure that each team and car is using its allocation of tyres correctly, but also when they are using which tyres and how many laps each specific tyre has done, further helping our development of tyre technology.”