TECHNOLOGY PUT TO THE TEST
starting the rally only 30 finished. Yet John Buffum with Navigator Fred Gallagher of
Scotland managed to lead the entire distance of the rally In the end, their Audi Qucrttro on BFGoodrich T/A. Radial tyres finished 788 minutes ahead of the second-place car
“I’ve never rallied on tougher roads,” Buffurn said They were covered with a layer of dust a half-inch to an inch thick. Beneath that was a lot of loose stuff and then about three inches beneath that was hard igneous rock which was not at all forgiving to tyres.” in a previous interview with BFGoodrich, Buffurn had explained how a controlled slide was the safest way through most corners in rally special (racing) stages. When asked if that was the case in Cyprus, Buffurn replied “Only on the plains, We used the BFGoodrich Radial All-Terrain T/A” there, where you had room to slide through and where its bigger footprint was to our advantage. But the mountain roads were just too narrow You can’t do much sliding when the length of your wheelbase exceeds the width of the road. So in the mountains we used the Radial Mud7barrin T/A.” It has a really aggressive tread pattern that cuts down into the road and pulls you along. Those BFGoodrich tyres really came through for us Some of our competitors had awful problems with tyres. In Cyprus, with all its jagged rocks, you Ve got to expect punctures unless you’re running on tank treads. But we only had two, due to encounters with roadside boulders. With one, we were able to drive the car about three miles to the end of the stage. With the other we were far enough ahead so we could afford to spend a couple of minutes changing tyres. Others weren’t so lucky”
TECHNOLOGY PUT TO THE TEST
BFGoodrich has never built a special rally tyre. No doubt
there are times when this puts T/A Radials at a disadvantage to pure rally tyres. But not always. Because in developing the entire line of T/A Radials, many combinations of designs and materials were explored to develop the optimum combinations for a variety of high-performance needs and driving styles.
A case in point is the fact that T/A Radials were on every winning car in every US. Pro Rally this year Equally impressive was the first American victory in European rallying, and John Buffum’s highly respected finishes of filth overall at the Acropolis Rally and fourth overall at West Germany’s Hunsruck Rally on BFGoodrich T/A Radials.
But more important to you is knowing that a street radial can offer the traction and durability to perform well against highly specialized non-street tyres. And even more important yet is knowing that the BFGoodrich rally and racing efforts are in fact testing grounds for our continuing research and development of high-performance tyres for your car or truck. At BFGoodrich, we believe in putting our technology to hard use so you can put it to good use