Hypothetical: Cambered tire design question
 

Another one of my hypothetical daydreaming questions. Maybe someone's done this or has more practical knowledge than me on the subject....

What if the camber were built into the tire to match the suspension settings?

It occurs to me that tires do not have to be cylindrical, they could be trapezoidal. Make the inner sidewall a smaller aspect ration that the outer sidewall. So instead of a 225/40/18 you could have a 225/40/37/18, or something.

What's the advantage? When a tire is cambered, it has to deform to lay flat. Compare a soda can with an ice cream cone on laid on a table on their sides. The axis of the can is parallel to the table, where the cone's axis intersects the table. To change the camber of the soda can, it would have to be deformed to rest on the table by itself.

Economically this makes little sense, because the angle of the tire has to be tuned to the suspension to make it work. But Formula 1 cars are designed to get every iota of performance out of the suspension, and they already pay big $$$$ for a set of, essentially custom, tires anyway.

So for specialized applications, does this make sense? Or is the secret to getting performance out of a cambered tire actually dependent upon the deformation?

The cambered tire would wear out very fast. Try and roll said ice cream cone and it will not roll in a straight line. To make it roll straight you would need to lift the small diameter side or slip the larger diameter side.

if it were possible i think that's one of those things that would have been done :P

Sure, for the same reason too much camber will wear out a tire. Putting camber into the suspension forces the tire to deform to have a smaller inner diameter anyway. I'm just trying to take some of the load out of the tire, and allow for more camber.

I don't see why it isn't possible. And if someone's tried it I'd like to know the results.

It's also possible people have thought of it but the technology/cost isn't there yet to play around with it. I've seen the machines that pump out tire blanks. It would have to have a custom mandril for the different centers. And the mold would have to account for the fact that the width of the tread is no longer parallel to the axis of rotation.