Aerodynamic advancements are everywhere on modern cars: flaps that close off air inlets, intakes that guide wind around wheelwells, spoilers big and small that mitigate lift, reduce drag, and sometimes even add downforce. But for the most part, tires haven't had any aerodynamic advancements since they were first invented.

Yokohama wants to change that. The tiremaker just revealed its latest experimental advance in tire aerodynamics. Basically, it involves putting a bunch of spoilers on the outer sidewall of the tire. Even Dom Toretto didn't think to put spoilers there.

After lots of experimentation, Yokohama discovered that placing an array of fin protuberances at angles on the tire's outer sidewall improved a car's aerodynamic performance in multiple ways. "The fins on the tire's outer sidewall help to reduce vehicle aerodynamic drag when on the upper part of the tire during its rotation, while supressing vehicle aerodynamic lift when on the lower part of the tire," Yokohama's report shows.

The research builds on previous experiments by Yokohama—including a 2012 experiment that found radial fins on the inner sidewall would reduce aerodynamic drag inside the wheelwells. The tire manufacturer doesn't mention any plans to put these findings into production, but the aerodynamic fin tire will be on display at the Tokyo Motor Show at the end of this month.

We can't wait for the day when tires have active aero like today's supercars.

via Gizmodo

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