High grip
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natural rubber tread
A N INCREASE in skid resistance on rm. packed ice of as much as 30 per cent compared with synthetic equivalents is claimed for a new natural-rubber tyre tread, announced by The Natural Rubber Producers' Association, 19 Buckingham Street, London WC2 (a sister organization of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur).
Designed for winter use, the tread is produced from oil-extended rubber, derived from mixing oil with the rubber during manufacture. A substantial road-holding improvement is also claimed for the tread when the vehicle is travelling on melting ice, cited as the most treacherous surface.
The tread has been tested in Sweden with the use of a specially designed trailer, equipped with instruments to record roadgrip and hauled at speeds of 10/25 m.p.h. Comparisons of an unstudded tyre having an oil-extended natural-rubber tread with a studded synthetic type proved that the road grip of the former had a 10 per cent advantage over the latter.