The British Formula Ford Championships series is expected to move into new Dunlop tyres for the 2010 season. GV Racing has been testing these tyres and first results are now out.
The initial tests were done at Mallory Park November 4, 2009, with drivers Josh Benson and Nils Vestergaard on a Mygale SJ-08 Duratec car. Weather was dry and sunny, with track and air being at around 11-15degC. At this event three compounds were tested, and a new base setup was sought. The tyre seemed to be very consistent and performed well. In particular it seemed the Dunlop tyres made the driving line more straightforward (less sliding), which would make FFs behave a bit more like other formula cars. As far as I can tell, this is a good thing.The Dunlop tyre is of radial type, compared to the previous AVON being cross ply. Also the tyre is a bit higher, which means the height setup needs to be adjusted. However, with radial structure the tyre can be expected to keep its shape better than the cross ply, which should make the car more consistent over consequent laps. The tests indicated that higher camber values were needed with the new tyre, in particular in the front where camber values up to 4deg were suggested (with AVON typical cambers seemed to be 1-2deg). This seemed to cause some trouble to the Mygale used in tests, as its chassis does not allow more than 2.6deg front, 2.5deg rear. For rear, the adjustment is sufficient, but for the front more seems to be needed.
Undoubtedly more tests will follow, and we will try to keep you up to date results. It is expected that the new Dunlop tyres will also be used in the Finnish series, since the regulations should be the same here (for Duratecs) as in the UK. Given that Duratecs shift to Dunlop, there is no point in Zetecs not doing the same, so thus it can be expected that all FFs will be running the new style tyre. For full test results, please view the report from Dunlop here.
