Bridgestone Road Team Copied IndyCar Team’s Homework For New Ultra-High Performance Tire

Bridgestone today unveiled the Firestone Firehawk AS V2 all-season ultra-high performance tire and, as is so often the case for high-performance automotive applications, for inspiration, it turned to the racetrack.

That’s because the team behind the Firestone Firehawk AS V2 tire decided to copy the Firestone Indycar tire team’s work. Inspired by Firestone Firehawk rain race tires, the new street tire will deliver some impressive improvements over its predecessor.

“When designing the Firestone Firehawk AS V2, our goal was to produce an ultra-high performance tire without trading off its performance in inclement weather,” said Ian McKenny, Senior Product Manager, Bridgestone Americas. “Our Indycar rain tires use a braided tread to help deliver exhilarating performance even in a downpour. We’ve applied that pattern technology directly to the new Firehawk AS V2 to give drivers the chance to experience a sporty drive in any weather condition.”

Featuring a new combination of interlocking and full-depth 3D sipes, the tire provides consistent wear and performance throughout its lifecycle. The interlocking lugs are partnered with large outboard tread blocks to improve wet weather handling and resistance to hydroplaning. The full-depth sipes, meanwhile, apparently even handle snow quite well.

The Indycar-inspired tread pattern is what makes this a high-performance tire. It all combines for an improvement of 2.11 seconds in wet conditions over the previous-generation Firestone Firehawk AS tire. It can also help a car stop up to five feet (1.5 meters) shorter than that older tire.

Designed for sports and muscle cars, such as the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Ford Mustang, Bridgestone is also convinced that it will improve the performance of vehicles that are a little more practically-minded than that.

The new Firestone Firehawk AS V2 tire is now on sale at authorized Bridgestone tire dealers in the U.S. and Canada.