Posted by Roger on September 01, 1999 at 10:25:07:
In Reply to: reversal>whitewall in-blackwall out. posted by Mr. Parsegian on August 26, 1999 at 22:32:48:
Sir. I am a Tire Engineer with 30 years experience and a couple of patents. I also have raced cars in both Professional and Amateur venue with moderate success as I set lap records at 7 different race tracks. I have also consulted on a couple of legal cases so I believe I am qualified to attempt to answer your question.
"i have some tires with a whitewll and i want to turn the whitewall inside so they wont show" There is no problem with this. I do it on my S-10 now.
"i heard that it would effect the tires performance because tires are constructed a certain way and by doing this i would defeat the purpose of the design" I don't know who is providing this information but I do not agree. There are very few tires with construction that have one side of the tire different than the other. The exception being the white compound and its related pieces. The few tires I have seen with asymmetrical (different on one side) construction are ultra high performance tires which are not white sidewall tires. It is true that you are partially defeating the purpose of the design as the tires were designed to show the white so if you mount with the white inside you have in fact defeated that part of the design purpose.
"render th tire dangerous. " This is not true. The rotation clockwise or counterclockwise is not a question of safety. Lets take a moment and step back. If you look at a white sidewall tire, mounted with the white out on the right side of your car it rotates clockwise as you drive down the road. Now walk around to the other side of your car with the white mounted out. What direction are these tires turning when you drive down the road?
I think you can now answer your own question about what direction white sidewall tires can rotate.
If you have another question I suggest that you do not reply to this thread as it is entirely too long now.
If you do not understand this response, especially when taken in concert with most of the other replies then sir, I suggest you ask the source of your erroneous information for his/her advice and leave us alone.