Breaking in your tyres?

Sounds strange but there is a break-in period for tyres.

Tyres are typically made from many compounded layers of rubber/nylon, steel & more nylon or fabric such as canvas. When tyres are set up from the moulding process, various lubricants are applied to prevent the rubber from sticking to the steel moulds. As the tyres are baked to cure, the release lubricant is injected into the mould and some of this lubricant infiltrates the outer surface of the tyre. The lubricant will reduce the tyre's handling properties until the lube is worn away. Typically this can be done through normal driving for a distance of about 800km. Under normal driving conditions the new tyres may seem less responsive and not as gripping as the old ones. This has a lot to do with how a tyre's surface interacts with the road surface.

As a kid I had the job of grinding my Dad's tyres down with an angle/disc grinder to take the new tyre down to the point where you might say I just ruined them. My Dad raced historic cars, and in racing you need to get as much tyre on the road/track surface as possible and one way to do this is to make the tyre almost bald. The low tread depth gave the best traction on a perfectly dry surface but it was very dangerous in rain. We also ran totally bald tyres called slicks, but these were only for days where we could race in total drought.

The new tyres will be "tall" with the new deep grip, which will often make the car a little too slow to respond compared with the the old tyres. Just be patient, the break-in period is not that long.

In breaking in your new tyres just be careful during the first 1000km or so, and you will have a great performing tyre.