MICKEY THOMPSON INTEGRATION, AGAIN Navigating the development environment under new owners When asked where the development work on the Baja Boss XS was done, Mickey Thompson representatives reply with the noncommittal “Ohio”. That’s perhaps no surprise given the reorganization that’s happened since Goodyear bought Cooper Tire – which had owned Mickey Thompson for 18 years – in 2021. “The good thing is that there’s a lot of enthusiasts in the engineering world who really want to work on our stuff,” says Heather Tausch, Mickey Thompson’s senior director of marketing. “Like all things, it’s been a transition that you have to navigate, and you’ve got to teach everybody how to interact with you. Goodyear’s never had an independently operated business entity before that has remained a wholly owned subsidiary company. There’s a lot of training happening on our side on how to engage with us. But it’s a fun product that people are excited about, so we have that going for us.” – too sticky for the SCORE race teams, who told us it was breaking parts on the car. At the same time, every time we had a flat in Ultra4 racing, it was the sidewall puncture issue.” Baja Boss XS As a result of this experience, Mickey Thompson has now combined the Powerply Pro four-ply construction from the Baja Boss X with the harder, DOT-certified compound from the Boss MT to create the new Baja Boss XS (X for experimental, S for street legal), which is being offered in 35in, 37in and 40in sizes. The carcass incorporates polyester plies, steel belts and a nylon overlay. The first ply is biased at an 8° angle. The second and third plies are radial, then the fourth is again biased at 8°. “If you take an impact to the sidewall with a regular radial tire, it will affect the radial plies in that path,” says Anderson. “But if you have a biased ply overlaid on the radial plies, it spreads that impact to a wider area, lessening the likelihood of a puncture. Above: Mickey Thompson will assess the feedback on the Baja Boss XS gathered from SCORE teams in 2024 and decide whether to develop an even more SCORE-targeted new product “It’s a different way of making it more durable than just adding more material,” he continues. “But [on the Baja Boss XS] we also added a rubber gauge to the mid-to-lower sidewall and found that helps with improved durability as well. It’s a technology we first built for the 40in Baja Boss X.” Anderson says that by tightening up the carcass, the revised construction will help the vehicle respond more quickly to steering inputs and stabilize more quickly. “One of the big pieces of feedback that we get from the racers is that the March 2024 www.tiretechnologyinternational.com 43
Tire Technology International March 2024 Issue : Page 43
