Bin gerade auf folgende Aussagen von Bridgestone bzgl. MX-5 gestossen:
HOW BRIDGESTONE DEVELOPED TIRES THAT TALK
"Mazda's done a very good job of understanding the customer," Mike Martini, president of Bridgestone Tire's OEM division, told Ars. Martini's company supplies the tires on the MX-5 Miata. "They understand their customers very well. Cornering at 1 g or more is not their priority. They do not want a supercar. Tailoring the tire's behavior at maximum grip is always a balance. The car manufacturers are under huge pressure to achieve improving fuel economy figures and also noise and grip. But in the Miata's case, any tangible goals are equal to and perhaps even secondary to communication."
"For the new Miata," continued Martini, "part of that was sitting with Mazda's chassis engineers early and often. They had a clear idea where they were heading with progressive tire behavior at and beyond the tires' tractive limits, and even more importantly, excellent communication during those moments and transients. We also worked with them on digital modeling. We can predict the variables pretty well now, so the suspension geometry, yaw rates, weight, roll stiffness, various force and polar moment perspectives, the effects of building outside tire loads, and the linearity of tire and steering response were all initially figured on computer. However, all of it must be validated in the real world."
Da war Marketing aber wohl auch etwas involviert... 