SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1532538
BFG’S K03 RAISES THE BAR The Latest All-Terrain Tire Derived From Baja Racing By Dan Sanchez Photos by Stuart Bourdon and Dan Sanchez It was 1976 when BFGoodrich Tires first outfitted Fritz Kroyer’s Class 6 Oldsmobile Starfire with a newly designed set of radial all-terrain tires to race the SCORE Baja 1000. More than five decades later, BFGoodrich Tires took its initial design, the All-Terrain T/A Radial, and continued to improve upon it from the experience they gained in SCORE off-road racing. The company’s latest All-Terrain tire, the KO3, is a culmination of both Baja racing heritage and design, put into a street/off-road tire that checks all the boxes for wear, traction, and durability. “BFGoodrich Tires’ legendary toughness has been made tougher with the creation of the All-Terrain KO3 tire,” said Harold Phillips, BFGoodrich Global General Manager at the time of the initial tire launch. “We’ve done a lot of racing and research in the 10 years since we launched the KO2 tire, so a decade of data, feedback, technology, and experience went into developing the KO3 tire. We are our own competition, and we knew it was time to take the all-terrain tire to another level. It will be exciting to see what consumers will do – at work and play – with the KO3 tire.” According to Phillips, the new KO3 tire provides a 15 percent improvement in wear performance, 20 percent better gravel road durability, and improved snow traction over the previous KO2 tire, according to Brandon Sturgis, BFGoodrich off-road product manager. To understand how a great tire was made even better, it’s important to look at all the design details. Tread and Footprint At first glance, the BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO3 tire has a more aggressive appearance than the KO2. This is because of the new serrated and extended shoulder tread on the sidewall, which provides greater traction in mud and snow while providing additional sidewall protection. The KO3’s footprint looks similar to the KO2, but the interlocking tread blocks have been re-designed with key elements. The tread blocks distribute stress evenly, improving longevity and even wear. The tread also has 3D locking, full-depth sipes that are cut into the tread blocks. These short, thin grooves push out water, mud, and snow and provide greater traction in those conditions, but the design also reduces the amount of movement of the tread blocks over rocky or difficult terrain. Tougher Construction The BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO3 tire’s tread compound provides greater longevity both on- and off-road. The company’s CoreGard Technology deflects protruding objects from splitting or snagging on the sidewall. Decades of BFGoodrich competing in Baja have also led to the KO3’s split- and bruise-resistant sidewall. This technology comes directly from the BFGoodrich Baja T/A KR3 race tire, which is the winningest tire in all of SCORE Baja racing. The All-Terrain compound has been formulated for greater strength and longevity, but the tire’s greatest asset is the combination of the compound, tread, and design. Together, the KO3 has better overall wear characteristics than any previous all-terrain tire from BFG. For an off-road enthusiast, this means a quiet, vibration-free ride from a tire designed for greater performance on- and off-road. We went from a set of BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM3 tires on our project Ford Ranger, to the All-Terrain T/A KO3 tires and were not disappointed. While the KM3 proved amazing in deep silt and mud, it compromised highway and daily driving performance. Without sipes on the tread, wet traction was minimal, and road noise grew louder as the tires wore. With the KO3, our truck ran smoothly and quietly on the roads and highways. There were no vibrations when coming to a stop, and no signs of uneven wear across the tread. In off-road conditions, the tire performed extremely well, providing great stability at high speeds, easily climbing over rocks and obstacles, and worked well under low-tire pressure conditions for improved off-road traction. The extended shoulder tread on the sidewall improved traction in deep sand and silt, and there was plenty of traction on wet roads and in muddy off-road conditions. Although the KO3 was only slightly less aggressive in appearance than our previous Mud-Terrain KM3 tires on the truck, we loved how the KO3s looked and how they kept the truck’s overall off-road posture and performance. Over the long term, it’s great to know you’re riding on a set of tires with decades of Baja racing experience built into every aspect of this tire. For more information and new sizes for the KO3, visit www.bfgoodrichtires.com. SJ