But what did he mean? The whole ‘prepping the studs’ thing was a new one. Solberg offered a high-level explanation of what he was doing to make the four Winter icepts beneath him work as he wanted. But we wanted more. We needed more. Turns out, it’s about getting as much metal as possible on the road.
Who better to explain all than Hankook’s Stephen Cho.
He told DirtFish: “All motorsport tires and competition tires need some sort of warm-up and preparation to get into the window. The studs, of course, there are regulations that say they cannot protrude more than a certain amount (two millimeters).
“And so what happens is that when you start warming up the tire and the block starts to move and you get some heat into it, the studs come out and get bigger. So of course, we’d like to have as much stud protrusion as possible when they’re like brand new.”
And the preparation aspect all comes in the weave.
“It’s a part of warming up any kind of tire, whether it’s gravel or tarmac,” added Cho. “But I think in this case, because the conditions have been so difficult, the preparation of the stud has been much more important.”
In terms of how much more protrusion’s possible, are we talking 2.5-mil or even three?
Cho: “It varies, of course, among each car, each entry, and how they use it. I don’t really want to give out anyone’s particular data, but yeah I wouldn’t disagree with what you just said…”
