In the BFGoodrich workshop trailer, a technician literally ‘sculpts’ grooves in hand-made competition tyres… This is haute couture accessories for race cars!
Taken during the Lyon-Charbonnières rally in France, 2008. There was this large Goodrich truck with piles of slick rally tyres into which this technician was literally sculpting grooves by hand with a tool that appeared to cut away (or melt away) the rubber by a combination of heat and a sharp edge. It was very impressive to watch because the guy’s movements were so precise, and at the same time a human being cannot be THAT precise, much less than a machine of course, and therefore the grooves couldn’t have been FULLY identical all around the tyre, and from one tyre to another, as he wasn’t even following ‘cutting marks’ or dots or anything…
Quite interesting and quite strange as well as everything nowadays is so mechanised, standardised and (supposedly) error-free…
Words and image copyright by Dominique Robert.