“WINDOW; WINDOW IN THE TEST; WHO’S AMONG THE VERY BEST?” PART 2

YESTERDAY, THE 1982 R&T BOUND VOLUME brought back memories of tire testing. We continue here with details of our hard-working tire-changing crew, confidence windows, blind testing, and an R&T visit by a tiremaker.

Our Faithful Crew. I wrote back then in October 1982 that our faithful tire-changing crew was, “variously, R&T Intern Kim Reynolds [remember him, readers?], Assistant Art Director Richard Baron [eventually to succeed Bill Motta], Assistant Librarian Jim Brokaw, and Long-suffering Friend Joe Kemp [Wife Dottie’s nephew].”

Some must work while others merely lap Sears Point.

Confidence Windows. A key point of the methodology was “they would occasionally sneak in a previously tested set, just to keep us on our toes. In each phase, several tires were repeated to get an idea of test reproducibility and to gain an appreciation of what differences were significant—and which weren’t.”

“Blind” Testing. “And to balance any preconceived notions we might have had about one make or another, the test driving was done in a blind matter.”

This blind/repeated approach is inherent to the scientific method of inquiry, but seeming not always practiced in product testing I’ve read. 

Above, our Sears Point First Loop results. Below, Braking From 60 MPH (Wet Surface).

Windows Variously Ajar. “Wet braking,” I noted, “proved somewhat less reproducible with an average variation of 12.3 ft in our repeated sets, so let’s set our confidence window at 15 ft.” VW wasn’t to introduce ABS until 1987.

Summary. We concluded by summarizing our six evaluations in terms of confidence-window placings: Dry braking: 5 ft. Wet braking : 15 ft. Skidpads, wet and dry: 0.012g. Slalom: 0.6 mph. And Sears Point First Loop: 0.5 sec. 

The Suits Visit R&T. Once the tire and ink dust settled, we were visited by one of the tiremakers, prompted, I suspect, by their advertising people. No big deal: Three years before, I had already faced Ralph Nader at a U.S. Congressional hearing, so had only curiosity about this meeting in my home ground of the R&T conference room.

House Representative John D. Dingell, your author, and John Tomerlin. Image from R&T, October 1979. Nader, who called us “Road & Quack,” questioned automaker ad influence. I countered by offering him a chance to read aloud our May 1979 magazine’s Ad Index. He declined. 

Back to Tires and the R&T Conference Room. I explained to our tiremaker guests the nature of our testing, particularly its blind/repeat aspects. This seemed to satisfy the engineers. I don’t recall what the ad folks concluded, but their ads continued in the magazine.

One point agreed upon was that tire technology was always advancing, and some products tested would be more recently evolved than others. Hmm…. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025