Kumho creates a tire that smokes red for drifting?

Would you roll on these tires? I wouldn't mind trying out some blue ones :grinyes:

http://www.l8apex.com/MX-C%20Test.wmv

May 6, 2005
For Immediate Release KUMHO Tire USA

KUMHO debuts red smoke tire for drifting competition

FONTANA, CA…In the last few years, KUMHO Tire has achieved a number of firsts: the first company to make a 26-inch light truck tire; the first company to produce a 28-inch light truck tire; a class win in the company’s first race in the American Le Mans Series. And now, KUMHO has another first: a tire that produces red smoke. This special version of KUMHO’s ECSTA MX ultra high performance street tire--dubbed the ECSTA MX-C--will make its public debut with Enjuku Racing at the Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta on May 6 and 7.
Enjuku tested the MX-C for the first time the week of April 18, and it literally left the team’s members speechless. “When we saw the red smoke boiling off the rear tires, we just stood there and stared in awe,” said Enjuku lead driver and team captain Matt Vassallo. “I think people will be blown away when they see this.”
The ECSTA MX-C was developed at the KUMHO Technical Center in Akron, OH. “At a product meeting here late last summer, several people were talking about the sport of drifting,” said Guy Edington, manager of the Technical Center. “While watching a drifting video, someone opined that it would be cool if the tire smoke coming off the cars was colored.”
From there the idea blossomed, and Jim Palombo, KUMHO’s senior product chemist, and Gary Bradnick, lead lab technologist, set about looking for a way to make colored smoke. They developed the right mix of chemicals and now have a patent pending for their colorful compound (they’ve also developed a compound that produces blue tire smoke). Following successful testing, KUMHO produced a limited number of the tires.
“We don’t intend to sell the ECSTA MX-C to the general public,” said KUMHO brand director Rick Brennan. “We built them to demonstrate our forward thinking, technical capabilities and ability to respond quickly to the market. Like our race-winning ALMS tire, the MX-C was developed in a very short time—about six months. And like our 26-inch and 28-inch light truck tires, the MX-C gets attention by charting new territory that no other tire company even thought about entering.”
Enjuku’s Vassallo agrees. “With the car show market and drifting scene ever-expanding in the U.S., the constant effort to make your vehicle stand out in the crowd is the ultimate goal,” he said. “KUMHO has upped the ante with the ECSTA MX-C.”
Established in 1960, KUMHO TIRE CO., INC., of Seoul, South Korea, had 2004 sales of $1.6 billion. KUMHO manufactures and distributes a complete line of tires for passenger cars, light trucks and heavy duty trucks. KUMHO has manufacturing facilities in Korea and China and operates technical centers in Birmingham, England, and Akron, Ohio. For more information, visit the KUMHO TIRE USA Web site at www.Kumhotireusa.com.

PINK BURNOUTS! Do they smell like strawberry too?

i dont know.... its weird, im not sure if i like it or hate it lol, seems kinda rice, but the colors are still cool, the smoke reminds me of the new cell shaded zelda game for some reason =D

that is SWEET.... i want some :\

Blue Angels :)

thats fuckin nasty

It's kinda neat...

But it answered the question nobody asked.

what question?......

the real thing i wanna know is how much, do you think it'll be more expensive ebcause it has the pretty colours!!

does it leave colored tire marks?

what question?......

the real thing i wanna know is how much, do you think it'll be more expensive ebcause it has the pretty colours!!


“We don’t intend to sell the ECSTA MX-C to the general public,” said KUMHO brand director Rick Brennan.


I wonder if this means that they won't be available at all... or if they will be sold as an R compound tire...

yeah, what redneck said, it pretty much answered a question nobody asked

translation: they came up with something that nobody really had a burning desire for....

thats cause no one had really thought about it but now that it is presented to us people will want it. first the drifters will be interested. and then it will carry over to the whole car scene because it is badass

does it leave colored tire marks?

It'll be interesting to find out. I remember BFGoodrich had the Scorcher T/As that had a tread section in different colors. I don't think they make them anymore. It seems they were a little ahead of their time, and just missed the drift craze.

Well, with BFGoodrich having a colored section of rubber was easy for car identification... like if a Cop rolls up just after you do your little burn out.

He can see the rubber on the road has a colored mark in it, and if he see's a car with the same colored mark in the tire you're as good as ticketed.

This... is totally different. Kinda cool... Might be hazardous if they release it to the public. Everybody and their brother who gets them will want to show off... and light em up at a signal or something... red smoke everywhere!

haha... dangerous.

haha dangerous lmao,

yea it might turn into one of those things that everyone will have, like plastic spinners, then it'll get boring, but the colored tires only had one little strip of colour didn't they? back then i didn't really see a big point to that, maybe if the entire tire was red or yellow or white then it would have been more popular.

well if u look at the tire it is black so i doubt it will leave colored tire marks...i think it was just a cool idea, also if u read. it wont be produced for the public. i just think it would be cool if they had a couple other colors as well...i think it would set a new trend in styling if they did that and released it.

it says it will be in blue too

LOL, awesome. Next, they should invent a tire qith different scents as somebody suggested, like strawberry, vanilla, cinnamon.....lol!!

...hate it, i think. I was at the atlanta event and saw the debut. I was volunteering and heard what the pro's thought of it.
'<sigh> Oh god.... they didn't...' At first it did catch my eye, but after getting the opinion of the veterans, I tend to agree with them. Doing things for attention is (unfortunately?) part of the sport, but class and taste need to be seriously considered. The guys I talked to seemed to think this was a step in the wrong direction, making the sport cheesy and difficult to take seriously.

I'm on the fence for colored smoke, I'll never use it, just like neon and strobes. If the smoke were 'red', I might be able to work with it, but what I saw was pink... and, um, yeah...

Guessing by the opinions around me, I will bet that the smoke might have actually hurt Enjuku's score. And I can report that the crowd did not 'Go Crazy', it was more of a confused murmering; 'they make red tires?'

question: if tires smoked pink naturally and the new tire smoked white, would it be distasteful?

o for sure enjuku is taking a hit on this one, around the school i showed some of the kids i know that are into driting, tehy just cant stand much of enjuku anymore for this kind of stuff, just aobut everyone i've asked has said its just cheesy

seems like its just a different color for tire smoke, no big deal.

reminds me of Mario Kart on N64

that smoke was orange and yellow

...hate it, i think. I was at the atlanta event and saw the debut. I was volunteering and heard what the pro's thought of it.
'<sigh> Oh god.... they didn't...' At first it did catch my eye, but after getting the opinion of the veterans, I tend to agree with them. Doing things for attention is (unfortunately?) part of the sport, but class and taste need to be seriously considered. The guys I talked to seemed to think this was a step in the wrong direction, making the sport cheesy and difficult to take seriously.

I'm on the fence for colored smoke, I'll never use it, just like neon and strobes. If the smoke were 'red', I might be able to work with it, but what I saw was pink... and, um, yeah...

Guessing by the opinions around me, I will bet that the smoke might have actually hurt Enjuku's score. And I can report that the crowd did not 'Go Crazy', it was more of a confused murmering; 'they make red tires?'

yes, and of course after the 'veterans' said what they had to say..you immediately lost your own opinion and had to agree with them because..well..they're veterans. :thumbsup:

if they had givin the tires to nomuken it would be a diffrent story, but alas his car is still white with blue and a little bit of red this year...

if it were given to nomuken it would still be the same and it would just be a downgrade for him, example, when he put the spoiler on his car i lost a lot of respect, just because someone is pro doesn't mean you need to go with their thoughts.

yeah my god why would any drifter want to have downforce on their rear wheels...even though most of the d1 guys have enough horsepower to warrant it. (sarcasm)

im just saying there seems to be no point of a spoiler for drifting, not at the speeds that you would drift, and it just looks stupid.

yes, and of course after the 'veterans' said what they had to say..you immediately lost your own opinion and had to agree with them because..well..they're veterans. :thumbsup:

Did I deserve that? At first, I thought it was valid, but then I re-read my post...

I am on the fence, anything-goes-crowd-pleasing vs taste. I never said that the guys there were right, with godly opinions, only that I asked what they thought, and have repeated it to you. I still don't know what I feel. I did not like the 'pink' smoke, but I do remember them for it. It's like advertising. If I were drifting, might I pull out a gimmick to garner a little more attention? I know I already have a few cheap gimmicky ideas. So I don't know.
I asked them, because I didn't have an opinion. I didn't have enough info to call it. '...Immediately lost my own opinion...', I don't recall having an opinion to lose. I don't 'have to agree' with pro's because of their status, I consider what they have to say, and hope they mention something I hadn't considered.

If you'd like, next time I talk to anybody on the inside, I'll spare you the hassle of hearing what they thought...

no point at speeds most of us drift but i bet you the d1/formula d guys enter some corners at around 100mph not all the time but still. you got 5-600 hp, your going to want to be able to put some of it down even if your sliding. its not just abandoned chaos

Lets get back on track people.

Thanks, :thumbsup:

I dunno...half of me likes it, the other half doesnt. I cant really decide. Its like the fast and the furious. Part of me thinks, wow, thats kinda cool, ya know, its like, fun, but the other part thinks that its cheasy as hell, and pointless.

Well foreveryone who just thought the smoke was stupid, it got a small little picture in the modified mag this month(and a nice mention), as well as earne them a squeeker little spot in the top 16.so it couldnt have been all that bad

magazines are not always right, look at super street, riced out heaven, only ones i really look at are the car and driver, and road and track.

modified is probly one of my favorites its very good at covering all aspects as well as being the official formula D sponsor and promoter. theyre a new publication and theyre private so theyre not turning out stupid primedia corporate bullshit

just put red kool-aid in your black magic tire wax when you do burnouts!

color-smoking tires=teh uncle ben's finest