by Rick Zinda, co-chair Tech Sessions committee

Photos by Mike Clemens and Paul Stewart

Approximately 40 PCA Milwaukee and BMW CCA members got together for a great and informative tech session on March 27 devoted to tire technologies. Mike Loos; owner of O’Reilly Motorcars in downtown Milwaukee and our gracious host demonstrated the benefits of his newest tool -- a road force balancing machine. This state-of-the-art machine takes the typical spin balancing (left-right) and adds 800 pounds of rolling pressure to the tread surface to help balance it up and down (think flat spot or hard side wall).

Also on hand to explain the ins and outs of tire design and coding was Sonny McDonald from Toyo Tires. Sonny brought a great slide show and demo tires to demystify the codes on the sidewalls, explain why car manufacturers recommend the tire specs they do and why compound and tread design matter.

Throughout the session both Mike and Sonny were more than happy to stop and answer questions or explain a bit deeper the subject at hand. It seemed everyone walked away a little more knowledgeable about the often neglected part that keeps our great cars (and us) rolling around those curves safely.

We want to thank Mike, Sonny and everyone for a wonderful tech session.