Dunlop Kart Tires
Dunlop Kart tires are something a lot of people might not know exist. The company Dunlop is big for making tires for cars and other things. But they do have a kart tire division as well, and it does very well in the US.
Most of the dunlops you see will be used on pavement tracks. They make a soft enough tire for dirt, but most racers use them on asphalt.
The Trademark Yellow Dunlop
A DCS Dunlop Kart Tire Mounted
This is a DCS tire on a 6 inch wheel.. It's one of their tires on the softer compound side of the scale (54 on durometer) and one of the most common.
These were previously DBS, and have been replaced with the DDS tire. As you can see Dunlop makes new names for these every couple of years, and it seems to follow the format of just changing the middle letter to the next in the alphabet. The other D tires do the same.
Their main oval tire:
The DDS Tires and DDM Tires are their most popular tires on pavement speedway ovals in America. These will mostly be on asphalt, but their softest tire, the DBW, which is a 49 on the durometer can be used on dirt, and sometimes the harder tires are used on dirt as well if it is a very hard surface.
Most dunlops on oval tracks are mounted on 6 inch wheels.
Sprint Track Tires
The Durometer
If you don't know already, a durometer is a tool that measures the softness of a tire.
Dunlop Kart Tires are usually within a range of about 49-66 in their tires. The lower the number, the softer.
The SL series of tires from dunlop are all on 5 inch wheels, and are used primarily on road courses or sprint tracks.
These are the mainly all hard tires. Hard tires with just enough grip, but don't wear out as easily either.
Most of these tires are for sprint karts, and they work pretty well. They are popular among sprint kart racers.
Rain or Shine
Dunlops offers grooved rain tires as well, and they are designed to displace water and improve handling conditions dramatically in rain. Only sprint tracks and road courses will run in the rain, so they are the places you would see these used. They make different compounds of these as well.
A personal touch to these tires: I used these for a long time and still do for my home track. I used to run the old RS9's when they made them and the DAM, DBM, DCM, and DDM tires. I was very successful with these at the short track I ran, but I was one of the few that run them. More people ran the softer DCS/DDS tires. Sometimes being the only one doing something isn't always that bad.
