DUNLOP'S NEW DT4 DIRT TRACK TIRE
P90
Feature
TRACTION REIMAGINED
With the all-new DT4, Dunlop remakes, replaces and improves
legendary—and four-decade-old—DT1/DT2/DT3 dirt track tire
BY MITCH BOEHM/AFT I PHOTOGRAPHY BY DUNLOP AND SCOTT HUNTER
H
ard to believe, but it's been
decades since there was a
wholesale redesign of the
world's most well-known dirt track tire,
and the tire used on all racing motor-
cycles in American Flat Track competi-
tion: Dunlop's DT3. The DT3 actually
morphed from the Goodyear Eagle
DT2, which itself came from the DT1,
which began life as a roadracing rain
tire and debuted in the late 1970s on
dirt track machines ridden by guys with
names like "King Kenny" Roberts.
But with the introduction of the all-
new Dunlop DT4, which takes over
from the DT3 as the official tire of Amer-
ican Flat Track, that wholesale change
has finally happened, and we have the
inside scoop on its development.
Before digging into the details sur-
rounding the DT4, consider for a mo-
ment the wide range of performance a
top-shelf dirt track tire like the DT3 has
had to offer over the years: One tire has
had to provide a high degree of trac-
tion, stability, feedback and durability
on a wide range of motorcycles, from
300-plus-pound/100-horsepower twins
to 200-plus-pound/60-horsepower
singles. One tire has had to do this
on a shockingly wide range of race
tracks—ultra-fast miles and half-miles,
and medium- and slower-speed short
