Patent ID: 8386223

Claim:
A method for selecting, from a set of possible configurations, an optimized tire configuration for fitting a vehicle intended to run on a circuit following a predefined route, oriented in a single course direction and including bends, said method comprising the steps of: developing a physical model of the vehicle fitted with a first tire configuration; dividing a digital image of the predefined route into successive segments by connecting at points with associated vehicle speed limit values; simulating, in iterations, the course by the modeled vehicle, of each route segment, firstly at maximum acceleration on portions of a route taken successively in an actual course direction and belonging to a first segment portion including an initial point of said route segment, and at maximum deceleration on route portions taken successively upstream from each other and belonging to a second segment portion including an end point of said route segment, and connecting the first and second segment portions at a point of the route segment where a speed of the modeled vehicle on the first portion of said route segment does not exceed the speed of the modeled vehicle on the second portion of said route segment; storing in memory a course time taken by the vehicle to cover the predefined route at least once; comparing the course time to at least one reference time and producing a comparison result; and optionally selecting a first optimized configuration as a function of the comparison result.