RacerX wrote:


No just the opposite. Treadwear ratings are all fudged to some extent by the manufactures. RA-1's were 40 treadwear, but later re-rated to 100 to better show how long the tread really lasts. The best gauge for how fast a tire really is is defined in the PT rules. As you can see hoosiers get alot more points than RA-1's NASA in the PT system consider the hoosier much faster. In fact we can back calcuate from the points how much weight hooisers are worth in the PT world. The reasonis that the extra points you save by not running hoosiers could be used for running lighter.

Now that does not mean it appplies perfectly ot our cars, but it the much of hardwork is done. All +7 tires are considered to be "equal" or at least close enough in speed to not make much difference. More tires points = a fast tire. It may not be a perfect system, but it is roughly correct.

All,

I just spoke with Jim Doughty at Shelby Enterprises, the good year distrubritor for the western US. He has checked with goodyear reguarding the availability of Eagle RS tires, in the 225/45/15 size. By the end of april, they will have 125 tires available. If we want to use this tire as a new spec tire, they will increase production, in order to have as many tires as our class would need from June onward. This would mean we would have a limited number of tires for the next several months, while producation is increased to be able to fully satisfy, all of our tire needs. Good year currently has a contingency program with nasa, that provides for 2 tires to the winner, one tire to 2nd place and one tire to 3rd place. They will extend that contengancy to 944-spec.
The biggest problem I see is the retail price of the tire is about $225.00, Remember this tire will not need to be shaved. Saving $20 per tire. Jim will work out a discounted tire price, if we make this tire our new spec tire.
From my prior experience, this tire will last longer than hoosiers, but not as long as RA1's.
The good news is, it is an american made tire.
I for one, would like to see, a single tire spec for our series going forward.

Jim "Big Dog" Foxx

$225 per tire YIKES! I thought one of the bene's of a spec tire would be reduced costs.

While we are shopping this around, someone should consult BFGoodrich. The R1 used to be a spec tire for the Mustang series. Also, I believe that they have a street version of the R1 that Skip Barber uses as their spec tire. This might be a closer fit with our series.

Big Dog wrote:


Jim,
Thank you for doing the ground work on this. Supply looks like it could be solid. However $225 each is stupid money on a tire that I know will not last as long as an RA-1. I remember the days guys were running Eagle RS in SCCA. They tires were fast, very fast and similar to hoosiers in terms of speed, but also similar interms of life. So sadly they are too rich for most of us here and we still have the issue of competing sideby side with RA-1s.

BFG R1 has a similar issue. Low life and good grip. Hard to consider good grip a problem, but again most 944 guys have RA-1's so moving to faster tire has significnat cost impacts short term even if the long term cost could be worked out. The basic problem is the reson we ran RA-1's was because they were an ideal balance between initial price, life cycle cost, and overall grip.

I found the perfect spec tire.....ONLY $64 @ the Rack
Cheap and plentiful!

Kumho.....Ecsta AST--High Performance All-Season

A full on street tire might be a hoot!!!! As long as it is sticky.