Hola Rowdy,
I certainly do not know everything there is to know about tires. I hope the article doesn't indicate that I think I do.
One driver ran the DOT approved Hoosiers a couple years ago. The improvement over normal street tires was dramatic. The tires were banned after 2 races.
I did a search for the Blizzak tire. Although the price seems reasonable it isn't available in the sizes I need and isn't available in CA (not much need for snow tires here).
I have do disagree with you on the cost effectiveness of race vs street tires. Lets compare apples to apples...
A new street tire costs me around $75-80 compared to a new LM tire costs $125 (I used your description and price, I don't know what they are called and what they cost). So a new street tire is much less expensive than a new LM tire.
A used streed tire cost $20-30 bucks. Lets compare that to your used LM tire. $20 for the tire, $12 for the inner tube, $3 for the patch. So a used street tire is about the same price as a used LM tire.
The real cost saving of street tires is that they essentially don't wear out (You can't say the same thing for LM tires). I have never discarded a street tire (that I used for racing) because it wore out. Unless you damage the tire it will, for all intents and purposes, last forever. So replacing worn out tires is significantly less expensive with street tires.
Since street tires offer signifcantly less traction than LM tires. Corner speeds are much slower with street tires. IMO this means that the benefits of a high dollar/high hp motor are minimized. It also means that I can stick with stock suspension components that I can buy at Kragen or Autozone without the fear of a failure. I can save alot of money there as well.
I am not a big fan of a "track tire" but I am in favor of a simple but restrictive tire rule.
Your last comment about tracks relying on the back gate and racers losing money is true for every track and racer in CA (there may be an exception somewhere). I wish it wasn't.
JMO, CD  |