>If you want to keep true street tires, the only 'fix' I see is to have a
>durometer in Impound. You weigh P and M cars, do a tire 'softness' test
with a
>durometer on the whole class as they roll off...
>
>AB
==================================
You may be on to something here.
Now if we could ensure that the durometer readings we get "at home" are
consistent with the ones we get in Topeka. Also remember, treadwear ratings
are set by each manufacturer relative to a "standard" test tire (of theirs)
with a treadwear rating of 100. Durometers are also very subjective from
brand to brand, model to model and hell, even from manufacturer run to run.
And we'd have get it to be the exact same temperature, sun brightness and
humidity for every competitor and then we'd be all set. Oh, and you'll need
charts for every tire and their hardness ratings as they age. (Yeah right,
like anybody's gonna get a street tire that hasn't been sitting around
_somewhere_ for at least 6 months.)
Or we simply treat it like the scales at Nationals. You pays your money and
you takes your chances that "their" scale reads close to what your scale
back home does. Weigh, or check tire hardness, before your runs or at tech
inspection. Should we go back to stamping tech'd tires and only stamped
tires are allowed to run? Perhaps so. We need to assign more people to
"tech" (and longer hours) anyway. Just ask the few people who tech'd 1000+
cars this year.
Only with weight you can simply add ballast, what do you do with tires? Add
hardness? Or simply disqualify them? It'd be a real bitch to learn _after_
the best 6 runs of your life your tires only read 139 treadwear rating (or
whatever an equivalent durometer reading would be) on "their" durometer and
your runs are not gonna be counted. But then I guess that you run that
chance with the scales already.
Hmm, even after my smart-ass remarks, that's not a bad idea Andrew. We
could have our good friends at the Tirerack give us durometer readings for
all the hot street tires since they carry virtually all of them anyway. We
make a chart of the tires (rated above 140) and their durometer readings.
We establish a minimum durometer rating number based off of testing those
new tires with a durometer of known quality and repeatability, hopefully the
same one that we'd use at nationals. Hey, the Tirerack could even "loan" it
to us and then we'd judge every street tire by that scale. Perhaps the
Tirerack would even "loan" us a tire expert to do the testing for us.
Wouldn't want just any yahoo-Bubba testing my tires. ;^)
It just might work.
Eric Linnhoff in KC
#69 STS TLS #13
'98 Neon R/T
<eric10mm@qni.com>
"Fill what's empty, empty what's full,
and scratch where it itches."
The Duchess of Windsor when asked
what is the secret of a long and happy life
|