In a message dated 12/12/2006 10:27:08 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
pault151@comcast.net writes:
<< What I did last year was look at the Finals results in Street Touring
for tire choices, at what the winners ran. The Yokos were more popular this
year than last despite their exorbitant prices, but not dominant; many
trophies
were still earned with the Falkens and the others Ed mentioned. Caveat:
Daytime temperatures were way down at Nationals. YMMV. >>
But remember, the only STS car that could make use of the Advan's 17" sizes
won the class. There were no STS2 cars that could use them effectively. STX
was a mixed bag. But in STU, 12 out of 13 trophy winners were on Advans
and the other one was on Bridgestones. The highest placing Hankook car was
19th and the highest placing Falken car was 21st. We (STU) ran 2nd on
Tues/Wed
and it wasn't cold. Temperatures were "down" from previous Nationals, but
then anything is down from 80-105 degree temps that have been fairly common in
early September back there. It was cool, similar to the Bay Area for the
months of Oct-April, and sometimes the rest of the year. The surface was
asphalt, which we run on at all of SFR's sites except for (usually cool and
sandy,
though) Marina. Sounds like a lot of parallels to me.
<< The Ecsta MX's are cheap, not nearly as heat sensitive as the Falkens
and Yokos, but are IMO maybe just half a notch slower; I ran them in 2005 and
lost a place in a tight class in Sacramento compared to the previous year.
The MX's ARE much more forgiving as a street-use tire due to a significantly
easier ride quality, so if you hate swapping tires and have to survive
Berkeley's potholes they're a good trade-off. >>
Personally, I think the Kumhos are more than a half notch off. The only car
with any success on those tires is the sponsored Elder/McCormick car. Top
notch car with top notch drivers, but hampered IMO by their tires.
Charlie
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