Fellow Experimenters,
I am hearing lots of conversation about tire age. Maybe some of you
don't remember the deal many years ago when Goodyear decided to go
racing at Indy. The story goes that Goodyear was not real confident
about their tire so the bought a bunch of Firestones, ground the name
off and kept them in reserve. I don't know for sure about that story,
but, along with several others I became the owner of some of these tires
that were found by someone, I believe the name was Ferguson, who
purchased these tires that had been warehoused for a number of years.
The point is that these tires were old with a capital "O". The rubber
was dead and brittle. We shaved the tires and ran them for several years
more. Ask Al Teague. I believe he found them to be more reliable than
the new stuff he was buying a few years ago.
Lots of this discussion makes good sense and I believe that we should
try new things all the time to find what works for us. I would hate to
see tech get so rigid that it eliminated the ability to search for answers.
As for the wide versus narrow tires, the jury is still out. Listen to
Glen! He is in a position to know more about these things than most of
us will ever know. My experience is very narrow, I only know some of the
things that work for me, and some things that haven't, yet. One thing I
am confident about is that year to year conditions change and this last
Speedweek gave us one of the best courses any of us have run on.
Gribble's experience with wide tires may have been great, but the car
did spin twice. Would it have spun with narrow tires on it? I don't know
and neither does anyone else.
I guess my point is that my hat is off to Grib for trying something that
others said wouldn't work and proving it for himself. ("He that walks on
the beating path leaves not tracks") But, if the conditions were
different, would there still have been success? For now I will stick
with what I know works. I am not yet ready to yield to someone else's
success.
Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/GCC
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