I am somewhat disturbed and concerned by what I have heard about the new
tire regulations. I hope that we are not returning to the "bad old days" of
the late 80s and early 90s. During this period of time all of the cars with
15 inch wheel were required to use either Dunlop, or Goodyear Vintage race
tires, or possibly BFG Compt T/As while any cars with 13 inch wheels could
if they so desired, use Avon English "Formula Ford" spec tires which for
all intents and purposes appeared to be slicks with a tread pattern!. When
the cars that I was classed with switched from the Goodyear Blue Streaks to
the Avons, their lap times dropped by about 4 second a lap or so , at least
at Sears Point. With an advantage like that , they could just "drive around
me " in the turns while I was in an all out 4 wheel drift and could go no
faster than I was going. What this resulted in was a season of races in
which I got to circulate around the track by my self! The cars that I had
used to race against, Elvas, Lotus S-7s, Ginettas, etc, just ran off and
left me for dead, while I was able to pull away from most of the rest of the
field. THIS WAS NO FUN! So I stopped racing for 7 years. The last 3
seasons have been great! Being able to use Yoko A 008s has been a great
equilizer. I have been able to race on tires that were as sticky as the
cars I was having to compete against. I was no longer 3 or 4 seconds off
the pace.
My car, a 1964 Morgan +4 with a steel body weighs 1908 lbs. with 3
gallons of gas. Using Goodyear Blue Streaks, I would completely wear out a
set of tires in 2 weekends if we got a lot of track time, which CSRG usually
offers, using Yokos, I have been running 10 events and the tires are still
not worn out. The Goodyears cost $780.00 a set, the Yokos cost $500.00 a
set shaved. For a season of 8 events thats $3120.00 vs. $2000.00 plus the
additional cost of mounting and balancing. So cost is certaiinly a
consideration.
It is true that the appearance and the cornering speeds generated by the
Yokos are definitly NOT vintage. There is also the matter of the additional
stresses that these loads and speeds put on the car and its components to
consider. I know, my right rear axle broke the second event last season at
Thunderhill, and my wheel came off at about 90 mph! If we run these newer
and faster tires it is necessary to upgrade our maintenance program on the
cars.
My main concern is that we have a level playing field! The rules have
to be the same for everyone. There have been a wider variety of 13 inch
tires available than there has been 15 inchers, and 14 inch tires may be
even more of a problem. Either the races have to be organized on the basis
of wheel diameter, or we have to make sure that tires of equel cornering
power are available in ALL the wheel diameters that our cars have.
Regards, Greg Solow
Kingfisher Blue Morgan +4 #45
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