Inquiring minds want to know...

If so, the number of credible candidates for the "tire to have" will rise again.

I can't wait for the coming winter's incarnation of the "Street Tires in Stock" thread.

[6]

Goodyear already makes tons of tires eligible for ST. No news there.

--Andy

through Dunlop certainly, but with their own brand? 140s? really?

i must have missed that... the asymmetrics go no smaller than 17" at present, right? wrong tire perhaps?

And by the way Andy - thanks for the driving demonstration at Nationals. Much appreciated and congrats.

Cheers,

Charlie

There are thousands of tires 'eligible' for ST classes, just less than 10 that are 'good' for them....

There are lots of tires within those thousands that are Goodyears, but none of them are in that 'good' range... (though there is one that is awfully good in the rain)...

the reason I asked is that I had a nice chat with a gent from Goodyear named Steve Petrescue after 3rd heat on Wednesday - and he seemed to be doing serious due diligence out in Nebraska.

perhaps I misunderstood...

I do appreciate the nice hat though, and the emblem thereon which he indicated would be the brand mark for the new tires.

I saw him as well. Heard similar story after he walked by in grid.

Except that those were r-comps. Good ones. Goodyear had the special "O" compound, where your name had to be "on the list" to get, and you had to call "the man" on the phone. Yoko and Bridgestone sold the same tires to everyone and through normal retail channels.

Same guys that were at the Texas Tour. One of them (Colby) lives in Austin and hangs out at Soulspeed quite a bit.

--Andy

Let's hope, in terms of ultimate escalation, it isn't deja vu all over again...[;)]

Hmmm....

The big difference is that, back in the day, we knew it was happening and openly encouraged it. R-comps were the "drug of choice" of a new generation of autocrossers. Now, we are openly looking out for it and discouraging it in the street tire classes.

I worry less about the actual tires and more about shenanigans such as "special tires for special people". The latter takes a lot longer to figure out.

--Andy

PS: There has been talk of Goodyear bringing out a new line of r-comps for over a year now. Perhaps that is what was really being discussed?

I can see your point. Is the STAC planning on being even more proactive in managing an exclusion list? Seems that is the only possible way of policing, as we all know the tread wear rating issues and liberties that manufacturers will take to create an unfair advantage.

As far as "special tires for special people", in the spirit of ST*, I would just put that in the category of outright cheating. If a competitor were willing to play that game to "win" and was caught, I would put both the competitor and manufacturer on probation for at least one year. There's no place for that crap in a grass roots sport like Solo.

Ummm, where ya been, Mike? [:)] There've been huge threads on this earlier in the year. And a rules change proposal adding some more restrictive verbiage (teeth) to the ST tire allowance. I don't see vigilance amping up beyond where it is today, but I'd put it at a solid Def Con 4. STAC will go on Ready 5 around SEMA time, though.

[quote]

As far as "special tires for special people", in the spirit of ST*, I would just put that in the category of outright cheating. If a competitor were willing to play that game to "win" and was caught, I would put both the competitor and manufacturer on probation for at least one year. There's no place for that crap in a grass roots sport like Solo.

I suppose that's why Hoosier hasn't bothered to offer a 140 TW tire - they assume they would instantly put on the exclusion list?

The Goodyear guy was in the B/SP and A/SP grid as well. Currently, Goodyear already has (and has had) R-Comps in quite of few sizes, but they are R6 equivalent for road racing, not A6 equivalent. Claims of 'less camber needed', 'will last a bit longer', 'quicker', 'same price points', etc., were tossed about. IF they come out with A6 equivalents (the way he was talking) don't expect a huge selection. The questions kept coming back to 'what are the most common sizes' and 'how many cars would use this (X) size'.

Andy, thanks for the flashback. I remember all that stuff about special tires.