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Tire question for SCCA racers


Kitcat

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I just tried to order replacement tires for my worn Goodyear slicks. Since my car was used for SCCA racing, it was required to use skinny wheels. Clever car mfgs like Goodyear got around that by making cantilevered tires (Muffin tops?).

 

But now my tire supplier has advised that Goodyear no longer makes the Formula Ford tire that my car ran (13x7.5 rear, 13x6 front). So what tires are folks using?

 

Or, has everyone gone to normal wheel and tire combos? It wld be cheaper for me not to replace the existing skinny wheels so I am hoping to find a direct replacement for the Goodyears.

 

Any thots?

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Thx guys, I will start by checking into the Hoosiers. I won't miss the Goodyears-the front driver's side was good for 2 track days, then bald. They were also prone to punctures and they were very expensive. My skinny, Toyo R888' street/track tires have nearly as much grip.

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If you use the SCCA legal 6" wheels there are two options, if you have bias ply camber Hoosier makes a cantilever bias ply catalog # 42171.

If you run radial cambers the choice is the 43549

We have run both tires and find them equally quick, the radials maintain good traction longer and will give you more heat cycles.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Thx guys, I will start by checking into the Hoosiers. I won't miss the Goodyears-the front driver's side was good for 2 track days, then bald. They were also prone to punctures and they were very expensive. My skinny, Toyo R888' street/track tires have nearly as much grip.

 

The wear rate on those Goodyears was very dependent on tire pressure. 21psi (hot) was a correct target. The original owner of that car was running them too low (18psi) - hopefully that misinformation didn't make it your way :-)

 

-Bruce

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You might look into these as they as what are raced on 6-8" rims

[TABLE]

[TR=bgcolor: #f0d3f1]

[TD=align: center]43168[/TD]

[TD=align: left]20.0 x 7.5-13 A2500[/TD]

[TD=align: center]SR[/TD]

[TD=align: center]8.0"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]20.6"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]65.0"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]6-9"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]8"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]9.4"[/TD]

[TD=align: left]R25B, R35A[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

I have used these to the last two seasons on 8" rims but they are a little taller

[TABLE]

[TR=bgcolor: #f0d3f1]

[TD=align: center]43271[/TD]

[TD=align: left]21.5 x 8.0-13[/TD]

[TD=align: center]SCCA-F, SR[/TD]

[TD=align: center]8.2"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]21.4"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]66.8"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]8"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]8"[/TD]

[TD=align: center]9.5"[/TD]

[TD=align: left]FE SCCA[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

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  • 4 weeks later...

I spent quite a bit of time last year talking to the chief engineer at Avon. They know these cars very well as they support six 7 type spec series in England. Seems that the series there use six and eight inch wheels. After all is said and done....they have a straight sidewall bias tire that they feel works best. The chassis has so much flex, at some point you are not accomplishing anything else by going to a wider tire. As I recall, he felt a bias tire with a flexible sidewall helped compensate for the flex.

 

Chip Bond could confirm this, but I believe a lot of the still standing SCCA EP lap records were set on narrow Avon bias slicks over 10 years ago with 6 inch wheels.

 

That said most of us are using a Hoosier radial slick. They have a contingency program for SCCA Majors. I used the Goodyear cantilevered bias slicks, but they quit making them a couple years ago. They did just start making cantilevered slicks again, but only in the 15 inch size. Hosier still makes a cantilevered bias slick that works well on 6 inch wheels. I personally think they are slightly faster than the radial slicks, especially for the first couple laps of a race. They tend to go away more over the course of a 40 minute race.

 

We can now use 7 inch rims in SCCA, but the smaller Hoosier radial slick.....does not benefit from a 7" rim. The larger one maybe a little.

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  • 2 weeks later...

You know Mike, that is an interesting perspective, I have always felt that we were a little faster on the bias ply tires but went to radials because you get a much broader performance curve out of them. It felt like the bias plys would drop off in performance at 3 or 4 heat cycles where the radials would hang in there for 5 -6 cycles, and that equated to a huge savings.

I would still like to find a good tire for the 7" rims we are allowed to run.

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  • 3 weeks later...

DallasDude:

Who do you buy your Hoosiers from, with phone number? I left a message w/R Krause, yesterday, no reply.

Thx!

BTW, I checked and I have the 6x13 wheels all around.

What size tires do you use front and back? Currently my rear cantilevered Goodyears are much taller/wider than the fronts. So I would like to maintain that staggered set up.

Since I am just doing track days, I am hoping to avoid the cost of new wheels for a performance edge I dont need.

Edited by Kitcat
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