How do we get a company to make good tires for a Cobra?

[twobjshelbys]

I had a very good marketing guy that explained to me that commodity volumes are driven by TAM (Total Available Market, ie, the number of Cobras) factored with market penetration. It is going to be extremely difficult to acquire enough long term volume to justify the tooling expense for a complete new line of low volume tires. A Johnny-come-lately brand will not fare well, and to get someone like Michelin to tool for the sizes will cost a lot of money and the tires would be priced accordingly. Then you have the long term issue of storage (tires, like milk and eggs, have an expiration date). The second part of TAM for a commodity like a tire is that the demand is fixed and a new supplier can only get volume by taking it from someone else. So if a new Cobra tire appeared it would have to be compelling.

On the other hand, manufacturers do still make tires for things like vintage Rolls Royces. I'd start by locating and talking with those low volume manufacturers. Or is that Coker and noone else? Hearing they have no interest and specialize in that market is not a good sign.

Why not go to SEMA and visit the tire barn? They have acres of wheels and tire displays.

[767Jockey]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

I had a very good marketing guy that explained to me that commodity volumes are driven by TAM (Total Available Market, ie, the number of Cobras) factored with market penetration. It is going to be extremely difficult to acquire enough long term volume to justify the tooling expense for a complete new line of low volume tires. A Johnny-come-lately brand will not fare well, and to get someone like Michelin to tool for the sizes will cost a lot of money and the tires would be priced accordingly.

I agree 100%, Tony. The hardest part of this whole thing may be how to determine within a hand grenades throw accuracy what the installed base of Cobras is actually out there. I have no idea how to go about that. Just taking the top makers sales out there - FFR, ERA, Backdraft, Superformance, and a couple of others totalled up is likely well into the many thousands. Now, of course not all of them, especially the Backdrafts are using 15" tires, but it would give a start. As for the tooling expense, that's why BFG popped into my mind. They already have the tooling with the rock hard T/A's, as well as some tooling and the technology with their upline high performance 15" line. Maybe it wouldn't be such a stretch to basically combine the tooling and knowledge to come out with a superior product to the current T/A's

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Then you have the long term issue of storage (tires, like milk and eggs, have an expiration date). The second part of TAM for a commodity like a tire is that the demand is fixed and a new supplier can only get volume by taking it from someone else. So if a new Cobra tire appeared it would have to be compelling.

Absolutely. There are lots of hidden issues, logistics and such involved here. The key point is showing them that there is a substantial market. Remember, as stated in the post above, if we're talking about a complete tire line, then there is a huge muscle car/classic car market component to this as well. Perhaps the angle to be pursued is not a new tire, but a substantially improved T/A, more along the lines of the Comp T/A and the other 15" BFG that I has mentioned.

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

On the other hand, manufacturers do still make tires for things like vintage Rolls Royces. I'd start by locating and talking with those low volume manufacturers. Or is that Coker and noone else? Hearing they have no interest and specialize in that market is not a good sign.

The whole Coker thing confuses me. Looking through their product line, I don't see a single market/car type they serve that looks bigger than the Cobra market. Why in the world would they not be interested? We really need some inside industy contacts to try to get the ball rolling on this. Someone with a whole lot more industry insight and experience than I have, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Why not go to SEMA and visit the tire barn? They have acres of wheels and tire displays.

We'd need a SEMA member to do that. I'm not a member, although I wish I was. SEMA seems like it's a blast.

[twobjshelbys]

I went to Sema once after we moved here to Vegas. A Ford GT friend had a company that (on paper at least) fit the criteria. The whole thing was daunting. Like I said, tires/wheels alone filled one whole wing of the convention center (and smelled just like Sam's/Costco tire area). The area the most people think of as SEMA, ie, the mainstream manufacturers display booths with scantily clad booth babes would take you a couple of days to wander around. The competition was always with SEMA and CES as to who had the most square footage of displays. Then COVID shut everything down. We'll see what happens this year.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by 767Jockey

The whole Coker thing confuses me. Looking through their product line, I don't see a single market/car type they serve that looks bigger than the Cobra market. Why in the world would they not be interested? We really need some inside industy contacts to try to get the ball rolling on this. Someone with a whole lot more industry insight and experience than I have, that's for sure.

Perhaps that is how they survive. They want 50 or 100 type orders based on a few basic sizes. Making 100,000 tires would be a daunting task. Then there's keeping the pipeline fresh. After you sell to the one's you're going to capture, say it's 20%, there isn't much follow on business.

PS. My car had the Goodyear "F1 supercar" tire that was the predecessor of the ones used on the Ford GT and then the GT500. I thought they looked pretty good. But they were hard as hockey pucks when cold (just as the GT/GT500 tires were).

As discussed many times, the Billboards are a bias ply tire. It's best you not look at high speed film of them at speed on a racetrack. They look like balloons about to pop. I was offered a set by someone that took them off because of the handling problems someone else reported here. On the other hand you've got to remember that the Shelby crew drove those tires at nearly 200MPH on the straights at Le Mans.