Quote:
Originally Posted by twobjshelbys
You bring up an excellent point...
In the search for a tire for any performance vehicle you have to trade:
1. Dry/wet performance
2. Speed rating (street vs track)
3. Mileage expectation.
The Ford GT tires (which I had an early generation of on my Cobra and the subsequent generation on the GT500s) was a compromise tire. The Ford GT manual was silent, but the GT500 manual cautioned that they were for use over 50*F. They were horrible in cold weather and on cold pavement. On the other hand the tires would last a lifetime of miles - 40-50K. As they aged they got worse. Some people reported that as a track tire they had pretty good performance.
I replaced mine with Bridgestones which originated with a class of Porsche and Bugatti tires). They were really "sticky" and performed well in cold conditions. (Still, not what you'd get from an all season street tire). The down side of that performance is that the tires wore out in about 5000 miles. I also got real nervous on wet pavement (never hit "the limit").
So what do you want? Good performance on the track or a 50K mile street tire? Wet vs dry? (Remember, racing teams use two sets of tires.)
The point here is that even if someone started making tires, they will really only meet the expectations of about 1/3 of the population...
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While there are always outliers, I think the way these cars are typically used is on the street in warm dry weather. Very few guys, I would think, take a 90" wheelbased, vastly overpowered (usually) non-top equipped roadster out intentionally on a rainy day. Sure, we can occasionally get caught out in the rain, but I doubt that most guys are looking for 15" rain tires for their Cobra. Likewise, guys who regularly track their cars most likely aren't using 15's to do so.
I think what most guys are looking for is a high quality, good handling, reasonably priced 15" tire. A tire that fits all those three criteria simply doesn't exist today. There is no way that the rediculously priced Avon can be called reasonably priced. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S for example, which is a VASTLY superior tire to the Avon, is between $300-$370 per tire in 19" size, as compared to $400+ each for the 15" Avon that fits our cars. Of course we can't use the 19" on our Cobra's (typically) and even if 19" wheels are available (?) many don't want that look. Of course the pricing for both those example tires reflects the much higher sales potential and volume of the 19" tire. I use that example only to illustrate the enormous difference in the performance and price of the typical performance and price of todays tires vs. the "best of a bad lot" Avons.
Obviously Avon isn't selling lots of these tires, yet they still choose to make them. Goodyear isn't selling boatloads of Billboards, yet they still choose to make them. There has to be a reason why. I don't know what that reason is. Point being, if Goodyear and Avon choose to build tires that are not high volume sellers, is there not a reasonable chance that someone (BFG? M/T - Cooper?) that already has 15" molds and technology available, and a network in place to manufacture and sell 15" tires, can be persuaded to either manufacture a new tire or upgrade an existing tire that'll offer us decent performance without pricing that exceeds the price of current state of the art tires for modern performance cars?