New Tire Any Good?

[twobjshelbys]

These street tires will likely kill you the first time you make a good left turn under modest acceleration. The rear end is going to break loose...

You should stay with the tires mentioned before: Avons are very good and are sticky when cold and better when they warm up. I had Goodyears on my Cobra and the next generation on the Ford GT but they were hard as a rock when cold.

I don't know if they are avaialble in the Cobra sizes but I switched to Bridgestone and they are super sticky warm. The Ford GT sizes end up with two different tire "models", check to see if they area available in your size: Bridgestone RE050A (N1? - these tires were original factory tires on the Porsche Carrera) , and Bridgestone RE050A Scuderia (original tires for Ferrari Enzo).

On the street they are sticky enough that they will pick up small gravel ("grit"), and when warmed on the track were soft enough to take a thumb print. Expect about 5K miles out of a set of rears (and that's without burnouts).

People now swear by the Michelin Pilot Sports

[RallySnake]

I will not excuse your bluntness, Fatboy. People who put down other people on these forums is the primary reason that readers go away. There is no reason for negativity.

I have driven my Arntz Cobra for over 30 years in every possible condition. I drive it very hard and have used up over a dozen sets of tires. I only tires I really disliked (on the road) were the Goodrich TA's because the rubber is so hard. However, I had a lot of fun doing drifts with them. One day, I drove up six ramps to the top of a parking garage on Wilshire Boulevard. At the top, I hit the gas and maintained a drift around the whole southern half of the parking structure. It was a good 500' slide. That's what those tires are good for.

The Mickey S\T tires are much softer than that. Your speed has to be much higher to attain the breakaway. So far, I have only managed a 50' foot drift around a 90 degree bend. Some slides ended up in a spin and were shorter. I have done a number of doughnuts after winning rally events, too. I will admit that they are not the best on the race track, but that's what slicks are for. We competed in more than 10 rallies that were around 500 miles and 60 that were around 100 miles long. A couple of those events were in the rain. I am just happy that they lasted almost 5 years.

To say, "These street tires will likely kill you the first time you make a good left turn under modest acceleration" is completely wrong. They did not. There is a little test loop on a very twisty road that I use to check my car out after I make a change and the new Cooper Cobra's did just fine. At the limit, I can feel some tire squirm but it's not bad and I lived to tell about it. I really like the feel of the tires at the limit and knowing when they are about to slide.

I am happy that you can afford to burn up $2000 sets of tires and criticize others for not doing the same. But then I wonder, just how hard have you really pushed your car?

[FatBoy]

RS,

I didn't criticise your choice of tyre, only your method of selection. However, while you clearly enjoy your Cobra, I don't personally think that a tire's ability to drift or do donuts makes it a good road tire for a Cobra.
I'll stand by my comment that if you can afford to own and run a Cobra, price should have no part go play in the selection process for tires.

Paul