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

[767Jockey]

I'm sitting here thinking about 15" tires for the Cobra. Our choices are limited, with some better than others, and none of them great. We all write and talk about the issue ad nauseum, but I wonder what if there's anything we can do about it?

The question becomes, is the number of Cobras out there sufficient to entice a manufacturer, large or small, to produce a high quality, high performance, commonly used Cobra sized set of tires for our cars?

Our choices now, listing from worst to best, we'll start at the bottom:

-I think we can all agree that the most commonly available tire that fits a Cobra, the BFG Radial T/A, is crap. It's out of the question.

-The Galaxy Vitour is made in China, and sort of an unknown at this point. The fact that we're even considering a Chinese tire from an unknown manufaturer is in and of itself a perfect illustration of how desperate the situation has become.

- Emerging as perhaps the most reasonable alternative at this time is the Mickey Thompson and the Cooper Cobra. The are essentially the same tire, made by the same people. It's a decent tire, reasonably priced, but no one is mistaking it for a high performance tire for our typically extreme performance cars.

- Next is the Goodyear Bilboard. First of all, I think everyone will agree that NOTHING looks more badass on a Cobra than a set of Billboards. They're plenty sticky when warmed up. However, they are a primitive bias ply design, they are not DOT legal for street use, and if you've ever picked one up unmounted you'd see that they are extremely light, made for somewhat temporary duty to be used on a track and tossed away when worn out. For those of us who prefer to take long rides through the countryside, I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with them. They flat spot when they sit for a while, they sometimes leak air, they track grooves in the road like a train follows tracks, and they throw rocks like crazy. But damn, they sure look good. They're hard to say no to.

-Lastly, we have the Avons. Lots of you hate to hear this, but they are NOT good tires. No one really uses them but us, because they're just reasonably good, essentially marginal tires, but at a super premium price. No other performance vehicle owner who has another reasonable choice uses them. They're just not very good, they're simply the best available of a bad group. Porsches, Camaros, Vettes, BMW's, etc - no one uses them! You can get Michelins, Bridgestones, Nittos, Pirellis, Hankooks, Toyo's and the list goes on for these cars for half the price of Avons and get a tire that's state of the art, likely twice as good. The price they charge for these Avon's is laughable.

There you have it. As a group of Cobra owners we moan, whine, *****, and complain about this year after year, but nothing changes. So the question is what can we do about it? Perhaps in the end, nothing at all. It's certainly worth a try. We have so many people on this board and others we know who may not on this board who have such vast experience in this business, and so many contacts.

The first question is how do we find out a rough idea about how any Cobras are running around out there? That's the key point. We'd have to be able to show any prospective tire company what market they might reasonably see, what their potential market would be. Then, depending on what contacts we as a group could turn up, target a manufacturer that might be willing to listen.

As an example, we know that the BFG Radial T/A is a terrible tire. The Flintstonemobile rock tires have more grip. However, did you know that BFG currently makes real performance 15" tires right now, albeit not in a size that fits out cars? They make a tire right now called the G-Force Rival S in 15" size. They also make the g-Force Sport Comp 2. Neither come in our size, but the fact that they are 15" might indicate a wilingness to expand the lineup of sizes? Who knows unless they're asked? Does anyone have inside industry contacts within BFG?

I've tried on multiple occasions to get Coker interested. They have no interest at all. They make all these goofy sized antique car sizes that they probaly sell 50 sets a year, but they have no interest in tires for what has to be multiple thousands of Cobras out there. I don't get it. Does anyone have any inside contacts at Coker?

I know this all sounds like wishful thinking, and in the end it may well end up to be just that. However, it sure couldn't hurt to try to move the needle a bit and see what response can be drummed up.

Thoughts?

EDIT - I just thought of this - If any of us were to try to do this alone, it would likely (and righfully so) be blown off by the tire companies as an enthusiast trying to get tires made for his car. However, does anyone here belong to SEMA? Perhaps the way to get this done is for multiple SEMA members to try to get something done through SEMA and/or well connected SEMA contacts. Just a thought...