New sneakers (Billboards) on the way

[767Jockey]

After careful deliberation, admittedly bordering on paralysis by analysis, I ordered a set of Billbords today, one of the final finishing touches on a 17 year journey to get this car done. It's mechanically finished, all it needs to finally call it done is for the interior work to be finished and mount the tires. It goes into the interior shop in 2 weeks. They say it'll be done two weeks after that, but interior shops are like paint shops - they never meet the stated delivery date. It'll be done when it's done.

The Billboard decision was tough. You hear great reviews on them, and just as many bad ones. Of course nothing looks as good as them. It came down to Billboards, Cooper Cobras, M/T ST's, Avons and Billboards.

Avons were easy to eliminate. To me, the price is rediculous. They have world class tire pricing for a tire that is far from world class. I know others disagree, and that's fine. To me they're just the best of a marginal group. And it has nothing at all to do with being able to pay, and the somewhat pompous argument of "If you can't afford the tires you can't afford the car" has nothing at all to do with it. It's as simple as "Are they up to the performance standards of tires in other sizes that cost that much". The answer is they're not even close. Avons were out.

Next up are the Coopers and the M/T's. From everything I have read they're essentially the same tire, both made by Cooper. From most reviews I have read they're good but not great, adequate for street use of the car. I was very seriously considering these, mainly because of some of the negative reviews I have read on the Billboards. However for every negative review I have read on the Billboards I have read a positive one as well. It's sort of maddening.

What swayed me to the Billboards was a conversation I had with my friend Jon, known as "Saltshaker" on this forum. He loves them. He says his Billboards don't hunt at all, they balanced up just fine, and other than picking up more stones than he would prefer, they perform beautifully. He owns a CCX just as I do, and if they work for him I'm hopeful that they'll work for me too.

My remaining concern is durability. We have a large yearly Cobra meet down here in San Marcos, TX. That's about a 4 hour highway ride for me each way. I hope they're up to driving like that. I worry because when I lift them up they're so lightweight, I do have concerns about their durability. I guess we'll just see about that. Do any of you guys running them have tear or puncture issues?

Hopefully they work out well. Time will tell.