Originally Posted by
Racermac73
Spec tires are not designed to make it easier but rather just to save money. I can't think of a single form of successful motorsports on the planet with a open tire policy for that very reason... Multi billion dollar organizations from NASCAR to Formula 1 have tire rules for this reason and they are smarter than I am on these subjects. Seems like if you are in favor of it or against it we would all agree changes are needed to revive the class and this appears to be the most popular way to go about it while saving money. At a club level sxt is the reason for tires going away before 8 minutes are up more than anything.. For what we do it might be time to try niftech or something else more aggressive to keep tires good for the race rather than going softer and spending more.
Spec tires isn't going to save me money unless they are significantly less expensive than normal tires. When racing on asphalt like we do we don't go to the track with 5 different compounds and use whatever works that day. The tire wear is just too high so we have to carry around 1 set of tires per run...so to carry around another compound combination would be another 4 sets of tires per compound combination...not to mention having to re-set up the car for the different tire heights since they won't all wear at the same rate. We just don't have time to do all that in a race day so we use 1 compound combination that works and stick with it. So spec tires or not I'll still be carrying the same amount of tires to the track and still be cutting the same amount of tires. And if those tires don't handle well enough for me then I will lose interest in the class.
Originally Posted by
wingracer
Also the spec tires last a LOT longer than most others. Wouldn't it be nice to go four race weekends before you have to go up a tooth?
Not necessarily. Just because a tire is harder doesn't mean it will last longer. A front tire with less grip will scrub more and wear faster.
We don't run 12th scale locally......I only run 12th at out of town events (WCICS series), so 8 different tracks in 8 different cities. The surface and traction levels are different at each event, so it isn't as simple as you say.
Ideally, at a minimum, I should be bringing multiple pairs of green rears, blue rears, blue fronts, double blue fronts, and maybe even pink/magenta/team purple, and then do testing/guessing as to which combo to use throughout the weekend. A spec tire would avoud all of that.
I go to only 1 carpet race a year and have no idea what my car is going to do once I get there. Flying anywhere from Hawaii for a race is expensive enough so I don't bring multiple combinations to try. I ask around to find out what fast guys think is going to work well and only bring that combination. It is usually close enough for my pathetic skills that changing to another compound is only going to make things worse for me. There just isn't enough time for me to learn the track and learn how my car feels on carpet to try different compounds and have to re-learn the car each time. One year I did try buying tires at the track and changed throughout the race week...I started doing better the year I chose one tire compound and just stuck with it even if it wasn't the best combination.