In reply to irish44j :
Yeah, it's the old Michelin symmetrical tread pattern from the 80s. (I think it was called the L pattern?)
They do run harder than standard tires. I was told that a BR "soft" was like a Michelin "medium", so I've always ordered softs. On the other hand, I also always used to get my ass whooped by a certain VW Beetle on hard compound Silverstones, and in 5-6 years of competing against it/them, I don't think the corners even got knocked off of the tires. And the owner would flat tow it to events on the rally tires. (see eastsideTim's build thread - he acquired the shell after it got sold to someone who partially parted it out)
The Maxsport grass track tires I had were on a very soft carcass.
The tire game is just what happens and there isn't a good way to control it. Most years it doesn't matter much. I've seen cars win prepared classes on snows. Muddy years are always weird.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Not only can it not be controlled, it can't even be quantified, because unlike the cold repeatability of autocross, where you can measure X tire having more grip but Y tire having faster recovery from being overdriven, etc... you can't even do ABA testing because it will be a different course all three times. And if the course is solid and hard enough that you CAN do testing, the best tires would probably be Hoosier A7s...
Btw, looks like Brianne and the 2nd place car in MR were using these tires. Apparently they were putting 6 seconds a run on Vaughn once they switched - and he was actually on some pretty crazy tires as well. Tire wars.........
It's more than just buying tires though, lots of the "good" mud tires are that way because they've been cut with a tire knife. This is pretty normal in rally, even in North America. A friend had a very cool copy of the factory Michelin tire grooving guide for their rally tires and they would cut when conditions warranted it.
In reply to irish44j :
Brianne looked like she was running on a dry surface with those tires. I think they are on 13x3.5" wheels. Leon had a similar setup that looked like front tractor tires. He broke before the really muddy runs on Sunday. I wonder if he could have kept the pace.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
It's more than just buying tires though, lots of the "good" mud tires are that way because they've been cut with a tire knife. This is pretty normal in rally, even in North America. A friend had a very cool copy of the factory Michelin tire grooving guide for their rally tires and they would cut when conditions warranted it.
IDK, I've been to a lot of rallies (as driver or as crew) and other than the tip-of-the-spear teams i don't see a lot of evidence that teams are extensively cutting tires for day-to-day conditions. I'm sure some do, but none of the indie teams are staying up all night grooving because the forecast calls for XX weather. Most teams have 2 sets, which may or may not just be identical sets. Rally conditions change so fast there's no point in overthinking things. STPR this year had wet, damp, loose, dirt, gravel, clay, and packed/dry all on the same day. It's not like rallycross where you can just switch tires between runs. I'm sure SRT and those guys have al kinds of crazy stuff, but they can afford to.
I'd say it was more common for rallycross for a long time, though these days with all the wild tires you can just buy, why bother grooving and notching at all, other than to sharpen edges of older/worn tires, really.
I have a groover. I spent a full evening grooving a couple Altimaxes for a mud/winter event. E36 M3tiest evening ever lol.
Grooved tires just wear out faster. BTDT destroyed a lot of tires.
Brianne's tires look a lot like the ones I have that she was taking a bunch of photos of at the Tour event in Ohio... Sorry MR peeps.
