Anything from Michelin on track tires?

[SRTRICK]

At one point, it was posted that Michelin was going to supply their track version of our tires to Viperdays competitors for the comp coupe, and that then they might be made available to club members. Is this still in the cards? More recently, the autoweek article on the comp coupe stated that they were running 18" wheels w/ Hoosiers all around. Whats up at this point? Are we going to have to get 18" wheels to have track tires, because I am unaware of anyone making DOT competition tires in an appropriate 19" size.
Any info would be appreciated!!

 

[Janni]

No one makes a 19" track tire. I don't see Michelin developing one just for the Viper. The thing to do is to get a set of 18" rims all the way around - it'll be cheaper and you probably don't want to go through the hassle of unmounting and mounting your tires every time you go to a track event - 6 or seven times and you'll probably end up paying for another set of wheels!!!!

 

[SRTRICK]

Ok - except at one point it was indeed said that Michelin was developing their DOT track tire just for the Viperdays program, much like they developed sizes specifically for the PCA previously. I was wondering if they still have these plans or if they have gone away. I didn't plan to mount & unmount the tires, I was planning on buying 19" rims all around for the street and using the stock rims for the track tires, that way the car will be properly legal for SCCA events. I don't believe that the SCCA has provisions for downsizing wheels and remaining in a stock class.

 

[Janni]

According to the GCR, SCCA allows you to run any size wheel in T1 - you just have to stay within 2 width sizes. You can update and backdate any item on your car with an item from any other year. (Vipers race in T1) So you will be putting a full CAGE in your SRT? Excellent!

Michelin is developing the Cup tire for club racing alternative to Hoosiers, but I don't believe they ever agreed to make 2003 stock sizes.

<font color="red"> EDIT </font> And the Comp Coupe is running Hoosier SLICKS - not DOTs. I expect that they will be available to Viper owners through Bobby Archer.

 

[SRTRICK]

I'm talking autocross here, not wheel to wheel racing, so I don't believe what is allowed in T1 will have any bearing on the solo 2 superstock class that the new Viper has been placed in. It was implied in a post long ago that they were planning on making stock sizes, but if the comp coupe is being shipped with 18" sizes, that would change the stock size they would be making, just wouldn't help with autocross situation. We will be quite unlikely to be competitive in SS with the cup tire anyway, but it would be closer to the hoosier than the stock tire will be. I ran the cup tire on my S2000 last year &amp; while it was stickier than the stock tires, it didnt quite equal the Hoosiers. I might have to run in street tire, but that's really not the same thing.

 

[Janni]

Oh - I get it - I figured since you were talking about the spec Road Racing (ViperDays) tire or the Comp Coupe you were talking about road racing...

Isn't the Hoosier autocross tire different than the "R" road racing tire? Does the road racing tire take longer to come up to temperature and maybe wear a little differently? I would expect a good autocross tire to have significantly different properties than a road race tire.

Granted, the DOTs should be better than the Pilot Sport street tire. Are slicks allowed in SCCA solo 2? Can you not run the Hoosier autocross tire? Or is it really a matter of hoping to find a suitable tire in the 19" size that will allow you to use the stocker wheels as your autocross wheels? If so, then unfortunately, you are probably out of luck.

 

[SRTRICK]

To stay in stock class, the wheels must be the stock factory sizes, anything else moves you to a higher class. The Hoosier autocross formula is softer than the race compound and is the tire of choice in the stock classes. The only difference between the autocross and race tire is the compound, much like the difference between qualifying tires and those tires to be used during the course of a race.
Unfortunately, without anyone making a 19" r compound tire, the car will be extremely uncompetitive in the stock class.
It was stated previously that michelin would be making the Pilot sport cup tire in a size to fit the rear of the comp coupe, I only assumed that the wheel sizes would be the same as the srt. Evidently that is not the case, and if Michelin is talking about making the tire in an 18" size to fit the comp coupe, that's not particularly important as the Hoosiers are faster. The Michelins are sufficiently hard that they can be used as a sort of dual purpose tire for both autocross and track events, but I am unsure if they are any quicker than the Hoosier race compound. They do wear better than the Hoosiers, however.