DeTomaso Mailing List: December 98, Message #103

Does anyone have an idea of what sort of production run
it takes to get a tire manufacturer interested in producing
a batch of tires in a particular size?  There are several
small outfits like Hoosier or Mickey Thompson that cater
to the racing crowd and even the large companies like
BFG and Yokohama have groups that do (relatively) small 
runs of racing compound tires.  It seems to me, there might 
be enough of a market for say a 275/60/15 to 305/50/15
size performance street tire (and maybe a race compound
version of the same) if one considers Panteras, Cobras,
other exotics, and kit cars as a single market.

Later,
Dan Jones  
 
>>> <MikeLDrew@aol.com> 12/01 10:40 pm >>>
All,

Been doing homework for an article I'm writing on the various tires available
for stock wheels.

For years now, I've been seeing the Tire Rack advertising the BFG HR4/VR4
line.  This line of all-weather performance tires was mostly H-rated, but
there were a few tires in there that they said were V-rated, including
the
275/60-15 (PERFECT for Mangustas, and a decent choice for 8-inch Pantera
wheels too.)

Recently though, I surfed to both the tire rack and BFG webpage, and they
now
market the tire as only H-rated.  I sent an e-mail to the BFG folks asking
WTFO.

Got a call today from a friendly customer support tech dude from BFG.
Unfortunately he left a message on my voicemail.  Name of Dave Hannah,
number
is (877) 788-8899, call him with all your questions.  Anyway, he did some
research (he sez) and concluded that the tire in question was NEVER marketed
as being V-rated, that it had always been H-rated.  Claims the Tire Rack
goofed in their ads.

Hmm.  I thought there were at least a few of you out there who had these
tires, and I thought YOU thought they were V-rated.  What sez you?

Also, everyone seems to forget that there's a little-known alternative
to the
ever-present BFG 305/50 and the aforementioned 275/60.  See, Yokohama makes
an
H-rated all-weather performance tire, called the Y-352.  Sort of an oddball
tire, they don't list it in any of their ads, but it IS on the website.
 They
sell it in a 295/50, costs $130 apiece.  I've seen them on a (very) few
Panteras, they seem to do the trick pretty well; only strange thing
(unconventional, anyway) is that the scripts on the side of the tire (i.e.
the
Yokohama brand name and tire identification) face outwards towards the
tread
instead of towards the center of the wheel.

Don't have any first, second or third-hand experience with these suckers,
so I
can't comment on how well they would work versus the two BFG candidates,
but
at least there ARE options...

Also, while I was writing my question, I took the time to ask WHEN (not
if)
BFG was going to produce some V- or Z-rated performance tires appropriate
for
'halo' cars such as the Pantera, Cobra, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc. etc.
Specifically mentioned sizes like 285/50, 295/50, etc.

Ol' Dave kind of danced around that one, basically saying, um, er, well,
ah,
see, ah, well, we won't be doing that, um, anytime soon, er, ah...

Mike