fleming23

I am struggling with tires at the moment, largely due to BFGs backorder on Rival-S tires...

It looks like I may be taking my 2016 Z06 to Charlotte for the Optima USCA event at the end of the month as my 71 C3 is giving me fits and may not be ready. My Z came with the Cup2s, a tire that is ineligible for competition, so I need a 200TW tire or greater. Obviously the Pilot Super Sports fits that bill at 300tw and is my back up, and possibly my only option. I ordered a set of Forgeline GA1Rs which are scheduled to arrive before the event in 18x11 and 18x13 widths. About the only tire I can find that will work on the rear would be the Rival S, which I cannot get my hands on at the moment.

Any suggestions? I plan on running either slick take-offs, R7s or Toyo 888s on the Forgelines normally but all of those are too sticky.

Anyone have a good deal on the Super Sports if I end up going that route? Tirerack has them for $2095.08 shipped whereas the Rivals would have only been $1,623.00

el es tu

Im not sure how your offsets would work out or the brake clearance would be but you could look into using the forgeline 18"x11s up front and the front 19" oem rims on the rear to fit some Bridgestone RE11s in 200 tw?

275/35 r18 would fit on an 18x11 25.6" tall


285/35 r19 26.9" tall should fit on the 19" rims (not sure what the widtd was on them) 26.9" tall


EDIT:

Just realized the same sizes are available on the newer more competitive Bridgestone RE71R

good luck with the tire search!

fleming23

I appreciate that suggestion as it is certainly not one I had considered. I am not sure I am too keen on mixing wheel/tires, mainly because after the event I'll be stuck with front and rears on two sets of wheels that don't match and likely would end up costing me more money. I'll have to check the front to rear offset to see if this is even a possibility as well.

I think my ultimate problem is lack of 335-345 width tires, especially in 18" sizes. In the OEM I am limited to just 3 tires, the Cup2s, Pilot Super Sports and Continential DW (which I've heard gives up pretty quick when pushed.)

Silver -V-

You won't be as competitive as you would with the Rival-S, but the RE-11's are 200 tread wear, and will give you good grip, and last through a full season. IMO they are the best alternative for the Corvette until another manufacturer comes up with a 4 rib AutoX tire for us after the Rival-S

fleming23

But they only make up to a 285 in an 18" wheel, which would work for the front, but not the rear. My wheel sizes are; Forgelines (18x11/18x13) and stock wheels (19x10/20x12).

chetly

I'm to lazy to look, but what are the Kumho ACR sizes?

fleming23

Those would be perfect....but they come in 19s. I'm beginning to question whether my choice of 18" Forgelines was the best decision. It is looking like 19s might have been a better bet, except for slick take-offs and relatively inexpensive 888s.

Silver -V-

Stay with the 18's and put in an order for the BFG's. You will be happy you did. They seem to be stickier than the 888's I had run, even though the UTQ is higher at 200.

fleming23

I would buy the BFG Rivals all day but they are back ordered with no ETA.

BrianCunningham

Don't get it

BFG knew the nationals were coming

Severe bad planning

ztnedman1

Either hope and pray BFG will come through or use the 285 Re71r and just stretch the hell out of it. Will be WAY faster than any pss option.

wtb-z

Has anyone done testing to compare the C7-specifc PSS vs other tires? It sounds like it is not the same as the regular PSS.

JuicedH22

The EXACT same thing happened last year.... You would think the people at BFGoodrich would have fixed this issue for this year... but NOPE... a LOT of us are once again without the tire we are wanting to buy for national events... USCA, LSFest, and countless other pro-touring events (not to mention autocrosses/track days to test/practice on) that require 200TW

I am the same, very frustrated, boat... along with several other friends... And I just wanted to have them by LS Fest... but the backorder expectation isnt until the END of Sept beginning of Oct...

I literally cant wait for another tire MFG to come up with a competitive tire that actually knows how to make the tires available for people to buy...

Or hopefully the orgs realize how fed up we are and they drop the rating to 140/160 to open up our options...

fleming23

I just got notification today from one of my contacts that production is scheduled to begin early/mid August. Isn't super helpful for the upcoming events but hopefully I'll be able to replace them for anything later in the year.

I might end up on Falken's for LS Fest in the C3.... Still won't have anything available in a 335 wide tire though. Not sure why Falken hasn't released the RT-615K in a 335.

I wish we could run 100TW tires at some of these events so the Toyo 888 would be included. It isn't the best tire but is significantly cheaper than just about anything else comparable. That still keeps Hoosiers and all the super sticky tires out but allows things like Cup2s, some Pirellis, etc.

chetly

The Rival S is a faster autocross tire than the 888. The 888 takes to long to heat up as it's more of a hpde tire.

fleming23

I wonder if I can move to have everyone running 315 or wider Rival-S moved to exhibition.... Not really going to be an ***, but feel like it. Event is next week and I am stuck running Michelin Pilot Super Sports because I can't get a set of 315/335-18 tires.

Tire rule - Participants must use DOT approved, non-competition, treaded (nongrooved)
street tires (no competition radials, no R compound, drag radials or shaved
tread) with a treadwear rating of 200 or higher. Tires must be in sufficient supply and
commercially available to the general public. Tires will be required to pass a technical
inspection. The spirit of the event requires the use of a DOT approved “non-competition”
tire – any modifications or chemical treatments to tires will be unacceptable. Any vehicle
with tires showing any evidence of modification will be immediately disqualified from the
event. Safety is of the utmost importance and USCA officials will not hesitate to
disqualify questionable tire selections. Any tire not commercially available to the
general public, or only available in prohibitively limited supply may be disqualified
and the entry moved to the exhibition class.

RichieRichZ06

Only if you want the rest of the competitors to hate you forever because they planned ahead and ordered tires way earlier than you did.

Many of us have sufficient supply of tires for the year or at least a couple events because this can always happen.

Last year I had to run on the original Rivals at the USCA Vegas event in April. A lot of other fast drivers were on the Rival S tires on their Corvettes due to Danny's hook ups so I had to make the best of it and do what I could to keep up.

fleming23

I was more kidding than anything else. I understand most of the big operations attending these events have racks of tires on shelves at their shops, I've seen them first-hand. Unfortunately, I can't always predict how many tires I will need and certainly don't have a budget to put new tires on for each event (sorta goes against this whole spirit of the event in my opinion.) This particular case was a bit more unique as I did not plan on running my C7 but the C3 is still having transmission issues and is currently at the sponsor's shop, not likely to be ready in time. That car is currently sitting on Rivals but is the only set I own so when they are gone I'm back to square one again.

RichieRichZ06

I was poking around and looking for ETA on them and it does seen that everyone is saying towards the end of Sept before they see more. my wife was running the Super Sports on our new Z06 last season and at Thunderhill earlier this season. She just switched to Rivals for the PPIR event and there wasn't a huge difference in grip. I think the grip level is better for auto cross, but I don't think there is a big difference on the road course. She actually won the speed stop at Thunderhill overall on the Super Sports, beating me, Duke, Hobaugh and other tough competitors.

NTMD8R

Consider 18/19 with RE71 tires ?
RE71 tires are TW200, but everyone knows they are much better than that.

RE71 Widest in a 19 is a 305
RE71 Widest in a 18 is a 285