elegant

GM Racing has announced that the C6R will have Michelin's this year. Won't it be wonderful that, unlike the Goodyear's which required the C5R's to replace tires almost every stop, that the Michelin shod C6R's will probably be able to double or even triple stint (like Ferrari's and several other GTS cars using Michelin's). These new tires will give a huge boost to the C6R's. I also noticed that the new Chrysler ME 412 super-car will have Michelin's, almost the identical sized of that the Z06 is reputed to have, i.e, Michelin's were specifically developed for the ME 412, with (265/35ZR-19 in front, 335/30ZR-20's's in the rear). Anyone else thinking that the Z06 might thus have Michelin's? Thoughts???

TTRotary

Actually, I predicted two weeks ago that the Z06 will run on 345/30-19 Michelin Pilots. Why? Because they are proven performers on the SRT-10 Viper (1.0G ++), they are run-flats, and they are about the only street tire that can handle 500HP.

I suppose GY could try to produce a similar tire, but it doesn't make much sense given the limited volume. May as well use what is already there.


[Modified by TTRotary, 12:20 AM 1/13/2004]

SWCDuke

Racing tires and street tires are two completely different animals, and there is no correlation between the best racing tire and best street tire. The C5-R effort suffered last year because Goodyear is not doing much development on sports car racing tires and Michelin is. Tires more than power are what gave last year's Prodrive Ferraris a slight competitive advantage over C5-R. GM switched to Michelins to get on an ever tire "footing".

Goodyear has been the sole supplier of production Corvette tires since 1982, and they have publically stated in so many words that they are loathe to give up that honor and will do whatever it takes to maintain the contract for Corvette OE tires.

Reports on Michelin or other replacements for the F1 Supercar tires on Z06 are mixed at best, with probably a slight edge to the OE tire.

GM has announced nothing official about C6 Z06, so anything is possible, but I will be highly surprised if anything other than a bigger F1 Supercar tire is part of the package.

The new Ford GT is equipped with the F1 SC, and Ford certainly had no obligation or historical precedent to select a vendor. I would opine that they chose the F1 SC because it was the best overall performer compared to any other tires that were tested.

Duke

Jinx

Z06 deserves better than to wear somebody else's tire. That's the way GM will see it. They have strong motivation NOT to use the same tire found on the Viper. And Goodyear has an opportunity to bring their best stuff on a high-profile relatively small-volume car. Who says they have to make money on the tires they supply to GM? They'll make plenty on retail replacements. Even if they don't, getting the halo polished is worth it.

What car has more impact on the performance tire market than Corvette?

.Jinx

SteveJ

The real issue for me is whether the Z06 will have the new runflat technology or not. I could never see the Z06 with runflats, but a version of the new tires with flexible sidewalls might just be on the car. I'm inclined to be skeptical, but this new improvement in runflat technology made possible by the active handling involvement sounds promising. It would be a real marketing victory for Goodyear, and would help them to get rid of the justly deserved bad reputation runflats have in the performance tire world.

TTRotary

The Z06 deserves to get the best street tire available. If that happens to be Michelin, that's fine. The GY F1 SC is a great tire. But let's be frank: it is the very first GY tire that is not a complete POS.

Jinx

That's fine with me too, but my point was that both GM and Goodyear have some pride at stake. C4 got its own tire, C5 got its own tire, C5 Z06 got its own tire, C6 got its own tire... Gatorback, GS-C, GS-F1 EMT, F1 SC, new EMT (what's C6's tire called?).

Were they all POS in their time? An honest question... I haven't been running with the big dogs long enough to know. I loved my GS-Cs on my Integra, but then there weren't a lot of great street tires in 205/50-15 then...

.Jinx

TTRotary

Yes. Especially when compared to product from Michelin and Bridgestone and Continental and Pirelli, in the top performance categories. And I don't refer only to performance, but also to shoddy quality. "Gatorbacks" were notorious for stripped-off tread, unbalanced structure and sidewall failures.

As a more recent example, I use the EMT. By the time it appeared on the C5, it was already one generation behind runflat tires from Firestone and BF Goodrich (a division of Michelin), and already dated. Shortfalls in handling, noise, and ride quality compared to these other tires were blatantly obvious. What is worse: GY/GM did not even bother to update the product even though newer technology was available to GY in the form of more flexible sidewall materials and variable tread composition - all technologies adopted by competitors in less expensive products.

In short, Corvette customers did not get the best performance they could have for that car.

The high quality of the F1 SC (the Z06 tire) owes a lot to the fact that it inherits basic tire / carcass structure from the Fiorano, a max-performance tire GY developed jointly with Ferrari for OEM applications. It is a well-known fact that Ferrari threatened to cancel the effort several times because of quality control issues.

Goodyear's weakness is most manifest in the racing arena, where the company, once a dominant supplier, has steadily lost share to competitors. Many of the big racing teams today won't even give Goodyear consideration as a serious tire.


[Modified by TTRotary, 2:59 PM 1/14/2004]