first race of the season Options

[brant]

A week back, I attended a vintage race in colorado
the car did fine... the driver was slow, but still had fun
a couple of shots

I ran a staggered set of bias- ply vintage tires... car was not aligned for them... and they were a bit underwhelming...

[GregAmy]

I run Hoosier A7/R7s on my "regular" race car but most historics groups don't allow them.

I've run Hoosier Speedsters on my historics 914 ride and I just don't like the tread squiggle.

So my recent "go to" has been Nitto NT-10 DOT 100TW tires. They're a good construction, very responsive, and wear nice.

I'm moving to Conti 200TW DOT Extremes. Sure, they're not as fast as A7s (or possibly even not as fast as Nitto NT-01 100TW) but I'm a Hoosier butt-boy and I think they're a good choice. After all, this is historics racing, not LeMans.

For comparisons of radial DOT tires versus "radial slick", we've tested Hoosier A7 245/40-17 and 265/630-17 M compound Hoosier same weekend (the "real" race car) and I honestly did not notice a significant difference in lap times and/or driving characteristics. I wish I could have tested them blind but I'm the one that had to swap the tires, so...

I personally don't like the way bias-ply slick tires drive. I've found the 914 chassis to be much more responsive on radials, with less slip angle required and a lot more total grip. But note I've been racing on DOT radials since the 80s, from Showroom Stock through various iterations of touring cars.

I find the DOTs easier to drive and easier to set up the car. But of course that's a personal preference. - GA