My personal experience with the BFG R1 in GTS-1 was at nationals last year.
It was 3 seconds a lap faster than the Toyo with no other changes to the car.
It lasted a total of 6 sessions before it fell off to the same pace as the Toyos. They still have lots of tread left on them.
It was like magic before the gave up the ghost.

944Racer72 wrote:


The 16in wheels with 225/50 will create a larger diameter by 1 inch. This is a disadvantage. Back to back I saw the 16's slower to 15's.

My feeling is the +7 tires in 225 width and 45 or 50 side wall 15x7 (existing wheels) or 16x7 any factory Porsche wheel. This will maximize available tires and minimize the differences. Don't go and buy 16" wheels, but if you have some you can use them as another option.

Yes, if using a 225/50 on a 16" wheel, you would be at a big gearing disadvantage. I assumed if 16" wheels were permitted, lower profile tires would be allowed to neutralize the gearing disadvantage. Of course, then you could argue that the lower profile tire may gain an advantage in handling.

I have run both BFG R1s and Hoosiers in the past. Both are way, way stickier than Toyos (and a lot less forgiving). The R1s are famouns for falling off quickly when they get hot. For what it's worth, Toyos are more fun because you can throttle steer and slide around a lot more.

I've run Victoracers too but I can't remember well enough to compare them to the RA-1.

I guess another issue is track records. If they are set with much faster tires then they will never be broken again. May have to come up with a way to deal with this issue.

I guess if the 16" wheels are of similar weight as the current ones then they should be allowed to make more tires available. These could be an advantage on tracks with very long straights like Cal Speed.

I still have those BFG's from Miller so I will test them at Buttonwillow against the RA1 to see what times they will do. These are 6 heat cycle tires and may not be any good but I will find out.

First, let me say thanks to all that have been working on the tire situation. Your efforts are appreciated.

Now, please enlighten me as to what the +7 rule means and how we use it to determine if a tire would be legal. It seems that everyone but me knows what +7 means.

Are the RA1's 225/45/15 acceptable under this rule?

Eric, while I know that you dismissed the Hoosier tire straight away, based on your recent post, perhaps it should be reconsidered. It seems, from your post, the Hoosiers are about the same price as our RA1's ($175), due to not having to shave them, and they will do a contingency deal, so why would we not consider them as a new spec tire to use, at least until the Toyo problems are resolved. If they are in good supply, we could all go to them over some period of time. As I recall, the guys in the Pacific Northwest have been running them for years as their "spec" tire and do not seem to feel that they are too expensive. I believe that I saw a post that the tires last well for them. I can call some of them if it would help.

At this point, I hope to go back to the RA1 when and if the supply problems are resolved. Toyo has been a strong supporter and their tires are well matched for our class and drivers. However, since we have no idea about how long that will be, and it could be years not months, having an "interim" spec tire with contingency money would seem to be a better option than to have a year or two or more of chaos over tires and no contingency money.

With a choice of tires available, we will all be spending more money looking for the "best" tire/wheel option that gives the best performance. Heck, that might even change from track to track, as Charlie speculated. I would hope we can avoid that.

If it means that we do the best we can for another month, to allow more time to try to find one new "spec" tire to go forward with, I would support that and limp along for a month to give more time rather than just jump into a new tire mess. If we all knew that we had to "make do" for one month, we could all swap and share and run whatever during practice to make things work for guys with races during the next month.

What do you other guys think about that?

Jim "Big Dog" Foxx