Roger Johnson recently wrote:
> A number of years ago, there was a tire-company forum at an SCCA National
>Convention - representatives of 6-7 tire companies on the stage. An
>irascible
>old bastard named Marv Rifchin was representing M & H. His response to
>the concept of regulating/managing tire construction & compounds?
>"There isn't a rule we can't beat. Period. Durometers, tread-wear, skid
>depth
>or anything else you can throw at us, we can get around it if we want to."
> And the history in Solo & Club Racing shows he was exactly right.
I must agree. I was there and heard the exchange. Further, no tire
manufacturer at the meeting openly disagreed with Marv. Indeed
several said their knowledge of tire building meant they could easily
overcome any crude on-the-spot "technical" tests such as durometer
and indicated that durometer is so far from being the litmus test for
tire superiority in autocrossing that it was like having no test at
all. They seemed to agree that there was no test we could do at
impound that would have any correlation with the effectiveness of the
tire.
Perhaps this is why, in all other forms of motorsport, you have
either an "open, run what you brung" tire rule, or spec tires. If the
FIA, FIM, IRL, CART, and all the rest can't do it, maybe autocrossers
should step in and show the way?
I'm not certain about the AAA position on this. Don't they still run
the Indy 500? :-)
Lloyd Loring <lloydl@skyenet.net>
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