I saw this on the lotus list regarding 13" tires; I didn't even know Hankook
MADE a DOT race tire!! Anyone else use them?
christopher
Gentleman;
We ran Hankook DOT race tires last year, it is a Koren made tire, we
where extremely impressed. They came pre shaved, offered great grip
equal in the dry to Hoosier, have enough tread to work great in
intermediate rain and damp situations, and are more affordable than
the current Toyo's, Goodyears's, or Hoosier AS04's @ aprox. $115.00
for 205's. They come in three compounds, soft, med. and long
wearing. They set up with the same camber and castor settings as
Toyo's RA1, and the 205's where just slightly wider (B= inch) thus
they will fit our cars where as the Hoosier's won't.
We considered them to be the perfect Historical race tire!
You can see them at this link;
http://www.hankooktireusa.com/product/tire_race_detail.asp?pid=57
All sounds great, right!
Well here is the bad news, while I was at PRI (Performance Racing
Industry) show 06, I stopped in to sadly find out Hankook is strongly
considering pulling the plug on our sizes 185's and 205's in 13 inch,
when I quizzed them about the possible market for our cars, they
didn't know!
I assured them that at a average Historical event there was at least
25 to 50 cars running 13 inch tires, most on Toyo's, many run
expensive Hoosiers, and most those cars could potentially be buying
2 to 3 sets of tires per year, that works out to 200 to 1200 tires
per year among the major west coast Historical groups! i.e.
www.sovern.org , www.vararacing.com , www.varac.ca ,
www.vrcbc.ca , www.csrgracing.org , The potential across America
would be hard to imagine, but surely a large enough demand for a
production run!
But guy's we need to convince them there is a market in Historical
Racing!
I spoke to Jeff Koehler, the U.S. Motorsport Manager, he indicated if
he received enough e-mails, and phone calls, he might be able to
convince the powers to be to keep the tires in production, they
already have the tooling, the compounds, they just need a market.
So please e-mail or call Jeff at;
jakoehler@hankooktireusa.com
973-406-353 direct or 973-633-9000 general
Remember, 13 inch tires are quickly disappearing, if you don't
believe we could be without tires, ask a 356 Porsche owner! We need
to pull together and let this tire company know we are a market worth
considering, unless you all think we can race & drive on recaps,
or,,, maybe not even recaps!
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