<VV> Re: Tirez and stock classes

[Padgett]

>Just so you all will know, I like ALL Corvairs. Stock, modified, race,
>you name it (and yes, even those pesky prematurely developed earlies -
>LOL). It's just that preserving stock, especially ORIGINALITY, is IMHO
>the highest honor one can do the Corvair.

Just as a data point, I bought a number of "interesting" cars in the '60s 
and '70s and often had a set of tires and wheels in non-standard sizes 
sitting under the bed while waiting for the special order to come in.

Frankly, the stock tires were *terrible* even by the standards then. "Not 
even safe in the driveway" was stated by an authority. Now for a 100 point 
$50k concours car I can see having original wheels and 7.00x13 tires on a 
late model for those last few points. However if I found a set of OEM tires 
in tech at an autocross, I would reject them as unsafe for competition.

I have autocrossed A Lot particularly in stock class and one of the tenets 
was always that it be a relatively inexpensive class to compete in. If you 
have to spend over $100 each for sticky stock tires (actually for a dry 
track, near bald is best so Real Racers usually have the tires shaved to 
6/32 or less before ever putting them on a car.

The fact is that 13" tires in a decent size have become nonexistant partly 
because the few cars that took 13" tires only have mostly disappeared 
(think the 1985 Fiero was about the last and that was the base tire only. 
(The GM X-bodies of the early 80s all took 185x80x13 and are probably the 
only reason even that size still exists.

So my vote would be to allow alternate wheels in stock classes so long as 
they were steel and found in the GM inventory, perhaps limited to a 195 
section width and H speed rating to keep it affordable. This would allow a 
lot of choices for autocrossing while keeping that pristine set of 13" 
wheels and tires for shows.

Just as an aside, the last time I was seriously autocrossing (and doing 
well) my budget included two new tires per autocross and that was  nearly 
every weekend.

Remember, rules are whatever you make them.

Padgett