<VV>Cheap Tires - plenty of Corvair

[Sethracer at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/8/2006 6:08:07 PM Pacific Standard Time,  
dougmackintosh at yahoo.com writes:

I can  beat that.  I bought a '75 VW Scirocco with 20,000 miles on it 
somewhere  around 1976.  Car had original tires (I assume, they were not new).   When 
I finally traded the car, it still had the same tires, 120,000 miles on  the 
clock, and just passed Virginia safety inspection!  Guys at work said  it was 
because I usually only kept 2 on the ground at a time.  If I  hadn't seen it 
with my own eyes, I would call myself a  liar


I have a couple of theories about tires. You can buy cheap, soft tires, not  
sticky for grip, just soft and quick to wear out. You can buy cheap tires  
that don't stick and last a long time. (At least they seem to last  forever!) 
They can be half the price of good tires. You also buy good tires  that stick 
well and still last a long time. Basically there is only one  consistancy - 
Really cheap tires don't stick well. Of course, I am talking about  real stickies, 
as in autocross or racing. Cheap tires can be fine for normal  driving. I 
prefer to buy very good tires for a street car and drive them  carefully on the 
street. That way I am always driving on high quality tires.  Racing is for 
racing. So I get long mileage on the street. I usually  replace tires when I am 
tired (sorry!) of looking at them. Many people have  gotten lots of extra miles 
out of my old tires! I turn the tables by buying  cheap used race tires (DOTs) 
and running them until cord shows. 
 
If you race and there are no special tire rules where you race,  Corvairs can 
run on wide 13" race tires, which are easily found at sports car  tracks. 
Lots of smaller SCCA cars run them. Sports racers, etc. Many of these  drivers 
are absolutely sure that new tires are the only thing they need to win,  so used 
tires are turned back to the tire busters, with lots of miles left. -  Seth 
Emerson