BlaqWhole |
12-31-2018 04:31 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinjlm
(Post 10397642)
Interesting spin on the tires (pun intended, even though it sucks :thumb: )
Now I am trying to figure out which approach I like or dislike the most. Over-tiring a car or under-tiring a car.
Ford is putting expensive, short-lived track tires on a car that they say isn’t a track car (Mustang GT PP2).
FCA is putting expensive, but fairly reasonable tires on a car that would perform much better if it had better tires on it (Hellcat and Redeye).
I think I would be more in favor of the FCA way of doing it. If the P-Zeros are capable and reasonable in everyday driving and have sufficient wear, I would leave them on the car. When I decided to go to the strip, I would put on stickier tires of my own choosing. Since more of my time would be driving the car on the street than on the strip, the “loss of a few tenths” due to being under-tired would never be an impact for me. I imagine I am not alone in that reasoning and that Challenger owners may use similar rationale.
With Ford’s approach, they give you the tires I would probably want on this car on the track, but because of their short life expectancy in everyday driving, I’d probably prefer to have something a bit less aggressive and with more tread life for my around town driving. Since my street-driving to track ratio would fall heavy on the street-driving side, I’d replace the Cups for something reasonably aggressive, but with longer life and maybe more comfortable ride. I’ve not driven a PP2, so not sure if ride is comfy or not. I have read posts from PP2 owners indicating that they do tend to tram on ribbed and/or crowned surfaces. Had that in a Corvette for a while. Irritated the hell out of me.
Now, if Ford had just put the darn coolers on the PP2 and called it a track car, like a 1LE, I’d be a lot more forgiving. But they chose to make it a tweener...not totally track-ready (their words), but with not totally street-friendly tires. So whatever my intended purpose, I’d have to invest more $$ in the car...coolers or tires.
|
The cool thing is that now we're starting to see exactly why the SS and SS 1LE were as expensive as they were. When people were complaining that the dealerships would not come down on the price and that the GT was heavily discounted, well we can see why. Chevy did things the right way from the start and walked away from it. They built the 6th Gen SS and ZL1 with enough performance that they did not have to do any revisions. They gave them the right tires, the right suspension, the right tuning, proper cooling, and then upped the ante with the 1LE package. Meanwhile Ford had to upgrade the GT, throw in an additional PP2 package, went skimpy on the coolers, and all after only 3 MYs of the S550. Dodge built the Hellcat and Redeye with a killer engine but,as we saw, the superchargers went bus for the 15 and 16 MYs and the tires were shit. Then they upgraded the blowers for 17 but kept the shit tires which are soo iffy that times range by an entire second between testers. And instead of addressing the tires, they threw 90 more HP at it and it still has the same issues.
So this is why I'm a GM fanatic. GM builds things the right way from the start and then moves on to the next project. They don't skimp out on tires, coolers, suspension, or anything. People bitch and moan about price and this and that, but then buy something else and mod it and wipe out their warranty and end up with some that performs on the level of a stock SS or ZL1 but with no warranty if it does even perform on the same level.
GM: Do it right the first time. Leave it alone. Tell people that they can race the car and if they have any issue then GM will cover it free of charge no questions asked. Move on to the next project.
Ford: Do it. Offer bits and pieces that have to be tailored. Some options cannot be combined with other options. Make people choose between tech and performance. Halfway thru the model year re-do it but skimp out on something (like coolers). Add a footnote that the car isn't built for racing although it has racing tires on it. Threaten to void the warranty if the vehicle is raced while there is another vehicle in the adjacent lane (definition of "racing") and advise people not to "race" the car.
FCA: Do it. Throw the cheapest tires on it that weren't even good on bone stock LS3 Camaros. Throw more HP at it. Keep the tires. Throw more HP at it again. Keep the same tires except make them wider. Have magazines range in ET by 1 full second.
|