New Zealand Historic Saloon Cars Under HRC

[Steve Holmes]

Pretty much from about 73/4 onwards(as per JR's Sidchrome Mustang) when Saloons started raced under Schedule E(basically IMSA or Sports Sedans) they went to the wide 14inch rims mostly from F5000 cars hence used whatever tyres the F5000's raced on, im pretty sure they were still treaded? and certainly no radial slicks! also I can remember my Dad sending away worn out wide tires and getting them re-treaded as a slick, the speedway guys done the same except they grooved them, from memory as a kid new wide race tyres were considerably expensive and hard to come by in the day(true Jacmac?).

Yep, thats pretty much it Dale. In fact, Formula 5000 cars were running on treaded bias-ply tyres until the early 1970s, its really all there was, and Formula 1 cars would have been the same. When tyre technology proved that a tyre with no tread provided better grip than one WITH tread, all racing tyres pretty much fell into line, be they for single seaters or sedans. It was really just because of the tyre wars taking place, that manufacturers were constantly looking to improve grip.

Here is Graham McRae's McLaren F5000 on Goodyear Bluestreak tyres, the same as the HMC cars, Historic Trans-Am in the US, etc run now!