ERC Race Series - Euro Saloons & Sports

[Parnelli]

Tire Sidewall Branding lesson 101. A hugh amount of information is available from the sidewall branding but not all information is equal. Depending upon where and which market the tires are manufactured for then there are several different brandings applied i.e. Europe ECE , America DOT , Asia CCC etc so expecting all tires to be DOT marked or not and as such , street legal or not , is a misconception. Race tires will have no such branding but the cheater style tires may have DOT or similar branding but are essentially race tires with lighter all-round construction, minimal tread grooves etc. and not realistically street legal. Similarly the UTQG labeling ( Treadwear, Traction, Temperature ) give an indication of similar performance of like branded tires , but given that all manufacturers use different combinations of products to produce their tyres and perform their own controlled testing and branding then not all similarly branded tyres will perform the same.
The point I’m trying to make is that if you ask 5 different “ tire experts “ the same question then you are likely to get 5 different answers and possibly not any of them are wrong.

[RacerT]

Tire Sidewall Branding lesson 101. A hugh amount of information is available from the sidewall branding but not all information is equal. Depending upon where and which market the tires are manufactured for then there are several different brandings applied i.e. Europe ECE , America DOT , Asia CCC etc so expecting all tires to be DOT marked or not and as such , street legal or not , is a misconception. Race tires will have no such branding but the cheater style tires may have DOT or similar branding but are essentially race tires with lighter all-round construction, minimal tread grooves etc. and not realistically street legal. Similarly the UTQG labeling ( Treadwear, Traction, Temperature ) give an indication of similar performance of like branded tires , but given that all manufacturers use different combinations of products to produce their tyres and perform their own controlled testing and branding then not all similarly branded tyres will perform the same.
The point I’m trying to make is that if you ask 5 different “ tire experts “ the same question then you are likely to get 5 different answers and possibly not any of them are wrong.

Thanks Parnelli.
You have pointed out the problems, but what's the solution?

[Jac Mac]

Thanks Parnelli.
You have pointed out the problems, but what's the solution?

Supply your car/tire inspector with a durometer, worst case scenario some 'old' race tires might pass.

[Howard Wood]

Thanks Parnelli.
You have pointed out the problems, but what's the solution?

It seems that restricting tyres on some treadwear number may well be a real can of worms Tony. We are still waiting to hear back from Dunlop regarding a treadwear number for the Direzzas (probably one the most popular DoT/road legal race tyres in NZ) or even if such a number/ rating exists. It seems that this number is primarily a US market initiative and may not be available for tyres not used in that market and at best seems to be somewhat arbitary.

Given that there were a number of competitors using the Hankook at last year's Festival and Ray appears happy to allow them in his series maybe that ship has already sailed. I am finding the combination of purchase price, performance and a wear rate which seems at least no worse than other DoT tyres to be a fairly compulsive argument.