Tire options

[awelker]

I'm looking into tire options for my lakester.  I would like to have something on the taller side - around 30-31" diameter on the rear, 28-30" on the front.  Dunlop has vintage racing tires but I can not find any info on their speed rating. There is also the V rated Excelsior which according to what I read in the rulebook would be good for up to 200 mph.  Am I correct in reading the rulebook that running a class with a 195 mph record would mandate having tires with a V or Z rating.

Any comments and opinions would be appreciated.

Andy

[Sumner]

I'm looking into tire options for my lakester.  I would like to have something on the taller side - around 30-31" diameter on the rear, 28-30" on the front.  Dunlop has vintage racing tires but I can not find any info on their speed rating. There is also the V rated Excelsior which according to what I read in the rulebook would be good for up to 200 mph.  Am I correct in reading the rulebook that running a class with a 195 mph record would mandate having tires with a V or Z rating.

Any comments and opinions would be appreciated.

Andy

Personally if the record in the class is 195 now hopefully you are going to break that, or someone will, and then it will be over 200 and you will not get by with the V or Z rating.  Also tire sizes over 29 inches in dia. require some additional safety considerations and tires under 29 don't have to meet.  You can get up to the 28's in the Goodyears (see the links on my site) and 30.0 X 9.0 X 18     P/N 033011     Estimated Speed Rating 590+MPH Mickey Thompson's for quite a bit more.  See post:

http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,2248.0.html

I would try and design the car around the goodyear 28 inch tires if you want large dia..  Remember the large dia. is also going to be more frontal area.

Good luck,

Sum

[Stainless1]

Sum is right, Lakester at 195 will be 200 after you race against it so build for the future, not the present

[Dr Goggles]

As a newbie I can't offer you much advice other than this . Your options are severely limited as you must consider the available tire options and also the wheels you are allowed to use .  Being a lakester , particularly , you want narrow.....4 , 4&1/2 , 5 inch...for gearing you want tall ....I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure if you want taller than 28 inch you need to go beyond a 15inch rim and that's problematic( at least here it is , might be different in the U.S) if you want steel . You mightn't want steel...but you won't find tall and narrow alloy wheels that are OEM , or legal for LSR....

The tire wheel combination that you need for what you are trying to do ain't what they are putting on road cars these days and supply and demand are ganging up on you brother

We tooled around with various options , spent ages on the net , looking , reading , ringing , " huh?" ..."wha' ?" " what for? " ....in the end we got a wheel-wright  to put some VW 4 and 4&1/2 inch rims on some late model Ford 15inch centres  and bought Goodyear Eagle landspeeds ...just like everyone else , because they are the best for what we are doing and , in the end , the cheapest.

Those four wheels and those four tires cost more than my daily driver....................( cripes , and that was skimping with MT frontrunners at the , er , blunter end , til we can afford the second set of Goodies)

nice shirt.....

[hitz]

Andy,

  The space saver spare found in older Chrysler Co. mini vans and some Cadillac's is a 4"X15" wheel with 5 on 4 1/2 lug spacing for 1/2in lug bolts. They have 4 1/4" back spacing. When they have the center welded fully to the rim on all the "spokes" and using the 1" lug nuts they have no speed restrictions. See 2.G pg 18 2007 SCTA rule book. You will have to check them for run out and might have to buy more wheels to find enough good ones. Another nice thing about them is that they register on the hole center. The ones that I used register on a Chrysler hub and I had to turn out spacers to take advantage of the center register on a Ford differential. Most after market wheels register on their lug nuts so they are universal. I put 22" X 4 1/2 M&H on the front and 29 X4 1/2 MT fronts on the rear of my G/GL lakester that I'm building. Took the tires and wheels to Nate Jones and had them shaved and balanced. I haven't ran LSR yet but I'm not going to worry about the tires and wheels when I do. Of course I've been told before that I didn't have good sense!

  Good luck on your lakester! Hope to see you on the salt.

Harv

[jimmy six]

Eventho the Dunlops have no speed ratings they have been run and watched by many. I believe the 550-600x18" have been to 240 sucsessfully on a pretty heavy roadster. The 700x18's have been right at 220 unshaved maybe even more. IMO anything over 30" should be placed on 18" rims there is too much tire and side movemant no matter the air pressure.

Narrow 18" are a little hard to find but 18 x 7's are readily available if you just use your plastic. (wheel vintiques) I use them with my 700's which are not shaved and are over 32" in diameter. Good Luck