Quote Originally Posted by Pranav View Post
You're wasting your time testing anything outside of a Toyo or Nitto brand of tire.

The whole issue is spending $ on tires that fall off rapidly and the perception keeping racers away.

The solution to this issue is

1. Setup/driving.

What are the faster guys doing to make a set last longer instead of burning them down to the ground each weekend? Kevin myself and others do an aggressive rotating strategy where the newest tires run Quals and R1/R3 races, second best tires for inverts and warmups, third best for friday TnT. If I weren't missing MSRH/MSRC this would be a 3 set season for me. What else are they doing different on setup and driving style to make them last?

And/Or

2. Be realistic.

NASA is sponsored by Toyo. While it is increasingly accepted by other organizations that classes grow when people are not forced to buy tires that fall off quickly and have to spend cubic dollars to stay up front, it makes no business sense to approve letting a spec class walk away from their product line to some random 200 TW non Toyo brand street tire. The Nitto NT01 supposedly is the original thin to win compound that works great, and its a Toyo sub brand. If we'd spent some time testing on this specific tire and presenting it to management, maybe we'd get some traction on a solution.

This would also be easier to coordinate with drivers in other classes to make a solid effort on everyone trying the same tire and sending the feedback up to NASA mgmt. I'd even go as far as saying I wouldn't mind paying 20% more for a Toyo-labeled NT01 if it meant having a tire that was more consistent through its lifespan.
Pranav,

Your number one answer requires that I bring 12 tires to every event. I personally have no way of even transporting eight tires and wheels.

Your number 2 answer assumes the NT01 is really the old RA1 and that even if it is it will hold up to todays speeds.

JJ