AFTER MARKET WHEELS

The issue of allowing after market wheels is to give late offset cars a way to equalize the weight of the wheels to that of cookie cutters. There is a substancial difference between the phone dials and cookie cutters so it is an issue of fairness and equality.

As for how to police this, it is EASY. With a set of scales at tech, remove a wheel/tire combo and weigh it. It is easy to establish a "standard minimum weight" of a wheel and tire combo by weighing a standard cookie cutter with a well worn RA1 and post that weight. Voila, we have an easy way to check compliance.

Only late cars will care about this. Any car that can use cookie cutters will not want/need to spend any money on wheels because the cookie cutter is already a light wheel and would be the minimum weight wheel so why spend any more money to get another wheel of the same weight.

In my opinion, this is a basic issue of equality and fairness between the various years/construction of cars and should be approved.

Jim

I have raced early cars, and late cars, and early phone dials vs. early cookies. Even though I would benefits from this rules change, I am against new wheels. This opens Pandora's box.

I could see a guy like Ernie (who custom builds wheels for his Cup Car) making a wheel with a lightweight magnesium or carbon barrel, and a relatively heavy center. The wheel makes min. weight, but it's rotational inertia is much less.

The late car's better suspension geometry balances the slight increase in unsprung weight.

Agree - though we have to note that there are aftermarket Cookies and Phone Dials on the market - they are still stock wheels and actually heavier than the OEM wheels. Those should be allowed. Any other OEM (this includes Fuchs) or aftermarket wheel should not be allowed.

11 - No to Fuchs; cookies and phonies are a dime a dozen and very easy to find. Allowing Fuchs would be one more thing for everyone to have to buy in order to keep up with those running Fuchs.

12 - No to aftermarket wheels. I know there's a disadvantage to the phone dials, but I think that allowing any aftermarket wheel to give people an option to offset this disadvantage just opens up a can of worms. As has already been stated, the location of weight on a wheel can greatly affect it's performance, and the possibility of having a dozen different wheels out there can severely unbalance the class if it causes an arms race of everyone trying to find the best wheel that makes weight. I don't think we want to start having to worry about weighing everyone's wheels and checking their track width in tech every time somebody shows up with a new wheel.

13 - No; just because E30 and Miata run the narrower tire isn't enough reason for us to give up grip, IMO - even if it would save some money. The 225 RA1 has proven to be a good tire in a good size for these cars.

14 - Yes; 225 is a known, good size for us, and there's no real reason not to let people burn up their existing R888's in-region.

comments on #13.

Miata Spec from Wkipedia
Length 155.4 in (3,950 mm)
Width 65.9 in (1,670 mm)
Height 48.2 in (1,220 mm)
Curb weight 940 kg (2,100 lb)

Porsche 944 Specs rom Wikipedia
Wheelbase 94.5 in (2400 mm)
Length 1986-88: 170.0 in (4318 mm)
Turbo: 168.8 in (4288 mm)
1989-1991: 168.9 in (4290 mm)
Width 68.3 in (1735 mm)
Height 50.2 in (1275 mm)
Curb weight pre-85.5: 1180 kg (2601 lb)
85.5+: 1330 kg (2932 lb)

We are longer, wider, higher and heavier so why give up grip and performance with a narrower tire. I suspect we get more heat and lessor life out of the tire. The car is not designed for a narrow tall tire if anything we should think of having a lower profile tire to improve cornering quality with less sidewall shift. Short of that a 225/50/15 is the right tire for our cars.

My Take

11) No to fuchs. I dragged up a set of 15x8's for Norm just incase he ran GTS. Man those things were really light. Not good for keeping the cars equal as it just hurts the phone dial guys even more than cookies.

12) Nope... At $50 a pop you can't get aftermarket wheels of any size this cheap. Plus their are few in 5x130 bolt pattern.

13) Nope... 225 are a better size and known quantity for us. I just hope we don't get raped on price for the RA-1. If we do we may need to revisit this.

14) Yes... Looks like some Az guys will need to buy more R888's since we may not have them for the start of our season. Since nobody likes the R888 it will not be hard to give them up and the only ones to keep them will be those who are trying to burn them up. Nationals needs to be on 1 tire for 2010. 2009 was fouled up for a number of reasons and we will work hard to that prevent reoccuring.