Saleen Jumps Ship....

[RacingManiac]

....from Pirelli to Michelin in ALMS 2005....

As reported from DSC....

[vs346]

Interesting, considering Pirelli had really started to put forth a major effort with ACEMCO and at least at the Petit with Carsport (straight from Belloc's mouth, I swear, and that explains why he, Babini, and Weickhart were all wearing cool yellow and black Pirelli fire suits on the podium)

Guess the Michelins are just that good.
First Dyson, now Saleen, who next?

[slicktsax]

well i'm not surprised. i remember reading a corvette magazine that had a report on the petit lemans and it said that the saleen was quite fast but it probably would have been as fast as the vettes if it had michelin tires, i guess the owner of acemco read the same article lol. anyway i think it's smart, also this will be the first time the saleen will run on michelins. in the past it has ran on dunlops, goodyears and pirellis. it will be interesting to see how fast it will run on michelins, also mean it will be able to double stint tires taking away a corvette edge. although i do have to say teh pirellis have come quite far but still michelin is still on top, i remember watching a ALMS race and it was reported they had tires for each 10 degrees difference in the weather. now that gives teh teams quite a bit of options. i remember goodyear really only had 2 options for dry back when the vettes ran on them. so let's count the cars in GT1 on michelins. hm the care racing 550's are on michelins, the vettes, tyhe acemco saleen, the aston martins. that's 4 teams there. how interesting

[vs346]

yes and suddenly, pirelli, goodyear and dunlop have no customers! at least in GT1.

Maybe the new privately run C5Rs? Goodyear perhaps? They could probably use a lot of the data from GM.

[paul-collins]

Won't be Goodyear. Tires are known, and not Michelin either. I'd say more but I'd have to kill you.

[Dani Filth]

Yokohama ? Kumho? .. i don't think you'll bother trying to kill me . i'm hard to find

[slicktsax]

well if it is casrport running the C5-R's then they will most likely use pirellis since that's what they used last year and teh yerar b4 that and the year b4 that. the only other tire that the C5-R has run on besdies michelins and goodyears were dunlops, the only other customer C5-R out there is the one run by teh beligian team and last year in 2003 they ran on dunlops although this year they switched to michelins. as far as everyone else going to michelin, can't say i balme them, michelins offer the most consisteant grip over a stint and they are the only ones that can be double stinted. the rest of the tire makes still need to catch michelin and pirelli is the furthest along as far as catching up to michelin but still have a little way to go.

[paul-collins]

Slickstax, the confirmed C5-R team is most assuredly not Carsport.

[iconic]

i think ALMS should run a single tire company (for each class). with such disparity in the field, just even up the rubber on each cars and have closer racing... maybe ALMS should bankroll michelins for everyone!

[19dodge]

but then teams with pirelli sponsorship will loose money. its good to have a rivalry, since it also generates money to the teams..

[slicktsax]

ok well since carpsort isn't running the vette then i wonder who is. also i don't think that a single tired for each class is that good of a field. remember when grand am went to dunlops for the GT field in 2003 all teh porsches had a trouble with the right rear tires blowing out because that tire got most of the stress and the porsches have their engines in the rear. plus the series will lose sponsership money since some of the tire manufacturers sponser the individual races. also the more tire manufacturers there are the more competition there is between them thus causing the companies to develop new compounds and new designs thus benefitting us since teh tire companies used what tehy learned in racing and put them into their road tires. ever hear of that saying, "racing improves the breed" ? well it's also true for tires. take for example a new road tire from michelin called the PS2. it has a tread similar to the grooved dry F1 tires. it offers improved dry handling and wet handling performance than the out going tire it replaces.

[vs346]

from DSC a few days ago:

"Two Ex-Works Corvettes For ALMS 2005
Michael Yager has confirmed that he will be involved, as a driver, with a two car effort in the 2005 ALMS, with ex-Pratt & Miller Corvette C5-Rs – writes Paul Collins."

[slicktsax]

ah and so teh truth comes out, thanks for the info VS346. but we still need to know what tires they will be on lol. i say we form a mob with torches and go to paul collins' house and demand he tell us everything he knows lol anyway back to the saleen i do wonder how much faster it will be not just because of the michelin tires but also with the improvements over the summer.