OK Fellows,
The 'Panorama' just ran a long op-ed article that was basically an endorsement for the Pirelli CN-36 as THE tire for vintage (I mean anything before '74) 911's.
I am finally getting my 72'S back on the road, and looking for a set of tires, my tire shop is eagerly $$$ awaiting my choice. I am running a pretty much stock-as-a-rock 1972 911S with all the factory sway bars, Koni's etc. and looking for somewhere to go with tires....
When I drove the car daily (and raced some) back in the 80's-90's, the last preferred tire of style at the time was FULDA - forget those nowadays...
We all know the original 911 suspension was designed around the legendary Michelin 'X' tire, and drove fine enough with that tire back in the day, but you haven't lived until you are sailing down the freeway doing about 90, at night, in the rain, and realize that those tire tires had actually left the road and you were hydroplaning to the effect that turning the steering wheel, however slightly, had no effect on the direction of the car whatsoever!! A bit on the exciting, to say the least....
Then came the Pirelli P7 - nice tire, short lived for a street car. Really, too soft, great for the track, but they only lasted 10K mile or so.... We did some math and determined that it cost more to run P7's per mile than it cost to put fuel in the car! (gas was a lot cheaper in those days). The poor man's P7 was a tire called 'Gatorbacks' (Goodyear/Goodrich/Firestone?), a low profile tire like the P7, but also short lived, I burned 'em off in 10,000 miles too, and the speedo reading was off, and the car really wasn't meant for a low profile tire anyway, in my opinion.
So....... Whats in vogue now? I am creating a true masterpiece resto on this thing, but I still want to drive it, and I mean fast, with maybe a bit of rally or track stuff - so the Repro tires are definitely out - I want to enjoy the fine high speed and deep low speed handling of this car, so what would be a compromise tire other than the CN36? or maybe the CN36 is the answer?
Enthusiasts and fanatics, please speak to me!
Regards,
Stu