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Anyone have a line on a source for Dunlops? I've called Krause, Sasco and Vintage Tyres up in Canada, all have the same story. Nothing in stock and none forthcoming, due to loss of lease, the factory is closed / moving and it's not known when production will resume?
Not exactly responsive to your question, put possibly of interest, this email came out yesterday:
Formula Ford Drivers,
Many or most of you already know that we once again have an inability to get the Monoposto spec Dunlop Formula Ford tire. We ran into this problem several years ago as well. At that time we had one of our quicker members evaluate the Avons back to back with the Dunlops. We found no measurable performance difference and he said that he would not be able to pick them apart if blindfolded (not a recommended driving procedure as sight is sometimes handy). At the time, we temporarily allowed the Avons FF spec tire as an alternate. Since this appears to be a potentially recurring event, a discussion among the board members and several FF drivers has resulted in the decision to permanently include the Avon tires in our rules along with the Dunlops.
To be specific, the tires to be added are:
Avon sizes 5.0/22.0-13 front and 6.5/23.0-13 rear
Compound is A29
Product codes are 14297 and 14298 respectively, which is important since the compound is not on the tire.
Please contact Bruce Domeck or me with any questions or comments around the decision making process. You can contact Dave Handy with any questions about the tires themselves.
Thanks, and race safely
Marc Giroux
Since Vintage Tyres holds the North American distributorship for dunlop racing tires, if they can't get them for you, they don't exist. Except for used, I guess.
Brian
There is a lot of traffic on this particular issue....
VRG WILL ACCEPT either tire (as should any club). We are working with Monoposto as well as our internal rules to see what it will take to modify. What we definitely need to try and do is keep these tires available (although there are options, they do not have the look/feel of the original).
If you are running at any of the VRG events, feel free to drop me a line if you have any problems.
--- Christopher Shoemaker
Royale Racing, LLC
From the Monoposto Website
In addition to racing activity Monoposto has continued to review the class specifications. The most recent actions are changes to ease the Dunlop tire shortage that both formula Ford classes are experiencing. Avon tires are now approved as an alternative tire. This is considered a permanent approval. The revised class specifications spelling out the exact tire reqirements made be found in the updated class specifications here.
http://www.monoposto.com/MR_2014_Rules.html
RMVR approved both the Avon and the Dunlop after the last Dunlop "unobtainium" mess a couple of years ago So for RMVR both those tires are OK for the vintage FFs. For our Club Ford class, those cars can use the same tires (Dunlop or Avon) but we also allow them to run the spec American Racer slick if they so chose.
P.S. Please consider our event August 2-3 at High Plains Raceway. This is our annual Charity event and again this year we will be featuring a Formula Ford grid and allowing all FFs to come join us for this neat event. There will be three classes -- vintage FF ('72 and older), CF (same models as Monoposto uses) and Contemporary (all newer cars). Last year we had a grid of 39 cars and hope to do as well or better this year.