[s-cars] Winter Tires??

[Scott Justusson]

Our Steamboat crew just doesn't roll that way Lee!  In fact, many of the top skillset drivers to this venue, make a point to bring the latest and greatest winter shoes to gain an unfair advantage over the Blizzies.  In 18 years, the now-discontinued Nokian Rsi was the single notable mention amongst the better q-pilots. I ran a set for 2 years myself. Unfortunately, that tire is discontinued without a viable or projected replacement.  

But, when you only have 4 days a year to go head to head with some of the best winter quattro drivers in the country, we see the top winter tires only, and they are defacto compared to the blizzies as the baseline.  And, 2 years ago, when all the hype was the 'new' General winter tire was rated higher than the blizzacks, the ice rallycross series boys all jumped on them here in the midwest.  Torsen boy showed up in a torsen equipped 4ktq (yes you read that right!) with 10 year old WS *50* tires (albeit Steamboat-track only tires until then), and took first in class consistently in the series.

And, Bridgestone has a great marketing arm.  But, it's not that hard to market a product that sets the standard in all independent testing.  So much so, that anyone that tests without one of the Blizzie models present, likely has no perceived value by the reader.  And that tire never fails to impresses the virgin winter-tire ignoramus in subjective testing, btdt.  Darn those gummy bears in marketing!

Scott 'dazed and often confused by placement' J




 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Levitt <lee at wheelman.com>
To: Scott Justusson <qshipq at aol.com>
Cc: rmyers <rmyers at maxboostracing.com>; jc <jc at j2c3.com>; s-car-list <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Thu, Oct 18, 2012 1:35 pm
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Winter Tires??




On Oct 18, 2012, at 11:16 AM, Scott Justusson <qshipq at aol.com> wrote:

> I claim the standard is the Blizzack, not because of my preference, but 
because one would be hard pressed to find *any* winter tire comparo without at 
least 1 Blizzack model inserted...  

Perhaps Bridgestone has better marketers and/or a larger marketing budget than 
its competitors in the winter tire segment.

Please don't confuse product placement success with product superiority. :)

Best,

Lee