Thinking about going Mich for the contingency? Think again

dang.. danginty dang dang!

 

Yup. Not paying to bad, and good pricing on the new stuff. Two expert wins pays for a set with some change left.

 

What do three novice DNFs get me?

 

Belly button lint manufactured by a pasty ginger

 

even belly button lint is sexy if a Ginger made it.

 

It must be different out east...Dunlops dont have any type of stronghold out west. Plus the trackside support is now heavily in favor of Pirelli and pricing...well...Dunlops dont come close. As far as grid-share...I'd say that it was pretty even between Pirelli and Dunlop with a slightly higher percentage of Pirelli in WERA and Chuckwalla and higher in Dunlop in WSMC and AFM.

 

Dunlop sells over 20:1 michelin in FL region.. it's like, crazy disproportionate. I bought more michelin tires than Frank sold ALL TOGETHER at the December 2011 Homestead round. DUnlop rolls in with a semi, huge canopy and an army of changers.. for a club event.
In my ever so humble opinion, finally having a decent tire but then cutting out entirely the contingency, doesn't seem like a prudent way to woo fast guys (that can then convince novices and others to make the switch). And just might make the last hold-outs go to the dark side..

 

It is crazy how many dunlop zombies there are in the SE.

 

I run Dunlops.

Personally, I don't buy tires because of Contingency, I buy tires because of how much confidence they give me. I would rather pay a lil extra, and KNOW a tire is going to stick when i go into T1 at Road Atlanta balls out.

That is not to say that the other tires cannot hold and won't hold as good. But in order for me to make a change, I need a REASON to do so. And those reasons were essentially mentioned by Danny in post #16.

In order for me to consider trying another tire, I need 2 of these 3 things to be in place...

1. Match the Dunlop performance wise.
2. Beat the prices (by "beat", i mean by a lot, im not even going to experiment with another tire because it is $40 cheaper).
3. Offer contingency.

I wouldn't mind trying another brand, not to say I would switch, because if I am not confident on it, then I will go back to what I know. But in order for me to even try another tire, at least 2 of those things must be in place.

But confidence means more to me than anything, even price. If 2 of those 3 things are in place, I wouldnt mind trying another tire...but at the end of the day, if I dont have/develop the confidence in it, then I am not going to run it.

 

The scenario you describe is pretty much the case in most of the NE as well with maybe Loudon being the exception. I certainly wouldn't say Dunlop has a stronghold by any stretch.

 

I made about a thouand bucks last year from Michelin. Sad to see it go but I didn't plan on seeing any of that cash this year anyway.

 

Their argument doesn't make sense to me.

1 all the fast guys are running Dunlop so we weren't really paying out much contingency or benefiting many racers

2 we can't afford to keep the program (that doesn't pay out much????)

 

It does cost money to offer up Contingency, even if you don't have to pay it out. There are fees and assorted other costs to put it all in place.

 

guess that is the bright side, those that had bitched about the $50 xtrm fee won't have that to consider now

 

Then if they are dropping contingency, their tire prices should drop accordingly, correct?

 

what little through the grapvine i have heard, was keep tire costs same and drop program.. or raise prices $30-40 (not sure if per tire or per set) and keep program. That being said, the cup tires are a tad more than the power1 tires but are better tires
Imagine if the tires were more, they dropped the program AND the tires sucked..

 

Hell, with the prices you guys pay for the dunlops I can see why they can keep payin contingency.... Furthermore, look at how much $ dunlop throws at the us market...... The least they could do is pay contingency and give "their" riders free tires every weekend. Screw contingency just give me a good tire.. BTW the pirelli will hold on the front into turn 1 at road atlanta "balls out" all day long better than the dunlop...... How many riders had front tire issues with dunlop this year? I saw alot.... And yes with riders who are on podium every weekend also...... There is also over a $100 price difference between the pirelli and dunlop...... And for broome...... Try the pirelli, I know you will go faster on them than the dunlop..... Just my opinion.....

 

Shane, I was actually waiting on that

 

I forgot about that xtrm thing. So you have to pay to offer it, get all the stuff needed for it out to the orgs and pay xtrm to run the thing.

There was a lot of back end expense in that program.

I would love to get Chris to try some of mine sometime when he doesn't have someone attack his suspension and give him bad advice. I still feel bad that you had that happen.

 

It's all good, I should have just contacted/listened to you in the first place.