Mustang Racing

[steve121]

I think what they are trying to do is similar to the Bridgestone/Firestone group where Bridgestone provides street tire and Firestone provides race tires BUT atleast with that alliance the tires are marked and marketed correctly. I don't understand why they don't market the difference between the street and race tires in a similar fashion. I guess this is a way of announcing they are in the performance tire business. Below is an article announcing the "Alliance" taken from a recent news article.


Continental forms strategic alliance with Hoosier


Continental Tire North America Inc. and Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. have formed a strategic alliance "based on a shared vision for motorsports marketing and race proven technology."

The alliance will allow both companies "to drive new growth prospects and technologies." It also has the potential to ultimately transform a variety of motorsports platforms.

"This partnership will open the door for endless opportunities, which will benefit both companies,” says Bill Caldwell, Continental's vice president of sales and marketing. "The combination of Continental’s expertise... in performance street tires, and Hoosier’s industry leading technology in race tire development will allow both companies to compete in new market segments.”

In a press release, Continental described the alliance as follows.

1. "The alliance will consist of Continental and Hoosier being strategic partners for advanced performance solutions and motorsports integration."

2. "A team of industry veterans has been formed and will be the driving force behind the collaborative marketing, product development and implementation process."

3. "Both companies will invest substantially into resources for the marketing, business development and delivery of specific products."

“We are working together because we believe it benefits both organizations by affording opportunities for deep collaboration in marketing and business development, allowing us to rapidly deliver high quality products to consumers who are simply demanding the best tire for their investment,” says Dennis Sherman, Hoosier's vice president of sales and marketing. “Together we are better.”

 

[brkntrxn]

I disagree with you Greg. This is an agreed upon situation between Continental and Hoosier, so both parties are getting something out of it.

The situations like LFP, UPR and Granatelli where they copy designs and sell it as their own without an agreement from the other party is entirely different.

Do I think Continental sanding off Hoosier tires is pretty cheesy, YES. But Hoosier must be getting something out of the "alliance".

(BTW, I hate that damn word ever since all those sorry reality TV shows started using the crap out of it)


JMHO

-Kevin

 

[David Hester]

I work in the pharmaceutical industry and we see stuff like this all the time.
Patents are bought and sold monthly.
Tylenol... Used to be McNeil. Now it is McNeil with Johnson and Johnson name on it.
Welcome to World Commerce.
I don't have a problem with it. I've raced Hoosiers for years and my tire guys in Knoxville are the greatest. As long as Hoosier stays independent.
Gives Hoosier mo money to keep things going, and gives Continetal more exposure.

 

[BlackBolt9]

I was told Roush first lost a rear caliper or caliper bolt and then had overheating issues. If the over heating thing wasn't correct maybe the caliper deal wasn't either. I did see the right side of their car up on jack stands for a while though.

I heard the same thing from someone not on the Roush team. When I talked to one of the guys on the team later that weekend I asked what happened to them and he only mentioned the engine problem. So maybe he was just telling me what took them out of the race and not everything that went on with the car. Who knows:shrug: I know they were having a lot of issues with ABS on the car during test days also.

We had the "driveability issue" also. Right after we got the stop and go penalty we picked up a pretty good engine miss. It was intermittent but that's why we had to pass the 52 car like 3 times. It would run fine for a while and then miss for a little and so on. It finally went away then.

Well I'm glad it didn't take you guys out of the race, hopefully it gets worked out for you before Miami.

As far as our stop and go penalty I did see that BMW appear to slow quickly but when we radioed Bret about the penalty he basically said he did have a good jump and was afraid they would penalize him. So I don't know I can argue about that call on us.

Oh, well that sucks. I guess all is fair regardless of the circumstances anyways.

You may not have noticed but one of the Turner cars went out very early in the race. I was watching the TV feed and the car just slowed and pulled off course. The other Turner car had a flat under green and had to limp back to the pits, dropping him back pretty far. Turner also expanded to the Rolex series this year so I wonder if his team may be spread a bit thin.

Nope, didn't see that one go out early. Not that I'm complaining, I'm sure they will be back in full force in Miami. I didn't think about them having a thinned out crew either but that is an excellent reason also.

I went out Friday night with the Ford guys and nobody said anything about one of the new 5.0's being pulled. I wonder if GA took it or it was just headed somewhere else for some testing?

I have no idea, I'll have to see what Dean knows or has heard. To be honest, I can't believe that engine doesn't have a restrictor. Nothing against the teams running that car since you are just doing what is legal and allowed to you. I just don't see how they can believe that engine doesn't make at least the same power as the old engine.

We were at the Wing House for dinner after the race saturday night and Ray came stumbling in to our table. Needless to say he was pretty excited about finishing 7th. Good for him. It's also good to hear your 59 car finished so well even with engine trouble. I didn't even realize until I was talking with Jim last night that Dean wasn't driving the car this year.

Yeah, he was pretty happy. He had some bad luck last year, so it had to be nice to get a decent finish. Dean is taking the year off to try and fill seats and make some money this year to pay for some of the money we lost last year. If someone wants him in the seat or he needs an extra driver to fill a car he will jump back in, but nothing is planned at this point.

I did talk with the undercover Hoosier employess and they seemed totally fine with the deal. Apparently everyone's happy with that arrangement.

That's good, glad to hear it. I didn't think they would mind since it means they still have a job. They're pretty good guys, we played some horseshoes with them at Lime Rock last year on the day off. It was a pretty fun time.

As far as the talk of Hoosier making the tire and Continental taking the credit:

As stated, they already have an agreement that both companies are happy about. Another positive is that you don't end up having to test and learn a new tire and compound which could have turned into another debacle like F1 at Indy a few years ago. Also the teams don't have to completely relearn how to setup their cars for what a new tire likes. I think that is the only reason we were able to keep up with some of the newer cars at Daytona. We have the car pretty much figured out and it was handling like a dream according to the drivers. Some of the new cars, which are most likely faster cars, weren't any faster around the track because they haven't been completely figured out by the teams yet.

 

[gcassidy]

I understand that in the business world, there would have to be agreements in place for something like this to take place. I'm sure both Companies are benefiting from it.

But I think what still bothers me about it is that the average spectator in the seat or watching TV thinks "Those Continental tires must be pretty good, holding up to racing and turning lap times like that. I'm gonna get a set for my (fill in the blank performance car) next time. Now if this "Alliance" means Conti will be making tires like what we would expect if Hoosier made high-performance street tires, then I will consider that as being something good coming from it, simply because the average Joe isn't getting flim-flamed.

In terms of how this works out for the racers, I can see that it doesn't matter as long as they're the same tires.

 

[BlackBolt9]

But I think what still bothers me about it is that the average spectator in the seat or watching TV thinks "Those Continental tires must be pretty good, holding up to racing and turning lap times like that. I'm gonna get a set for my (fill in the blank performance car) next time. Now if this "Alliance" means Conti will be making tires like what we would expect if Hoosier made high-performance street tires, then I will consider that as being something good coming from it, simply because the average Joe isn't getting flim-flamed.

And out comes my c-c.com-ness:

Any body that buys street tires based on the performance of a company's race tire gets what they desirve. They don't have anything in common construction wise anyways so who cares if someone thinks that Continental actually makes these tires or not. If they did any sort of searching while trying to find out which tires the cars run they would likely learn the truth anyways.

 

[gcassidy]

Don't want to go down the c-c.com road, Tom, especially with you guys.
But that means marketing wins. And I hate Madison Ave.

You're right, an ill-informed consumer often gets what he deserves. But I still think this is going a bit too far.

 

[BlackBolt9]

I somewhat agree with what you're saying. However, Continental has a press release out there explaining the situation. To them, it's not about promoting a tire that isn't theirs, it's about sponsoring a series to get their name out there, and how bad it would look if the cars were running something with a different name on them. They aren't trying to claim they make a race tire, they just don't want another tire manufacturer's name in "their" series. I haven't seen an ad yet claiming they make race tires.

 

[gcassidy]

Well, Mr. Roffler sort of insinuates it in that video clip. But I realize that's just one clip, and I do understand that if they "Sponser" a series, they would want the cars running their tires, even if they didn't have any to run.

Kinda like when Ford or Toota sponser a particular race, and then another make wins.

 

[Force4.6]

No worries I get where you are going with your comment but at the sametime if Continental is the main sponsor they should probably get some say in how they want there name to be seen. Maybe the more street tires they sell the more money they will put back into the series.

-Rick

 

[brkntrxn]

SON OF A BITCH!!! Freaking Speed (aka NAPCAR channel) has the truck series on right now. So my DVR that I set weeks ago is recording more NASCAR crap although the title of the program says "Continental Daytona whatever".

Damnit I hate this channel. There is a reason I have been watching more and more HD Theater.

 

[David Hester]

Don't dispair!!!
coming on at 10:30 EST some other time on the west coast.
Is kinda sucky though, but remember Grand Am is NASCRAP's redhaired stepchild.

 

[gcassidy]

I had to reset my DVR to record ChiliBowl Midgets, NASCAR Smarts, NASCAR Performance, and 2 Countdown's to Daytona just to get all of the race.
But Muchos Thanks to GrandAm for my E-mail notice that it was moved to 10:30. Even my TiVo schedule didn't know that.

 

[Force4.6]

So pissed off right now!!! I had my DVR and computer set to record just in case. Speed Channel still messed it up, will there be a replay at all??? I really wanted to see this.

 

[gcassidy]

Rick, if you want, I can save it on my TiVo and you can come up and watch it.
I've tried making copies of TiVo files, and had no luck.
Let me know.

 

[Force4.6]

Heck yeah, save it and perhaps we could do a on-track preseason film session. I know myself and Rick Sr. both missed it.

 

[03'Darin]

Tivo here so I missed everything also. I'm kind of glad though.... I hear all they talked about were the V-8 BMW's and how awesome they were. I hear they even said something along the line of what are the rest of the teams going to do for the season to try and keep up. :nonono: We've (including GA) known since the first V-8 car hit the series last year that they are rocket ships. The first race one was entered in was NJ. If anyone still has that race recorded go back and look at the acceleration that car had during restarts. It's rediculously obvious the power that car has. On that note GA pulled the 1st and 2nd place BMW V-8 motors at Daytona and we've not heard anything about results. So at this point I would expect them to be "considered" legal.

See you guys in Homestead!

 

[gcassidy]

It did look sick how fast they'd pull away. And I was wondering what happened to the pulled engines.
Good luck down the road, guys. :thumbsup:

 

[BlackBolt9]

Yeah, we've been waiting to see a bulletin stating how they plan to slow down the BMW's. They are getting more into restrictors since the older Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers all have them. I'm wondering if they will do that with the BMWs how they plan to implement it since they have individual throttle bodies for each cylinder.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure they did take one of Multimatics new 5.0L's so we'll see if they change anything there as well.

BTW, it turned out our car was wounded due to a fuel filter disintegrating and restricting fuel flow. It should be one interesting season though! I'm looking forward to it for sure! Good luck to the JBS guys:thumbsup:

 

[gcassidy]

Yeah, we've been waiting to see a bulletin stating how they plan to slow down the BMW's. They are getting more into restrictors since the older Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers all have them. I'm wondering if they will do that with the BMWs how they plan to implement it since they have individual throttle bodies for each cylinder.

Fuel pressure regulation maybe?