Coker tire

I'm with Jeff. I contacted Coker a month ago asking for Speed Rated 15 inch tires for the Pantera, they never replied. Hopefully a big response from the Pantera community will get their attention.
Maybe a Pantera vendor would step up and become the exclusive source for a Coker-Pantera tire.
I also contacted Pirelli asking them to bring back the P7 for the Pantera.
http://www.us.pirelli.com/web/contactus/CUEntryPoint.do
So "copy and paste" your Coker request and submit it to Pirelli too.

George had authorized me to make them a offer, if he doesnt mind I can reprint what he had wrote to me.
I feel confident that if Coker can get a warm fuzzy feeling with this they would make the tires.

quote:

I also contacted Pirelli asking them to bring back the P7 for the Pantera.

What was Pirelli's response Dave?
Jeff

Pirelli makes a limited number of 15" tires in their "All Season " line.

P6 4 seasons
P4000 ST
Cinturato P3000

None would work for our cars. However, they might consider the larger sizes on current line tires vs. re tooling from scratch older versions like the P-7.

Pirelli never responded. But if enough Pantera owners sent an e-mail, maybe we won't be ignored.
A company that would be perfect for supplying tires would be Hoosier Tire. They specialize in small production runs of race car tires and already make some street tires too. Hoosier builds a fantastic tire and the Pantera would a perfect "niche" market for them! For example, they make racing tires for Formula Vee. FV is based on the old VW bug and uses the Bug's original steel wheels. I doubt there is more than a couple hundred FV race cars in the USA. If they can make a buck in that tiny market, selling tires for the Pantera should look like "easy money"!
Everyone reading this should send Hoosier an e-mail, info@hoosiertire.com ,and let them know "If you build it, We will buy!"

I got a "polite" we'll look into it reply from Hoosier. They seem hesitant because I asked about a "street" tire. Let's call it a "Track Day Tire" instead.
I urge all of you to contact Jeff Speer, product manager, [jaspeer@Hoosiertire.com] and let him know you want some "Z" rated 15 inch Pantera tires!
One more thing, what size tires do we want? I'm all for originality, but I find the stock tires just too skinny. I vote for 225/50 and 285/50. These sizes were standard on the GTS, but they fit perfect on my stock 72 too, no flares needed. I think the recommended rim with for the 285/50 is 9 inches, but I ran them on 8 inch wheels for years with no problems until I got a set of 10 X 15. Also the 285/50 is over 26 inches tall so speedometer readings remain accurate.
I can tell from Jeff's avatar he doesn't want skinny tires either

Yu guys DO know that Pirelli already has a new small plant making limited-run tires in Turkey? And that since about 2002, Pirelli's made limited runs (about 200 tires at a time) of 275-55x 15 and 295-50x 15 V and W-rated tires? But the production is very spotty. Larry Stock at PPC-Reno orders a dozen such tires; he gets one or two. He re-orders and gets one.... They sell so fast, you need to get on the 'call' list and none are cheap- even to the vendors. 4 years ago, I successfully ordered four 275-55x 15 Pirelli W-rated tires thru the Swedish DeTomaso Club. They called Pirelli and ordered a minimum amount which they split with the British Lamborghimni clubs; they were $355 each and it took nearly 9 months to get them in my hands in the U.S. Getting an international money order from the Nevada State Bank in Kroner was interesting....
I've talked many times with tire reps at the Monterey Italian Concours. Coker Tires owns the molds for many such 'vintage' tires from many manufacturers; all that they need is an order for enough to make it worth their while to dust them off. The fact remains that they are uninterested in tooling up for tiny amounts, and the legal climate in California at least is hostile at best for parts that are for all intents & purposes guaranteed to NOT fail at multiples of the speed limit, in the hands of amateur drivers in 30-to-40 year old street cars. The owner, Corkey Coker, is completely unresponsive to e-mails and phone calls; I think the company filters annoying messages to him like this. At leat none of mine ever got thru.

I bought new wheels for my car because I couldn't find tires for the 15s. I really like how the 15s look but in the end didn't want to wish I had better tires. If there were quality tires available for the 15s I would buy them - I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel buying them from Coker though, I would rather buy from a company with a performance pedigree (Hoosier, Michelin, Pirelli etc.) Now that I have new wheels and tires I doubt if I would be willing to pay over 1 grand total. I guess I agree with the sizes above although for 15 x 8 I would be thinking more like 255 on the rear not that 285 wouldn't work I just wonder how much yaw angle would be induced by twisting of the tire on the narrower rim. Sounds like it wasn't a problem for you Dave.

quote:

I guess I agree with the sizes above although for 15 x 8 I would be thinking more like 255 on the rear not that 285 wouldn't work I just wonder how much yaw angle would be induced by twisting of the tire on the narrower rim. Sounds like it wasn't a problem for you Dave.

FWIW, it's not a problem. An 8" rim is (was) within the recommended wheel width range for all tires available in 295/50-15 a year and a half ago. FWIW, I just ordered a spare set of Toyo Proxes ST's (295/50-15) for my car as they're becomming scarce.

Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:43:39 -0400
From: "Jeff Speer"
To: "Peter"
Subject: Hoosier Tire - Pantera


Peter,
Thanks for writing and for your suggestions of new tire sizes Hoosier Tire could possible produce. All of our products we manufacture are for closed track applications only. We might have to partner with a street tire manufacturer to produce the Pantera tire sizes for street use.

I will mention this in our next R&D meeting we will have. Thanks again for this possible opportunity.


Sincerely,
Jeff Speer
Product Manager
Hoosier Racing Tire Corp.
www.hoosiertire.com
P - 574-784-3152
F - 574-784-2385

I've got these Micky Thompson Sportsman. They look great but they are only H rating. I'm OK with the top speed. Maybe you can talk to MT and they could get a higher rating of this tire. The looks are great and my speedo is correct.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter...107+115&autoview=sku

Cheers