Vintage FF tires

Any opinions on Hoosiers vs Avons for Vintage/Club Ford?

You're on the west coast, talk to the folks in the FFDC, on Facebook.

I run Avon's as I got them just before Hoosier released their vintage tires. I really like the Avon's except the price. They were just over $1200 compared to Hoosiers around $700. Maybe Avons have come down a bit but man that price difference sucked. I am not a good enough driver to be able to do a comparison on which is better but I have heard there isn't much difference in performance.

The soft Avons are a little faster than the hard Avons and the Hoosier (which are pretty close to the same speed. The Hoosier has been a great tire for us and is quite a bit less expensive. Last year Dan Cowdrey ran the same set of Hoosiers for Seattle, Indy, Road America (The 50th) and COTA, running up front everywhere. At COTA we did have to dig some other used Hoosiers out of the trailer because we did not think there was enough rear tire left to finish the race, which he won.

I have run both and prefer the Avon’s.

someone described the differences that made the most sense to me:
“The ‘fast’ guys will run about the same times with either, but they require a slightly different driving style at the limit. The Avon’s are more forgiving at the limit for drivers of lesser capabilities.”

I would agree with this. Avon’s are very easy to pull back if you over cook a corner, the Hoosiers seem to be a bit twitcher at the limit. I also found (with my car at least) that the Hoosiers needed higher pressures than Avon (or Dunlop’s when they were available) to work properly. I ended up using 14.5/15 with Hoosiers.

also keep in mind that there are 2 different Avon compounds. The “FF” spec tire for the rest of the world (marked “FF” on the side wall) is a softer compound that many organizations don’t accept. Most use the harder “school” compound. Ask me how I know this, I had to buy a second set just before Indy last year since SVRA doesn’t use them - and they were checking! Be sure to check with ALL of the groups you may run with before buying any tire!

Treadway ran every session at the Jefferson 500 on Hoosiers except the feature race where he ran and won ( I lost that bet) on clapped out Avons that we tested on in the spring. He then ran every session at Indy on the same Hoosiers and won on them. He ran the same Hoosiers every session at the 50th and won. He ran the same Hoosiers at the Glen and put the car on pole by 2+ seconds and probably would have won the race by a mile if I hadn't taken him out in T1.

I’m also in the Hoosier camp just on cost alone. Not quite as fast as the soft Avons which as some have pointed out are not universally accepted but definitely on par with (or slightly better than) the “hard” Avons. Cost is 2/3 of the Avons and they last similar to the hard Avons which is roughly twice as long as the soft Avons. For me it’s a no brainer. As mentioned above they do like a little more pressure (and a little less camber) than the Avons. Also the Hoosiers are heavier than the Avons. Todd