tires - historic vs. modern?

[John Milmont]

Every time i read something about the performance of historic cars (late 60's and 70's) they never mention anything about the tires they were on. But, we always hear that tire technology has come a long way since then, but just how far? Can you take the same old car and now run a 10 second faster lap with new tires?

Strange as it may seem, i got curious about this when i was playing the excellent computer race simulation, rFactor. They have 1979 grand prix cars in the game that are supposed to be modeled on what vintage tires were like. I can say its like ice compared to some of the modern cars in the game.

My question is: just how much better are modern race tires?

BTW, i have to recommend this game to anyone. Its not only something to do during the off season, the game is so good that it helped me learn a track before i drove it in real life! When i went out on the real life course, i was shocked at how accurately it was modeled in the game!

 

[John Milmont]

Re: tries - historic vs. modern?

I was reading about about the development of the Chaparral can-am cars 3-speed clutchless transmission. The transmission had only 3 gears, but they said that they could spin those massive rear tires in any gear... thats why it only needed 3. Of course, the cars had huge V8 torque and power, but it doesn't seem like they could do this with modern tires, or am i wrong?

 

[J. Salmon]

Same effect if you go from GTR or GTR 2 (modern GT race cars) to GT legends (60's, 70's race cars). I can't say from real experience, but I get the feeling that the difference between modern and vintage tires is HUGE.