How much would you pay for a modern tech 15" 60 series performance streetable tire?
Just an FYI there are all seasons in the 200 UTQG range. If that is good enough for an actual track driver I find it hard to believe you guys need more on the street for braking or for cornering. I run gumball tires on my street/strip car and on my circle track cars but I've never needed more on my daily cars than a high performance, properly sized tire. I've been in the winners circle, guess that makes me a "real driver".
VNTNED, that is a slick little car you have there.
Once again, I don't disagree with you and you obviously know what you're talking about... the difference here is defining "need." :D
Even a fresh set of all-seasons would be more than enough for a non-protouring type A-Body as the weak links show up in suspension geometry, spring rates/damping performance and chassis rigidity long before the tires give out...BUT as someone who has just dropped the first $800 out of undoubtedly thousands on my chassis and suspension upgrades, it just chaps my butt to pay performance tire money for 1980s era all-season tires with hard compound, gobs of "negative space" and squirmy tread blocks.
While circle track driving is obviously an art all its own, autocross, road course, general back road hooliganism have different demands for a tire. For example, I've been happy in my Mustang with the Potenza RE-11s (200 tread wear)...which are also a fairly well regarded autocross tire...or at least they were as recently as a couple years back. I'm not confident at all that they would be suitable for circle track use, even compared to other street/"ultra performance" tires.
My goal for my Dart is to keep it driving like...an A-Body but with responsiveness and crispness that Mopar just couldn't (or didn't care to) offer back in the day. I LOVE the way this car drove stock...it was just way too sloppy and flexible.
In my opinion, the joy from carving a corner with a properly set up front engine/rear drive/light weight V8 Coupe is just as enjoyable as ripping 100+mph in the 1/4 mile...and only in the last 4-5 years have people been serious about making that happen. Unfortunately, almost all of these folks have been ok with 17"+ tires which hasn't incentivized the industry enough to help us 15" fans out.