[tt335ci03cobra]

Lowdown; I think you did your math wrong. How did you go from 23" contact patch for the zl1 to only 23.1" for the z06 when you jumped up from 305's to 325's but then when you went from 325's to 335's on the zr1, you went from 23.1 to 25"?

In essence; on the 20mm difference between a zl1 and z06, your calculations netted .1" (albeit that 25.4mm= 1", so it's actually ~13/16") but then when you went from 325's on the z to 335's on the zr1 you gained 1.9" which is actually only 10mm and requistely ~2/5ths of an inch.

Are you going off the manufacturers listed widths in inches because I do know that manufacturers do run small or large so that would make more sense vs literally calculating the tire sizes via 25.4= 1".

Just with maths, I found

2 285's = 22.45"

2 305's = 24.01"

2 325's = 25.59"

2 335's = 26.37"

2 355's = 27.95"

Yes I see 1.56" more rubber on the camaro but it's also geared shorter (48 vs 62 in first; which is a 50% net, 33% gross difference meaning much less torque relative to speed/1000 rpms)

Also of note, 1.56 in comparison to 22.45" is only 6.9% net and in comparison to the 305's on the zl1, only 6.47%.

While its arguably skinnier than the 305's on a zl1, it's in no means skinny.

Now all said and down, for it's power to weight requirement yes it is skinny compared to its closest competitors but it's also geared very tall for its requisite torque figures. In real world applications, this gt500 will not have the issues that are 100% common place with the previous gt500's that only were capable of 45-48 in 1st gear.

Also, I didn't factor weight balance into this but here is another stat, the zl1 is 4120#'s (source car&driver march) , the gt500 is 270#'s lighter similarly equipped or 320#'s lighter in powerless recarro's/stock infotainment guise (3801lbs car&driver 2010 sept). Going with 300#'s for easy math, 300/3800 is 7.9% and out of 4120 it's 7.2%. That is a bigger difference than the tire size difference.

Now one car is 55/45 the other is 52.9/47.1 (march car&driver) so we'll say 55/45 vs 53/47 for easy math.

That's about a 3.6% difference front/rear balance considering 53/55 = .964 so honestly, adjust my numbers by that factor and you still come up with a reality that 20mm of tire doesn't make for for an end all be all in this cars performance.

Please stop carrying on about tire size, I hope this explanation shows you how trivial and base it is to attempt to manipulate such small numbers in light of such drastic changes. The ford techs have done a commendable job and should not be lamented for working with a tire that they are under contract with because of good years specially designed rubber from 2011 made specifically for this car.

Somebody asked earlier why doesn't ford commission a special tire for the gt500? They are in contract with this g2 that was designed specifically for the 2011 model.

All said, good to see the muscle wars raging on and I'm excited to see what the next gen z1 vs gt500 fight will be like. Exciting times.