At the last race, the Formula Vee racers had a meeting and basically agreed that an informal voluntary spec tire (for dry conditions) for next year would be a good thing. The consensus was that the American Racer Slicks should be used. Most of us are using them anyways so it wasn't much of a stretch. To emphasize: this is not a rule change but a 'gentle(person)s' agreement to run the same tire.

The main reason for me is that it levels the playing field because the American Racers have much more consistent performance over the life of the tire:

Their advantages:
a) are at least 2/3rds the cost of Hoosiers
b) last at least 1.5 times longer, probably even more.
c)  performance dropoff on each heat cycle is much less than with Hoosiers.
d) and can be installed with simple hand powered tire changer

The negative is that the American Racers are between a second and two seconds slower per lap at Mission.

However there is one more concern that I have discovered on trolling the internet forums. The rumor mill implies that the sell rate of the tires is so low that you run the risk of buying old new stock which means the tire is already aged. I don't know if this true and I don't really know how to verify it one way or the other, but it is a concern, because the biggest benefit of a spec tire is that it levels the playing  field. An aged tire will not perform as well as a fresh tire undermining the main benefit.

We run them in FF way cheaper. If you want current tires just wait until April before you order this way you have a better chance of getting fresh tires because the rest of the US starts the season early.
Another way to tell if the are fresh is if the painted American Racer is still nice and white not faded yellow from age.
Even if they are slower it just means everyone is slower and a lot more fun to drive on never mind the huge savings.
Makes you a better driver ;)
Alan

Formula Ford class at SCCBC has been using American Racers as an informal spec for years. The track record set and reset by Alan McColl has been done on American Racers. Some of the FFs are not far off the Formula Continental times who use Hoosiers and Goodyears, etc. Getting fresh tires shouldn't be too much of a hurdle.

Alan_McColl wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2015 at 5:39pm:

If you want current tires just wait until April before you order this way you have a better chance of getting fresh tires because the rest of the US starts the season early.

I think the problem is currently, as far as I know, there is hardly anyone else using FV american racers. The San Francisco Region used to run them as their FV spec tire, but I think they put that on hold due to the runoffs and either way, there is barely anyone left running regionals in SFR. ICSCC got rid of the spec tire rule (in hindsight, it wasn't a great idea and I'm sorry that I supported it) and also has very few folks still running.

I hope AR keeps making them, I can't imagine they're selling even 50 sets a year. Running them at Mission even as an informal spec tire is a great plan and I hope it works out for the best!

Just to clarify; we're running American Racers for slicks, and the rains are open to whatever we choose (Hoosiers) to run?

We have a real problem in our sport we aren't attracting many newbies to the sport you look around the pits it's the same old crowd and they are getting older starting to hang it up for good.

One of the biggest reasons is most younger people can't afford it it has become to expensive how many can afford to drop $900-$1200 for a set of tires every couple weekends so if you don't try and bring the cost down you will continue to loose entries.
But what i have discovered is that the ones that protest the most about a spec tire are the ones been the sticker more expensive tires to compensate for the lack of driving ability instead of learning to be fast no matter what tire you run.
You hear stories like they can even do one session with out falling off or they only good for one lap the funny thing is i have been able to set track records on American Racers weekend after weekend and i don't use a new set every weekend because i can't afford it.
I did a 1:10:5 and they were three weekends old.
We have to keep the costs down i would not be running if i had to spend $1200 for a set of tires i would quite. There is nothing wrong with running spec tires F1 does ;)

I agree completely and I only wish I had realized it 5 years ago :) Tire expenses (and to be perfectly honest, the politics around it, mostly with SCCA) are probably the main reason I ended up selling the car.

Unfortunately to a lot of folks, especially across the border, "spec" is a bad word, second only to socialism. Despite everyone running plenty of spec parts on just about every class, of course. Maybe we should start calling them "heartily recommended tires" instead?  ;D

Anyway, I should leave FV alone but I have high hopes that the class will someday move to street radial tires like the Eastern Canada vees have been running forever. As an entry level class that is supposed to be about driving skill and low costs, slicks in general were just a bad idea. The American Racers are probably a step in the right direction, but street tires that last 2 or more seasons in a vee and cost half the price of slicks just make a ton more sense to me.