Unfortunately, the grooves are part of the tire mold and aren't added to the tire after the fact. So Goodyear would have to make a new mold for a groove-less tire, which would actually increase the cost to us!

While I don't have 40 years at a tire company, I have seen thousands of production tools, dies and molds. An average tool maker with a die grinder could modify the existing tools and make our tires into slicks in a matter of minutes.

"While I don't have 40 years at a tire company, I have seen thousands of production tools, dies and molds. An average tool maker with a die grinder could modify the existing tools and make our tires into slicks in a matter of minutes."

Well, I didn't work for them for 40 years either - just 40 years ago! Still, I have to agree that modifying the mold to remove the grooves should be a trivial task. Of course, that doesn't mean that GY wouldn't dream up some reason to charge us an outrageous amount of money to do it. After all, they were already producing tires in our size before they put "Spec Racer" on the sidewall, and the cost differential for a "Spec Racer" tire and a blank sidewall was (is?) around $50 per tire IIRC. Pretty expensive logo ...

Now if that cost differential is ending up with Enterprises and helps to subsidize other projects, well that's fine with me.

Rich Kenny
#33, San Francisco Region

I believe that Goodyear uses this same tire for Pony Stock (circle track) cars without brandidng. So I don't think that modifyling the mold is an option.