NISMO Stuff Racing Buys General Tire(s)...

Yup...I bought General Tire...

OK....OK...I bought General Tire(s) for the NISMO Stuff Racing Frontier and had them slapped on the truck yesterday. Though the OEM 235/75R15 (29"x9") General Tire Grabber TRs were fine for highway and around town use they just weren't going to cut it performance wise in either Rallycross or eventually full on Rally events. I thought a bit at first about going with a strictly winter tire given the ice and snow likely to be present at this coming weekends Stafford, CT Rallycross event but the remainder of the year they would be far from ideal and I can't afford to be havinga seperate set of tires for every single condition when I am paying for it out of my own pocket.

Which brings me to a second part of this story. I could have bought any tire. I'll admit, I first tried to parlay my connections into a free set of Goodyears. Then I reached out to all the normal tire manufacturers (BFG, Hankook, Nitto, Maxxis, etc.) in order to try and save myself some money which could be used towards the eventual roll cage and axle changes. I also reached out to Green Diamond Tire and Treadwright Tires both of whom are tire retreaders that market in part towards off-road efforts. All of this to no avail. Jack at Goodyear was helpful and forwarded me on to the person who handles this now but I received no response back. Kumho asked me to fill out a form and I heard nothing back. Both Green Diamond and Treadwright called me back personally and acted interested in helping out but then ignored my return calls and messages. All in all, I couldn't honestly expect more than this. I have no track record and no big effort underway that would provide them big time exposure.

The only two I harbor any ill will against are Green Diamond and Treadwright who both at first called me back, had a decent discussion with me and asked me to call back in a day to discuss further. Both then proceeded to not respond in any sort of way. As I said above, I have no issue with anyone not partnering with me, just don't respond in the first place and/or just be honest with me—neither of these two companies were that...

Which all brings me back to my General Tires. If I was shelling out my own hard earned coin it was going to be for a tire that met all the various needs I had. I needed a durable tire that would perform well in the dirt, mud and perhaps a bit of snow and ice, be cost effective and come in a size that I wanted (in the 30-31"R15 area) that would fit my 2WD Frontier XE without any trimming. General Tire's AT2s (in the 31x10.5R15) fit all of these qualifications and had the added benefit of coming from a company that is a current, active, enthusiastic supporter of off-road motorsports. From the current Mint 400, to the Baja to short course, General Tire is their supporting the sport as best they can. Lastly, there is the connection to the old factory Nissan trucks that I am patterning my project after—they ran General Tires and adding a big "General Tire" banner down the side of my truck would only be appropriate.

Let's just hope I can perform well this weekend in Stafford, CT in the first SCCA National Rallycross event of the year and do the brand proud.