C6400hp

"Michelins decision is illogical to say the least. It shows that they feel that they can play god because they are in the cat bird seat.

Back in December they told me that Corvette racing wanted to "develop the tires for the Corvette without any data from another Corvette to skew the results".

Now the tires are developed for the Corvette, so there is no logical reason to deny me the use of their tires and the right to buy them.

It is more than un American, it is a bit Vindictive and vicious to treat a small team like this. I have lost money because I have been denied the right to buy Michelins. I lost my first team mate who left mid season because of tire frustration and not being able to buy Michelins.

I even asked to be allowed to use their "Club Tire" and they also denied that! they got ALMS to rule that those tires are illegal.

Manipulation by these large corporations where they control the ability to buy a product that is essential to be equal is totally wrong. THIS IS AMERICA! How can anyone refuse to sell to someone?

Illogical and probably illegal and Michelin should not be rewarded with support from the Corvette community. "
-Above quoted from LG Motorsports

Email Michelin HERE!
http://www.michelin.com/corporate/fr...que=87&lang=EN

Original thread discussion here.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...structure.html







Go on, help one of your "friends on the forum" out.

My email to michelin below.

As of my writing this letter I can no longer support Michelin and will not be buying Michelin tires as replacement for any of my vehicles. The reason I am making this decision is because of Michelin's fundamentally unamerican approach, refusing to provide tires to privateer teams in the ALMS racing series. Specifically Michelin's refusal to sell tires to the LG Motorsports race team. LG Motorsports is exactly what racing is about, a small privately funded team that is able to compete with teams spending 100X their budget. I would think Michelin could learn alot from a smaller more efficient organization like LG Motorsports. I think the flow of data back and forth would be beneficial to both. Why would Michelin want to limit it's data collection to one team racing in the Corvette is beyond me. It seems to me that Michelin would want to collect as much data as possible from all cars. More data always helps make the brand better. While I am sure you will email back to me some canned response about how "Michelin views the ALMS as a test bed and prefers to act as a technical partner rather than supplier" That line is complete BS and you know it. If you were to actually view it that way you would be trying to partner with as many teams as possible to broaden the scope of data you collect. Your thought process is either completely illogical, or completely false. When Michelin decides to stop playing favorites in the ALMS and decides to offer LG Motorsports the same tires all Porsche teams have access to I will reconsider Michelin tires for my vehicles.

Toque

Already sent my email to Michelin about my displeasure in not selling the Michelin's to Lou and his team.

toque

Painrace

I talked with some people very high in Michelin last year to try amd help Lou. They were very positive when I talked with them and said they wanted to sell tires. About four days later I got a call that said they could not sll tires to LG?? My personal opinion is GM stopped the sale. I have no proof, just a gut feel.

Jim

nwc6

Lou is a great supporter of this forum, and of Corvette enthusiasts as a whole. If you ever watched the Forza Motorsports Challenge that was on Speed, you will see that 15-50 runs in Lou's veins... I would like to see a 1-2-3 sweep of an ALMS podium for Corvettes. Makes me tired to think GM would use underhanded tactics in something like a race, when the Corvette brand is being showcased...

SilverScorp

You know what? Screw them...push Kumho Ecstas, Nitto Invos, or some other brand as your car's official tire.

C6NRED

I will no longer consider Michelin as the replacement tire for my Corvette. Your racing division's decision not to sell the race tires that you have developed to all Corvette teams is unfortunate and ill conceived. Please reconsider this decision and support a fair playing field for all. thank you

C6400hp

Clearly you have not watched any of the alms in the last 5 years.....
Michelin tires typically dominate the field. If you are not on Michelin's your chances of winning are finite. They are refusing to SELL tires to LG, and it is likely perpetrated by the factory racing team.

gatti-man

email sent. I wont be buying any michelin tires and neither will anyone I know if I have a say in it. That is disgusting and despicable.

C6400hp

68 views and only 7 responses? Come on guys you can do better than that!

BigJoe

I really doubt that Michelin doesn't want to sell as many tires as they can. I bet the contract with GM racing limits availability. So boycott GM maybe but not Michelin, assuming that is the case...

C6400hp

Michelin is the premier tire in the ALMS, they can do what they want. The factory Corvettes would not stand a chance without them. If their contract limits availability why is it that every Porsche is running Michelin, Why are the Audi's, Acuras on them? The bottom line is that if Michelin wanted to Sell tires to LG they could. If we put our support behind LG and be vocal they might change their tune.

Xedes

Email sent. Good luck!

lemans

I agree it seems wrong, but given a choice, who would Michelin choose to back? The team with pretty much unlimited financial resources, and the one that manufactures and sells their street cars (ZR1) wearing Michelins.
Wrong or not it's just business.
Again, even though I think ethics are the point, and GM is the one to really blame, will you stop buying Corvettes in protest? I think not.

Off to hide now..

su8pack1

No more Michelins for me.

Rocketmanwpb

They don't want to sell tires to another GT2 Corvette that might cause problem for the factory team's ability to win.

Racing is all about advertisement, not sales.

Chalky

I am writing to voice my displeasure with your decision to not make tires available to LG Motorsports for GT2 racing. Lou represents the quintessential racer and is deserving of your
support. You need to consider the ramifications of LG Motorsports surpassing the the factory C6-R GT2 cars on a competitor's tires.
Hopefully common sense will prevail and Michelin will decide to support Lou and LG Motorsports Racing.

VettedCandidate

I don't get the point on Michelin's part or on GM's part. Just doesn't make sense to me. Would seem it is just another car on the track to sell tires to. Life sure gets convoluted sometimes.

I really cannot believe that Lou (with all due respect) presents a real threat to GM team. Could be that some of the others like Porsche are twisting arms.

jschindler

I have to be honest, I started to read this thread and didn't have a clue what the hell he was talking about - still don't. Maybe if it was better written and we knew what the heck this thead was all about without having to click on other links it would help.

On the other hand, maybe it's a personal matter between whoever thought they were wronged by Michelin (I'm still not sure). There may be some underlying business arangements that are not known.

Xedes

Advertisement = sales It's ALWAYS about the $$$

c4mako

Done...........