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A little over a year ago - August 2012 - Mustangs running in SCCA's "World Challenge" class were suddenly slapped with a badly thought out intake restrictor plate that not only slowed the cars down but also ran the engines at an increased risk of overheating damage and resulted in a number of failures.
My point isn't to drag complaint about the SCCA's decision into this discussion; only to point out that that's the kind of action you take against winning cars in order to establish (or retain) parity within the class, and that by inference the Mustangs were winning and more than capable of winning on any given day. Not something that you'd penalize the also-rans with (aka adding insult to injury).
FWIW, it's a no-brainer to fit 275/40's to 18x9.5's on any S197 Mustang, and not particularly difficult to get 285/35's on 18x10 wheels to fit. In the same tire mfr/model, that would be roughly 1LE-comparable given the difference in weight. It's when you go wider with the wheels that it gets more difficult. I'm looking at 285/35's on 18x10.5's for next season's track days, and while I have no doubt whatsoever that the 1LE's and SS's will walk away from my little 4.6L down the straights I do expect to be able to hang with the 1LE's through the technical sections against a driver of comparable skill/experience.
Norm
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