fatoni, so if I'd buy a Bridgestone Turanza equipped GT 86 and I want to switch to Michelin Primacy HP, and compare my car with others (let's say a Mustang with PZeros, or a high grip tires in any case) - I shouldn't do that because my car won't be "stock", and it wouldn't be fair; I should keep the all seasons instead.
OTOH, another person who bought an identical GT 86 but with Michelin Primacy HPs can do it, because his car is "stock".
So the exact same car is both stock and modified. Thank you.
I don't have to artificially single out the tires; as I've already said several times, they're singling out themselves since, you're supposed to change them - and quite often, with different types (it can even be required by law). Do that with e.g. suspensions and bye-bye warranty, or worse. In the same time, there's no guarantee that:
- when testing, the exact same model of tire as provided when the car was bought is still available
- the dealer would keep delivering the car with the same tires, during its entire lifetime
An example of hiding deficiencies is the first A Class. Its rollover issue was "fixed" not by a new chassis, but with wider tires, modified suspensions and ESP. Even if the end result was meeting standards, I would still call that chassis "inferior", from a stability point of view.
But it can be e.g. a hot hatch, as well - take a "pedestrian" chassis and "make" it into a sports car, instead of designing a dedicated one. Or a Mustang which puts down excellent skidpad results, due to it's PZero tires.
Sandbagging? As in hiding one's strength?
By the way,
we are understanding your point perfectly; we just disagree with it (but not with the idea of comparing cars with the dealer provided tires, if that's what you want to measure). It's you who doesn't even care about the points we're making.
And by the way, when you want something specific you'd normally use the single proper tool for the job, not all the tools you have, at once - or none at all, fighting the issue barehanded
