Quote:
Originally Posted by drob23
How'd they stand up? I hammered my PSS the last track season (4 DE's) and will not be running them again at the track (my tire sidewalls hate me lol). I have adjustable front control arms, so I'll probably run 2.2 deg of front camber in front and 1.8 in the rear...zero toe so it doesn't screw up my daily driving.
Then I'm gonna get a set of TSW nurburgrings 18x9.5 et 40 with some Yokohama ADVAN A048 in 265/35R18. I figure I'll grab a harbor freight AL racing jack so I can swap at the track (2 day events only from now on  ). I'm already needing to swap pads so might as well go all out. I know this is a lot up front, but I'm hoping it prevents me from destroying street tires and hopefully the A048's have a lot of wear in them. Benefit is you get the traction of a R-comp but aren't doing something silly like running slicks  .
Any F30 drivers doing something similar? Lot of S4 guys do this, mostly R888's. |
The Direzza Zii Star Specs were excellent. I got 6 sessions in on them - 4-1/2 dry, 1-1/2 wet. I experimented a little initially with pressures - they felt really good with a target of 40psi hot, which I achieved starting at 32psi cold (~60 degree ambient temps). They may even be fine a little lower, as long as the sidewalls don't start to roll-over; at about 42psi they started to feel a little greasy.
Turn-in and responsiveness were excellent. The grip was very strong as well, with good communication at the limit and a nice manageable "rolling" break-away point. I intended to push them harder on the dry to experiment more with their limits, but then the rain set in...
In the wet, I expected them to be a bit of a handicap. I was wrong. I slowly ratcheted-up the speed, and was shocked at how much grip was available with these tires. There were cars that were running similar times to me in the dry, that I literally lapped in a 25-minute rain session. Very confidence-inspiring.
After the 6 sessions over 2 days (175 miles or so), no chunking of any sort, and the wear looked nice and even without much sidewall roll-over wear. (I also logged 300 miles or so on them to break them in before the track days.)
These will be my dedicated track tire; they're certainly OK for the road, although it's worth noting that they are loud... as in, they sound like a helicopter when rolling down the highway. But I could live with it if I wanted to run this type of tire year round.
For the time being, I like the idea of a street tire (at least, an "extreme performance"-rated street tire) for the track... the near-limit communication and break-away characteristics help provide good feedback to learn from. R-comps can mask bad habits until you exceed the limits, at which point they break away abruptly. I'll save those for when I'm in the Advanced run group... hopefully in a dedicated track car ; )
By the way, I was running camber plates with -2.5 degrees up front, and the car felt fantastic... very responsive and grippy, but still balanced and very stable in hard corners.
Also, the M Performance LSD made a HUGE difference from the last session at the same track... as did H&R sway bars. For the first time, I actually felt like I could make good use of more power.