Absolute blast as usual, but why oh why did I have to grid????? Super confusing and so many cars! Thats not a complaint but an observation!

Now that I'm happy with my equipment its time for some serious driver mod, also, I'm glad my brother in arms got his rear end problems ( don't read into that ) figured out and will be joining us this season =)

Z- I think there is more to it than simply even temps across the board, although logic would support that the more tire face you can get on the road the better grip you will have. However, this is what I think is happening after thinking it over last night.

The shallow, high speed turns are probably heating the tire more than the sharp, low speed turns. Therefore, the outermost portion of the tire is saved specifically for those sharp, slow speed turns. Especially when we are at lock and the camber loss is the greatest from the steering angle. Thus, if we were to adjust our camber so we had even temps across the tread we would lose grip in the sharp, low speed turns but gain slightly more in the shallow, high speed turns.

Something else I noticed while looking at Chris's S2000 yesterday. He runs equal sizes all around, however, runs narrower rims up front. This causes his sidewalls to angle out, away from his rim towards the pavement, creating tire "droop" if you will. For him, camber probably doesn't change the amount of tire tread in contact with the ground as much as it does for us because his sidewall is constantly pushing that exterior edge down trying to become horizontal with the rim. This would provide more tread area in the shallow, high speed corners while not changing the characteristics of the tire in the sharp, low speed corners.

Chris's Sidewalls look like this: /__\

My Sidewalls look like this: |__|

Yours kind of look like this, but I think you are running a "round" tire not a "square" tire: \__/

The problem with this is that I'm not sure it would be good for our AWD systems. I don't know how much the rim width effects the operation of the system with the different rotational mass at the front. I guess the tread contact would be similar so it shouldn't effect is that much but we will see. I'm going to do some research about it =)

 

The trick is getting the tires to be evenly heated throughout the entire width. It does mean that at some of theturns, you'd heat up the outside more, but overall, you'll want the entire width of the tire to be doing an equal (and average) amount of work. And actually, its the higher speed turns that do the most wear and heat to the outer edges. The slower tighter stuff might seem like it scrubs more, but the slower the speed, the less the energy through the tire.

Chris is handicapped by stock sized rim rules, so to run a "square" setup, he had to fit 275s on his 7" or whatever it is rims. It really affects turn in, as its sloppy and the sidewall flexes, but the gain from absolute grip is much higher.

 

Lol. Wut? Ok, sounds like you are figuring it out. Just keep me posted.

FYI, this was the first time Chris tried a square set-up. And his rim choice is dictated by stock class rules. So it's not that it is a desired set-up by any means. Just maxing out within allowable rules. Paco was running the same tires as me with the 8.5" rim while I was running on 9.5. It would probably be better on a 10" or 10.5" rims. The main point is yes, you cannot compare what others are running completely, but we should focus on the best set-up for our individual cars.

With that said, I'm still debating running 315's on a 10.5", 285's on a 10.5" or stay with 285's on the 9.5". My initial guess was 285's on 10.5 is ideal. Still contemplating that one but hopefully your research will help me decide.

Brett had some thoughts on tire temperatures as well which he was explaining to me on Friday. Keep researching and share your thoughts. But hurry cause I think your brother from another mother is about to pull the trigger on some new shoes. Lol.

 

Sigterm- fender finisher.

 

Can I just lilve in your garage or something? I will keep it clean, all I need is a cot in the corner.

 

Can't even fit a cot? You would have to sleep in the WRX. Lol.

 

LOL! yea, not too much space in there that's for sure.
As for the Fender finisher, I looked it up, watched a vid, interesting to say the least! Might need to get in your good graces to help me finish my fronts up over the next month or so.

Glad all of you had a good time out there and had success stories all around. Krang's scientific approach seems to be working well so far, keep it up!

Senor` Z, slow down some and let people breathe out there!

Yuudai, those Hankook tires are a hot ticket, I only wished they had more sizes available...

I think yesterday I figured out the plan going forward and unfortunately, it'll be time before I can get out there with you folks in SM. Until then, I'll stay in STU for another few races until I get the 05 completed. Then... it's on.

 

Okay that makes sense about why his sidwalls were like that, I wasn't sure if it was some super tricky something or other =p

I'm going to dial back .5 degrees of camber next race and see how things go. That will put me at 3 degrees in the front. My rears were evenly heated at 1.5 degrees so I guess they are good?

 

If it was a wagon it wouldn't be a problem!

Scientific approach.... lol I wish. I'm just trying to make sense of it all.. someday!

If I tried to "finish" my fenders they would crack and all the rust inside would spill out. lol